Question Comfort Drive

[MemoriesByTheMile]

Interesting question - I have wondered about tire scrubbing and does it impact tire failures?
Currently our steer tires have little chunks missing on the outside edges from scrubbing. So I am now much more careful to not turn the wheels until we start rolling.
Would this contribute to sidewall failure? Would be great to have data as mentioned by Texas Clodhopper.

 

[Texas Clodhopper]

I think we may be overthinking what comfort drive is designed to do.

 

[Neal]

I can tell you my wheel may be centered and engine shutdown and then it always kicks off center. This in fact threw off HWH Active Air when installed as he aligned something based on engine off and then when starting the wheel auto centered. So regardless of your attempt to center the wheel or prevent a comfort drive action, it's probably going to happen and I'm not concerned. I think any tire movement when not driving may barely if at all scrub a tread but is not going to damage a monster tire such as these. I'm always amazed how much abuse tires take anyways such as potholes, etc.

 

[Rich W.]

Is there any data to support this claim? I don't think Newmar's have any higher blowout rate than any other manufacturer but I have no data to support that claim.

none that I know of but the possibility just occurred to me - its food for thought and a good reason to be careful about putting excessive side loads on the front tires with CD. I just started thinking about @Richpatty’s odd internal tire failure and @Scotttkd2’s catastrophic failure of a three year old tire and the fact that you cant steer a non-CD equipped big rig without it moving nearly as easily or as much as you can with CD, and it seems to me that it could be exerting excessive force when the tire is planted firmly on pavement. The tread scuffing off a bit doesn't concern me - its whats happening to the internal structure of the tire I’m considering.

 

[GUS2000]

Guess I'm curious how CD would apply more strain to the sidewalls....