Hey Tom,
I have been pondering all of this a lot lately, as well. As our rigs our nearly the same in weight, I am very interested in this conversation.
Question: Since the tires/rims are resting on the ground, shouldn't we subtract their scale weight from the equation
of rim load rating? Does that make sense?
Ex: If you rest just the rear end of your rig on the scale, without rims and tires, your rig would probably be around 7000lbs. Yes?
So, 3500lbs-ish per rim. That is kind of how I am looking at it. Of course, I am blind in one eye, and can't see out of the other one....
If I remember right, fully loaded before my trip last December, my rear weighed in at 7350.
Before I commit to buying tires, I will probably go talk to someone at an axle shop about that, and lug/hub centrics.
I picked up these -34 lug centric Cragars for $100. I am hoping to run them on Toyo 35's (4:10 gears) all the
way around. They are rated at 3650.
I'm thinking I would be just fine, so long as I don't go too heavy with pulling a trailer.
Or, I will order the steel spacers and run the same Toyo's on duallies.
http://www.wheeladapter.com/dually_spacers.php
More homework.......
I would have stayed with a dually config but I couldn't do it without swapping axles. The rear needed a bolt pattern conversion AND would need a spacer to make big tires fit. That's a no-no. That and finding skinny tall tires is practically impossible. There was a Chinese knock-off of some tall skinny XMs but they ended up stupid expensive (for knock-offs) and finding them is problematic. If I need a tire I want to buy a tire, no go on a Quest for Rubber. And they only came in a 36", and I wanted 37s dangit!
But reading what I wrote about my pigs weight isn't making sense. I said 7400# in the rear but as I recall it's total is around 10,400. That split doesn't seem right. I need to dig up my old weight slip or get it reweighed.