What is the difference between the front and back tires of a truck?

[Aakash Goel]

If you see this picture, the front tire of the truck has some bolts coming out while the two back tires have hollowish radials.

What is the difference? What do those bolts do?

[fred rosenberger]

i don't know for sure, but this is my guess, since the rear axles have two tires on each end.

if single tires are normally mounted like this:

[ ----- ]

I think on the rear axle of the truck, the double tires are mounted like this:

][ --- ][

In other words, the outer set of tires are mounted backwards from the inside.

[Pat Farrell]

Aakash Goel wrote:If you see this picture, the front tire of the truck has some bolts coming out while the two back tires have hollowish radials. What is the difference? What do those bolts do?

Nit alert (This is MD) the bolts come out of the wheels, not the tires. And they don't actually come out, they bolt the wheel to the axle, brakes, etc.

The front is a single tire, so you want it offset from where you bolt it so that the center of pressure/weight is in the center of the turning arm. The rears are duals, so you want the center of pressure/weight at the point you bolt the wheel to the brake/axle

The front tires are usually larger in diameter both inner and outer.

[Aakash Goel]

Pat Farrell wrote:
The front tires are usually larger in diameter both inner and outer.

And why is that?

[Pat Farrell]

big wheels roll better over bumps, holes, etc.

Rear wheel/times are smaller in diameter to keep the load floor low enough that you can load the truck.

Look at big construction and military trucks, they use really tall wheels.

[Aakash Goel]

Pat Farrell wrote:big wheels roll better over bumps, holes, etc.

Rear wheel/times are smaller in diameter to keep the load floor low enough that you can load the truck.

Look at big construction and military trucks, they use really tall wheels.

Thanks! makes sense.

I thought it would be too noob to ask this at first, but I did not fully get what you meant by this:

The front is a single tire, so you want it offset from where you bolt it so that the center of pressure/weight is in the center of the turning arm.

What I figure is that whether you bolt it at an offset or not, due to symmetry the center of the weight would always be at the center of the turning arm. Am I wrong?