Rear wheel lean

I am thinking about a new CRV but see several riding around with rear wheels leaning in when full of people. Worried about tire wear, etc. Any one aware of these isues? I know part of it is due to it's car based suspension.

I am thinking about a new CRV but see several riding around with rear wheels leaning in when full of people. Worried about tire wear, etc. Any one aware of these isues? I know part of it is due to it's car based suspension.

when you say "leaning"... you mean the rear wheels look like this: / \
thats normal and nothing to be worried about. it's how the suspension is designed.
plenty of other cars out there are like this when fully loaded. to name a few, bmw, benz, toyota... even american cars.

Yes, that's what I mean ?/ \.
it just seams it would create tire ware toward the edge.

Also at what load is this lean. does it take a full load or just a few people

not to harp on this it just seems pronounced with this model

check out these links and you'll have a better idea.

http://www.automotivearticles.com/Suspension_Design_Types_of_Suspensions.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-link_suspension

I am thinking about a new CRV but see several riding around with rear wheels leaning in when full of people. Worried about tire wear, etc. Any one aware of these isues? I know part of it is due to it's car based suspension.

That is normal and ALL vehicles will do this unless it has solid axles.

Occasional heavy loads will not affect wear much. But if you often carry heavy items or 5 passengers it might wear the inside edge slightly faster as the rear suspension 'squats' in a /\ camber angles. It is common to most rear independent suspension for better handling while cornering as the vehicle rolls. Some do it more than others depending on suspension design. I have read that camber does not affect wear but that has not been my experience on cars that with no load camber setting at a few degrees as opposed to near zero camber. However it is hard to say what actually is causing the wear due to the simultaneous change in camber and toe-in during normal driving and cornering.

It is true that toe-in error from no load to full load causes more wear than camber changes. As the toe-in changes positive or negative you literally are scuffing the tire sideways. It can be calculated how many feet the tire is driven sideways per mile (scuff) with the toe-in not set properly during alignment or due to component wear. . Turning complicates the calculation since the outside tire for minimum wear, rolling resistance and better handling should be at a larger turning diameter than the inboard tire. It turns over a larger arc.

Most of the time a vehicle is driven with one or two passengers. Under that load the wear is normally even between the inside and the outside edge.

As I see it tires are relatively cheap expendable item. It would be nice to have them last 80,000 miles. For the sake of argument if you pay $400 for a set of 4 tires, at 40,000 miles it cost $.01 per mile for the wear on the set of four tires. If they last 20,000 miles it cost $.02 per mile. In contrast at $2 per gallon and 25 MPG, the gas cost $.08. So the cost of gas is between 4 and 8 times as significant.

As Bob Marley used to sing; “Don't worry, be happy!” in that unmistakable Jamaica maa-nn accent.