Odd front tire wear [Archive] - Diesel Place : Chevrolet and GMC Diesel Truck Forums

: Odd front tire wear


BLUEDURAMAX
04-26-2008, 01:52 AM
The driver front tire is wearing the outer side making the thread choppy on the outer edge. The passenger side looks good. This has been doing it since new. I took it to 3 dealers and they all say to have the tires aligned. I did that with 8,000 miles on it and they said everything was in spec. I had the front bars cranked up to make the truck sit about level and aligned. It still has the same tire wear choppy on the driver side. The truck has 29,000 miles now. The shop that did my alignment their machine was brand new. I found a dealership who is supossed to have a good alignment tech. I going to try to get them to look at it as soon as i can get to them 60 miles away. I had new tires put on when they aligned it to make sure the tires was the problem. What would cause it to wear like that? Maybe a bad shock?
My truck is a 2005 4x4 crew cab dually.

christopherglenn
04-26-2008, 07:44 PM
But both front tires are wearing on the edges, and almost nothing down the center.. I am running 75 psi up front ($4.35 sucks).. Any ideas?

MAX4X4
04-26-2008, 08:02 PM
How often do you rotate the tires?
Did you go from 8,000 miles to 29,000 miles without ever rotating?

I rotate mine every 7,500 miles on all my cars. That keeps the tires wearing perfectly all together and I don't get that choppy edge on them.

eman
04-27-2008, 12:31 AM
bad (bagged) shock is a possibilty but i would lean more towards an upper or lower ball joint or tie rod.

BLUEDURAMAX
04-27-2008, 10:51 PM
I rotate them every 8000 miles. By the time to rotate them the driver wheel is choppy. I want to get this fixed before the warranty runs out. I dont tow no heavy weight most of the time mostly highway driving..

DMAXMO
05-21-2008, 02:45 PM
Did you ever figure out what was causing your tire wear?

LMM_Guy
05-21-2008, 04:41 PM
Maybe understanding how feathering happens will help you understand why it's happening.

Feathering is caused by the tread block deflecting and wearing while the tread block is pushed over. When the block springs back it now has a the sawtooth pattern you speak of.

Now why it's feathering is another topic. Of course the knee jerk reaction from anyone who's ever seen a tire is to say that "it needs aligned", well no duh, the trick is to be able to tell how it needs aligned differently than what it's aligned to now. To be within factory spec means to have the tires facing in the general direction of forwards so you do need a tech that knows what he's talking about. A good tech will change the alignment based on tire wear not just check to see if it falls into a wide range allowed by the factory. Taking the readings isn't the hard part, heck I can do an alignment with $150 in tools in my driveway, the hard part is knowing what to shoot for and how it effects tire wear and performance.

The usuall cause for feathering is dragging the tire across the pavement due to too much toe in or toe out. But the problem with this theory on your truck is that toe effect both sides equally. Now there is a slight possiblity that you have too much positive camber on the drivers side and too much toe combining to show feathering on the drivers side but not the passenger because the scrubbing is distributed more evenly on the passenger side.

I've run into feathering quite a bit auto-xing, the reason for it under racing conditions is that the tread block is just too flimsy and rolls over under hard cornering. I bring this up because I wonder if you consistantly take long hard right hand turns? I know on my commute I have one large fast 55mph off ramp that I take too fast, it causes feathering on just the drivers side tire.........

If you have your alignment sheet left from your last alignment post up the numbers. I should be able to point you in the right direction of what to try on the next one.