well I have been hearing a whinning noise coming from my tires and I decided to take a look today. Turns out I'm having some serious uneven tire wear. The inside and outside treads are uneven. They go high low high low etc. They vary by about 1/32 right now and I have a feeling they will get worse. The fronts are worse then the rears. Any thoughts?

chev.

Your going to get a lot of people telling you that it is because you put 285's on a 6.5" wheel. The type of wear you describe is uncommon on the rear. Is it possible they were on the front and switched to the rear after a rotation? Sounds like an alignment issue.

I had an alignment done when the tires went on. I was assuming it's cuz of 285's on stockers.

chev.

I get this all the time when I wait to long for a rotation.An easy fix: Power brake and smoke the rears for about 20-30 seconds on concrete,then rotate your tires and do the same.

Does it take life off of your tire? Of course but it will even them out and you can get a decent ride back...Other option is to live with shitty ride or get new tires...

Just fixed this problem on my right front..........
Problem was a wheel bearing gone baad and i had a lower ball joint gone on drivers side. The whining starts slow then gets louder as time goes by.
The whining is air being trapped in the every other cupped inside tire face bars. If you drive on a dirty dry paved lot in a straight line,stop and get out you will see the high spots on the inside face of tire are dirty and the cupped ones are cleaner.
Lift the Front end up off the ground and wiggle the tire IN-OUT at top and Left-Right any movement means parts need replacement Good-Luck

I had brouht the truck this afternoon to speedy and they said everyhting in the front appeared solid. Looking at picking up a cheap pair Mickey Thompson II's in 16X8's for the truck.

chev.

The saw tooth pattern on the tread is called feathering, it's caused by excess toe. Toe-in if it's on the outside lugs, toe-out if it's on the inside lugs. You said you had feathering on both the inside and outside lugs........which means the crappy factory geometry is kicking your ass. These trucks have what's called bump steer. the tire actually steers as the suspension articulates up and down. Some tires are more tolerant of the toe change than others. How bumpy the roads are also plays a major role, a highway bound truck won't see this as bad as one that spends lots of time on bumpy back roads.

As of right now the only fix is to wait for the new 2011 to come out and hope GM fixed it on the new chassis.....:rolleyes:

I was also told driving in 4X4 (which I do alot) will cause it. I have the Cooper ATZ's and this is the frst issues I have ever had. This is my third apir but first pair on my d-max.

chev.

The saw tooth pattern on the tread is called feathering, it's caused by excess toe. Toe-in if it's on the outside lugs, toe-out if it's on the inside lugs. You said you had feathering on both the inside and outside lugs........which means the crappy factory geometry is kicking your ass. These trucks have what's called bump steer. the tire actually steers as the suspension articulates up and down. Some tires are more tolerant of the toe change than others. How bumpy the roads are also plays a major role, a highway bound truck won't see this as bad as one that spends lots of time on bumpy back roads.

As of right now the only fix is to wait for the new 2011 to come out and hope GM fixed it on the new chassis.....:rolleyes:

It's not the chassis, but rather the settings. I have at least 10 trucks at any one time with the supposed "junk" IFS, and i can assure you that the OP's truck, while "in-spec", is still not correct. A "qualified" alignment tech (which are as rare as unicorns, BTW) can confirm this.

To the OP, read this http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=344697&highlight=alignment

It's not the chassis per say, but the geometry does have a LOT of toe change over the suspension range. I've personally measured 2" of toe change from full droop to full compression. In my mind, worrying about 1/16" at ride height isn't going to matter much if the toe is constantly swinging all over the place.

It's not the chassis per say, but the geometry does have a LOT of toe change over the suspension range. I've personally measured 2" of toe change from full droop to full compression. In my mind, worrying about 1/16" at ride height isn't going to matter much if the toe is constantly swinging all over the place.

And full droop to full compression only occurs during a small portion of the drive time. Properly aligned, by a "knowledgeable" tech, the front "abnormal" wear will be minor by rotation time, which in my case is every 6k-10k miles, depending on rear tire wear.

And full droop to full compression only occurs during a small portion of the drive time. Properly aligned, by a "knowledgeable" tech, the front "abnormal" wear will be minor by rotation time, which in my case is every 6k-10k miles, depending on rear tire wear.

Which was my point that it shows up on trucks that are driven on rougher roads. My point was that even a 1/2" of suspension movement will change the toe by 1/16". A good alignment tries to compensate for this, but you'll never fully cure the problem.

If you better understand WHY something is happening, you can usually find a better fix for the problem.

So you can redesign the suspension like LMM Guy is or you can try and find a good alignment tech. How often do you rotate your tires mine get done every 5K, but are MTs?

My point, which you missed completely.......is it can't be completely fixed, so find a good alignment tech and don't be surprised when the problem doens't completely fix itself.

:rolleyes:

Ya I do that sometimes

Don't argue with an idiot, the people watching may not be able to tell you two apart.

Never argue with ignorance, they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

:D

Careful now, I resemble those remarks. :D

Which was my point that it shows up on trucks that are driven on rougher roads. My point was that even a 1/2" of suspension movement will change the toe by 1/16". A good alignment tries to compensate for this, but you'll never fully cure the problem.

If you better understand WHY something is happening, you can usually find a better fix for the problem.

I understand and agree with most everything you've said, but for the level of "abnormal wear" that the suspension creates.
Come visit any of my IFS fleet construction trucks, and there are a few that don't have anything but rough road/ jobsite running, and you'll find that the rears wear enough to force rotation LONG before the scalloping/ feathering becomes an issue, when aligned properly, which all of mine are.

I understand and agree with most everything you've said, but for the level of "abnormal wear" that the suspension creates.
Come visit any of my IFS fleet construction trucks, and there are a few that don't have anything but rough road/ jobsite running, and you'll find that the rears wear enough to force rotation LONG before the scalloping/ feathering becomes an issue, when aligned properly, which all of mine are.

And arguing on the internet is like running in the special olympics. No matter who wins, we're both retarded.

Can't say that I would argue your point.......:D, it just bugs me that the geometry is that far off, there is wear going on that doesn't need to be. Even though the rears wear much faster than the fronts, any rubber left on the fronts is that much more rubber that will be available to burn off the back.

Having looked, by looked mean measured bump steer, quite a few different vehicles. It still blows my mind how bad it is on these trucks, somewhere on the magnitude of 400% more than just about any passenger car on the road.

Does this happen on a non IFS truck? If it doesnt, then why arent they just switching it back. Or better yet, putting them on the 2500 and up. If I wanted a daily driver it would be a 1500.

It just happens on THIS IFS, just about every other IFS on the planet doesn't have this bad of bump steer. This is one the reasons the GM IFS give all IFS a bad name.

Solid axles can have just as bad of bump steer if they aren't set up correctly. The drag link between the steering box and the axle move in an arc which will make bump steer. This is why you see solid axle guys trying to keep them as level as possible when ever they lift their trucks. The bump steer gets worse as this link gets angled.

I have to rotate the tires just as often, if not more so, on my SAS trucks. So, did the OP get his truck aligned???

not yet doing it either today or this weekend when I can get it in my buddies shop. to cold out :)

chev.

I have to rotate the tires just as often, if not more so, on my SAS trucks. So, did the OP get his truck aligned???

X2 I know a few guys that don't rotate and just replace the front or rear as needed and the rears go a lot faster. These guys don't tow a lot or hot rod around this is on both IFS and SA.

well I rotated them again and it's starting to happen to the fronts. The noise it pretty bad. IT's just the outter front of the truck that is wearing. I dropped the TB's about 2.5 full turns. I picked up some H2's and will be adding some 285/70/17's. I'm hoping the will last longer than the 285's on my PYO's. Any input? Oh I also plan on getting another alignment done now that I have lowered the TB's.

chev.

Mine does the same thing. Outside edge is feathering on my MT's. My fault, waited too long to rotate. Took 12K miles to start this the first time before I rotated them every 8K miles now. Last 2 times, no feathering, just even wear, a little more in the middle due to the higher psi's. Proably have 1/8" tread in middle, 1/4" on sides, front and rear. Getting ready to go with some 285 Nitto Terra Grapplers in a month or so. I don't go offroad enough to justify MT's, that's what my ATV and UTV's are for. Chris