steer tires

The truck has been aligned on all axles an they even took the trailer an had it aligned. Still did it on the next set they put on it. It must be a Mack thing cause all of the ones we use do it.

 

If you're sure that the alignment, suspension & steering are all OK, then the only thing you can do it rotate steers more often. That would increase life a little because they's both wear out and you would toss a tire with usable tread left on it.

But, I'm not convinced that your alignment shop really cares about anything more than getting the computer screen to turn green. You'd be better off finding a shop that will work with you on a customized alignment who's goal is increasing tire life.

For example. Our Pete's call for 1/16" toe +/- 1/32", but at 1/16" they wear the outer edge of the tires. We initially set them to spec, then felt the tires, as we felt the feather, we tweaked the toe until there was no feather. We ended up with most of out trucks set to 1/32" toe-in. That added 10-15,000 miles to our steers. Both #'s were "in-spec", but made a big difference. You can feel a feather develop in as a little s 500 miles and correct the issue to save the tire. If you let it go too long, the pattern pretty much stays there for the life of the tire.

Rear axle alignment also has a +/- for being parallel to the steer axle and to each other. We spend the time to get the front drive axle dead straight to the steer. But not for rear drive is not. We found better steer tire wear but offsetting the rear drive 1/32" back on the passenger side. My theory is that the crown of the road want's to drift the truck to the right. So the slight corrective steering to the left makes the right steer act towed-in more and the left steer act towed-out. By adding a hair of rear steer, it seemed to offset this and the steer tires wear better. That's a theory, but it works, so it doesn't really matter why it works, as long as we're saving money on tires.

Most alignment shops care about specs, not tire wear. Only through feeling the tires can you dial it in to what the truck really wants. There are a few mobile alignment specialists out there that will align and monitor trucks to do this. It's not good to drop a truck off as simply say do an alignment. Do some googling and get a good understanding on the subject and find a shop that will work with you.

 

Last night i have got installed the XZA 3+ at Loves and now 300 miles after i see that they start wear outside both tires have wear on outside edge more than the inside. Alignment or maybe something else?

 

It's showing wear after only 300 miles?! Wow id guess you have a serious alignment problem or bearings going out. That's horrible. Frame bent? Been in a wreck?

 

Good info GA....gots a question for you......New car parking lots are stuffed under the car frame...ok get that. Do they still axle out like me loaded ( 12 / 34/ 34 ) ? And what effect does that low 5th wheel have on the truck....one would think it would teeter the truck being behind the drives.......

Thanks bud.....

 

Weights are all over the place for us due to so many different loads. In general we are heavier on the steers, around 14K or so. The 5th wheel makes a big difference. Being behind the drives help transfer weight from the steer axle to the drive axles. We don't have the option to slide the 5th wheel to put more or less weight on the steers. They're set at 75', which is tight on space to load, shorter is rarely an option and longer is illegal, so we're kind of stuck there.

I don't drive or load the trucks, so I'm not an authority on it. It's an art in itself know where to put each car so it will fit as well as scale legal, especially with the high railers hauling 10+ cars.

 

I'd say too much toe-in. Positive camber could cause outside wear, but it'd have to be pretty bad to notice in 300 miles. Positive camber will just put more weight on the outside edge, too much tow-in or out will show faster wear because the tires are fighting each other and scrubbing. Generally, loose wheel bearings cause negative camber and allow the tires to be pulled and toe-out, but the wear pattern is usually cupped when you're dealing with loose/worn parts.

You need to get it checked out ASAP.

 

I put 16ply XZA3+ on & they worked great for awhile. Had the front end aligned, they took my $100 & said the truck is in spec. I rotated the steers(broken off of rim for the directional tread & balanced again) at 50,000 miles. Both tires then were tapered or feathered out. You could push your hand across the tire mounted on the truck & not feel anything. But pull & both were the same.

Now the right front is perfect, but the left front has worn down the outer edge. What is weird is the wear indicator is higher than the last bar of tread. The truck drives straight on flat road. But as you mentioned, you have to pull or push a slight bit on the steering wheel if the road is sloped.

Going to try to get it in for a 3 axle alignment tomorrow. Not sure if I can rotate & balance the current set or have to buy new.

The truck is a 2003 Pete 385 that is running a high mount car hauler. So not much weight on the steers loaded or empty.

 

Each truck will have different likes and dislikes on what steer tire works best. My truck has a fondness for the Michelin XZA3+ tires. I got 220,000 out of the first set, and 227,000 out of the second set. Both times, they had roughly 8/32nd tread left and no uneven wear or river wear, and I got $150 a tire out of them from my dealer each time. Just put on the 3rd set at a cost of about $480 a tire, including FET. No, that was not with the casing credit for the old tires. That was actual cost of the tires. I would say it has been very cost effective to use them, especially getting $300 for the old steer tires. I follow Michelin recommended air pressures in them, which is right around 105 PSI for the weight I have on the steer axle, which never goes above 11,700 lb.

 

Excellent tire !!