Irregular tire wear

Discussion in 'Flatbed Trucking Forum' started by pavrom, May 10, 2020.

  1. pavrom

    pavrom Road Train Member

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    Just noticed today . Any ideas?
    I did full suspension overhaul with alignment right after before putting new tires , shocks new too . Wear mostly inside tires on the 3rd axle of the tractor .
    Only thing i guess - bearing , but mechanic checks out truck every month , same person servicing all the time .
     

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  3. MM71

    MM71 Heavy Load Member

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    Falken / Sumitomo tires?

    Yep .. had a set do the same thing to me. Spot on alignment, new ish torque arm bushings, new shocks every 6 months. Falkens would get horrible heel to toe wear, rotated them every 50k. After about 150k they started off set tread block wear, and cupped out the side walls. When they started vibrating I gave em to a buddy that hauls local dump truck ... I think I put 250k on them. Still had plenty of tread left. I chocked up their failure to tread compound not being able to take shear/scrub from somewhat high horsepower in mountains terrain and west coast heat.
     
  4. 401-Alex

    401-Alex Light Load Member

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    I got that same thing on my forward drive axle inner tire. And i got a shake that pisses me off. Can't find it and thinking it's that tire
     

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  5. pavrom

    pavrom Road Train Member

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    It is falken ...i put new set on because at the time of purchase 2nd axle had same set probably at 75% left and dont dove this issue at all .
     
  6. baha

    baha Road Train Member

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    Was the tire on the inside for part of its life, the inner tire can wear from louse wheel bearings they will cause the inside of the inner tire to wear out the edge of tire, but low air press. will make the tire wear like that?
     
  7. FoolsErrand

    FoolsErrand Road Train Member

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    Ive been a mechanic my whole life and i can tell you it can be harder to diagnose funky tire wear than an internal engine problem. A bad tire can make you throw a lot of money at a truck!

    For vibrations.. Be sure the wheels are equally inflated, square on the flange and centered on the hub.. It was easier with lugcentric than hubcentric in my opinion.

    Crawl under and benchpress your driveshaft in a few places. See that the slip splines and carrier bearing dont move much. If its a million mile shaft it probably will. High horsepower will also eggshape a yoke bore by a few thousandths along the torque axis in time, you can only see this with a caliper or bore gauge. Youve also got to put a magnetic angle finder on your yokes and be absolutely certain youre ride height is correct for the shaft angle. You need equal and opposite angles with a single cardan shaft at each end in order for them to cancel out the acceleration rates of each universal without bind. If youve worn out the same U joint twice its probably an operating angle issue. Look hard at that angle.

    If your shocks and torque arms and drivelibes and rims and all that are good its probably the tire itself. If youve got chinese carcasses it almost definitely is. Caps pretty likely too.

    Unhook your trailer, rig up your dashcam to point at the drives and jump on the interstate. Stay at the speed that shimmies worst. Youll probably be recording a dancing tire.

    I guess you could try balancing product or unmounting and rotating it on the rim then reseating the bead. Ive contemplated making a slide bar that clamps to the frame to run a planer over the bad tire at speed but its probably pretty dangerous to run a truck that fast on jacks.

    If youve got a airgauge for your tractor bags and needle dances under load but truck rides nice when heavy, youve got a bad drive tire.
     
  8. pavrom

    pavrom Road Train Member

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    Its 6x2 truck , last axle is pretty much like trailer axle
     
  9. FoolsErrand

    FoolsErrand Road Train Member

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    One less driveshaft to check, but the rest still applies.
     
  10. bryan21384

    bryan21384 Road Train Member

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    I share your observation. That looks like low air pressure wear to me. I asked one of our mechanics about that, and that's exactly what he said. Itll wear from the outside in like that. I'd air that bad boy back up and keep on trucking. Other wise itll make a good trailer tire or spare
     
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  11. beastr123

    beastr123 Road Train Member

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    As little as a 5# difference between tires on a dual set can cause that type of wear. You can run 90# in one set and 115# in another set on the same tractor or trailer with no major wear effect but those tires need to be very close to the same pressure within the dual set.
    After having 2 sets of drives wear stupid a smart old-school tire man told me this and gave me a tire gauge which he engraved with my name. (I think my boss was charged for it) I kept that gauge for 8 or 10 years and learned to gauge and adjust tires once a week. That saved me about 1 or 2 sets of drive tires in that time and even when I went back to company driver I didn't break the habit.
     
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