How many miles do you put on your steers?

Same here. I do have XZA3 with over 140 000 and still top notch. With my first set of steer tires(I forgot the model but were Michelins) when I bought the truck brand new were the best I had. 217 000 miles and replaced them still in legal shape. I will see if the actual XZA3's will last as much.

 

You're right, we could, many fleets do. The information is worthless unless it is used and shared. I treat my o/o in the same way, if they have a question about maintenance I'll do my best to answer/research the best option. Their success is my success and we have over 55 years of experience to draw on.

 

What's you're driving habits, alignment schedule, rotation schedule, ect. I'm curious to see what you're doing.

I just scored 8 sets of centramatics from another owner buddy of mine for $100/set. I got to get them on, but the drivers who already have them, love them. I don't have any data yet on how effective they are.

 

JDP,
I would like to hear what you think of them. I've been using balancing beads (sand) for years with success.

 

The decrease in vibration is worth the cost alone... especially if they're free.

 

Ok we're talking about a truck with 1,055,000 miles on it here. I also have some slight feathering on my drive tries that has driven me crazy for a while as there is no bushing, or alignment problem that could possibly be causing it because as I posted before I'm on top of that. And also on top of tire rotation, air pressure. The truck had 750,000 miles on it when I bought it. I would imagine my bearings are factory original. So I'm likely best off just replacing all this on the steers? What about the drive axle bearings? Also run centramatics on all 3 axles, first upgrade I did to the truck when I bought it, and they do a phenominal job smoothing out the ride. I am disappointed with my tire wear after installing centramatics although from the sounds of it that is my fault for not knowing anything about wheel bearing maintinence.

 

What I do is jack it up and push on the tire with my hands.U can feel even a little slack with ur hands.And it should have no slack.A pry bar will work,I just prefer to feel for slack first.

 

Yesterday I canged 1 steertire(bridgestone280)With 120k on,I put a Michelin xza 3@(553$ )0n,I hope this tire is better then the old1

 

You can't do anything about the cupping on the drives. We have the same issue on every one of our 2011 Pete 386s. We're running BS 726EL drives and they started doing the same thing right away. Engine torque is the cause and makes the casing to flex which leads to increased wear.

I wouldn't just start throwing parts at it. If you have a couple hours, it wouldn't hurt to tear into it and determine the condition of everything. Pitting/wear groves in the bearing rollers is what you're looking for.

Another thing I thought about. We had a couple issues causing bad steer wear from stripped splines on the shaft coming out of the steering gear box that connects to the pittman arm. With the truck off, have someone jiggle the steering wheel each way while you look at the shaft and pittman arm to make sure they're tight and moving together. You're looking to make sure the shaft is not turning inside the pittman arm. If you can, tighten the bolt on the top of the pittman arm. If that doesn't work, you'll have to replace the steering gear box if that's the problem.

 

Like I said, my drivers swear by them. Weather or not they improve performance, I am yet to determine. My head mechanic said he used those bags of sand that you throw inside the tire for years with good luck at a previous job. I'm reluctant to use them because my tire rep from Yokohama says doing so will make it more difficult to recap. So that's not a chance I'm willing to take with the price of tires increasing like it has been.