The hits just keep on coming!!

i don't believe i made any foolish statements, just relaying what my tire guys tell me, but you do sound like a pompous ###. so many of you on the road these days

 

Gotta agree with Oscar. There are only two reasons to do an alignment, tire wear problems and handling problems, period. And always try to avoid getting an alignment done after putting on new tires. Get the alignment done with the old tires, still in place, so the alignment guy can "read" the old tires and tell what it needs. Put the new tires on, after the alignment.

 

If I were you I would find new "tire guys" Think of all the money they have suckered out of you. They don't tell you to change your tires every 50,000 miles so you don't have to worry about a blowout do they? I am not a pompous ###. I just don't hold anybody's hand and sugar coat it.

 

They are gasSLX. I really appreciate everyone's input. I got a load delivered yesterday morning about 2am and having been fed up with this little problem, and going on my gut feeling it's a tire/wheel issue, decided to ride up to a love's and get the wheels all spun to see what happened. The verdict.. 3 really badly warped rims, my trailer is an ex-fleet trailer from a small 100-150 trucking company "Americo" having worked at a fleet like that I know what sorts of rims and tires they likely have laying around in the shop and install on a regualr basis, whatever has tread regardless if it has dips or chunks etc, and the rims are all a hodgepodge missmash of whatever no telling how old they are.. Ok, lets do new rims.. Then two of the old recaps were waaay out of round... That was the ohh crap moment... Decided to throw on some michilen recaps but all they had were lug tread, then decided to do chinese double coin virgins, first one of those was out of round also, so off it came and on went 2 yoko virgins. Also sprung for centramatics. Rear axle is in good shape now. Two vigins on one side and two of the original caps on the other side all balanced up.. Wrapped up things after doing the rear axle and went home I'll deal with the front axle when I get time. The ride smoothed out considerably better but there is still a little roughness which I am sure is from a bad tire or bent rim on the front axle.. Going to pull those off spin, check and do what i have to do.. This was costly and I really didn;t expect to have 2 bad tires but I saw them they were toast. Poor guy had to break down tires 3 times lol but it was 3am in the morning and I helped and checked everything myself as he was doing it. My #### trailer has been shaking me to pieces for several months now and just getting worse and worse. There was no question I had to do this.

 

That's my feeling too. I can't see any obvious signs there is anything at all wrong with the bushings and a trailer less than 10 years old I mean come on... After I get this right the next thing will be brand new doors and seals this fall and my trailer is in a-1 condition..

 

Level valve is good.

 

Devil's in the details. One recently that boosted my loyalty to my local tire dealer. I bought a used steer for a trailer wheel two weeks ago at another location and the driver called in Monday saying the inside of it was shot already. This is the better of my two trailers so I knew that wasn't right. I asked the tire guy to mount another one on a known good rim just in case, so I could haul it out to the truck and get it mounted. Brought the first one in for a look and without even looking at it close he could tell it was a bad tire from the get-go. No charge for the replacement and we'll work out any difference on the wheel when he checks it and I'm in for tires next time.

Doesn't it cost extra when you help? LOL. It's still a good feeling to be right about something like this even though it was expensive. You now know what you have back there and it won't be a problem again.

Speaking of saving $$$, I did a little of that yesterday.My son came in with the hard exhaust pipe under the cab broken. The job is more than I care to do at the yard myself. The customer we're hauling for is also a small carrier with a shop in back. They talked me into using their shop instead of going to my usual place that probably would have done the work today. I had to get my parts at a little truck parts store I didn't even know existed (and won't forget!) for about $140, and got the whole thing done for $80 labor. Would have been 3x that at the other place and I wouldn't have a load in the trailer to go out Sunday. These are the little things you don't know you don't know when starting out. No spreadsheet model will tell you this stuff. I know a similar guy based out in Ft. Worth that'll work the same deal, and I don't even haul for them. His guy is part time and will hustle to make a buck. He will come out cheap and does good work. You won't find him in your gps or the ntts directory. Just a random guy I ran across in a time of need at a t/s.

Now I need to get a little more coffee in me and get over to the yard with my shiny new right hand bumper parts. Nothing I hate worse than a ragged looking truck.

 

Yeah I knew it was the trailer tires because I did about 1,500 miles power only pulling some well maintained trailers of another carrier, about a half dozen different ones all with good tires and when I was hooked to their trailer my truck drove, rode , and felt smooth as butter... And now last night I developed a tick that sounds like exhaust leak from the manifold or somewhere, can't really see soot on anything under there, I can hear it though... ...when it rains it pours...

 

I have an 06 Wabash. Been having heck with tire wear. Checked and aligned twice. Found out this morning the issue was the bushings. I bought the trailer used so I don't really know how many miles it had on it but I was suprised they needed replacing.

 

Did yours always track true? Mine always has.