Alignment ordeal

I don’t blame shops mostly. When you need your truck worked on it’s what you have to do. It cost a fortune to keep a shop open and very difficult to find employees worth a hoot. So they do what trucking companies do and just put meat in the seat and hope for the best as long as they dont have to spend the night in a truck (or in the case of the shop) get grease on there fancy shoes.

So this is what we get and the reason I got out of management and only have to worry about ME and MY truck now.

 

That made me LOL. I keep my drives & trailer at 80-85. I probably need to drop it down a few more, the centers aren't quite as worn as the shoulders.

The other 3 drivers at this co. were kinda shocked when they asked what I run my tires at. I told them I looked up the load tables for the tires.

 

More wear on the shoulders compared to the center means low psi. Conversely, center wear means high psi.

I’m aware of the load and inflation tables, particularly those from Michelin, but surprisingly it hasn’t affected my tire wear. I usually haul heavy loads, though.

 

You're right, don't know what I was thinking.

I've seen a number of trucks that wear out the center first because of overinflation. One company had Crossfires on their fleet and steers were supposed to be at 120, with everything else at 105. Lots of drivers think that whatever # is on the sidewall is what the tires MUST be inflated to.

 

Some fleets use steer tires with a cold PSI rating of 120. Most steer tires, however, are rated to 110 cold. I’ve seen Crete trucks with a label of 110 PSI on their hoods above their steer tires. The tire sidewall says 120 cold.

Back when I was at Stevens Transport, they would say to inflate all tires to 100 psi. The tire air system in my trailer has a label indicating that the tires will be kept at 95 PSI. The PSI can be changed, though.

 

i wouldn't trust any shop that quoted a flat rate on alignment to many variables on how long it will take them to do it right, and its something you want done right.

 

Sounds like what I'm looking for. Someone that knows how to do something with out a computer saying its right or wrong.

 

Yes
No computer involved at all.
He asks a lot of questions about what your concerns are so he can diagnose where your problem is and correct it.

 

Good. Spent $5k on last alignment to fix everything and its still not right so I need someone that cares. Getting ready to change my steers for the second time in about 70k miles so I'll have to wait till the new ones start having issues or try to keep the old ones around.