Running with JCT, Part Deux

The only time I ever had wierd wear on steers was from bad alignment. This was when I first started driving. Newish truck with less than 50k miles. Company shop aligned it before they put me in the truck, I doubt it was needed. 5000 miles later, two new steers and another alignment at T/A. 2500 miles later and another alignment at another T/A as it was still out. 1000 miles later, another alignment and one new steer tire.

All these shops blamed the last shop for doing shoddy work. That last alignment was done at the Sacramento 49er shop, and it stayed true for the next 18 months we stayed at that company. No river wear, it was always on either the inside or outside, can't remember for sure.

Moral of this story, don't get your truck aligned unless it is out. Also use a reputable shop, not T/A. There a lot of shops doing bad alignment jobs. It sounds like you could have an alignment issue and I would definitely have it looked at.

P.S., I highly recommend that 49er shop if you are in the area. We've used them several times and never had a problem.

 

But, god they're slow ...

 

MD Alignment

 

Driver side..




Passenger..



I don't really think it's my alignment because I can let the steering wheel go while driving and as long as I don't have a cross wind or extreme crown, and have a good trailer the truck tracks straight...

The wear is only in those one side of the tire the other sides fine. And I rotated them from side to side at 50,000 and 100000 miles.

I'm thinking the combination of the tires being badly out of balance plus maybe a worn shock on the driver side may have started a wear pattern I didn't catch early and it's just not stopping. That's 134k.

 

My first set of steers after about a hundred and fifty thousand miles it developed the river wear in one of the Treads that wrapped all the way around the tire evenly. This is just treadwear in about 1/4 of the circumference on the driver side and in that small area on the passenger.

 

https://www.michelinb2b.com/wps/b2bcontent/PDF/Usual_Suspects_Steer_BFG_EN.pdf

Was trying to get the pics to post, but can’t get it to. Hope this helps anyone now or in the future.

 

So it's either...

 

I had goodyears do the same thing...it could easily just be that those tires came from a bad batch...as any mass produced item, they'll be some bad ones...

 

I agree. I mean the steering is like glass, smooth. So the wear is not causing hopping or anything. Could just be luck of the draw. Oh well was hoping to not have to tire buy until closer to winter.

 

I had a somewhat interesting conversation with a fairly new driver to the industry. He asked me at what rpm to I shift to the next gear. He had a similar spec truck.

I answered with I don't know. The look on his face was priceless. I then explained how I just listen to the truck and let the truck tell me when a shift is needed. And that depends on the weight and balance of the load, terrain, etc.

He was still getting the feel of floating the gears and I told him to just take his time. Accelerate slow and smooth and pay attention to what the truck does when you think it's time to shift. He still seem slightly bewildered at that, so, I explained it another way.

I said, pretend that the truck is your lover. You go slow and experiment til you find out exactly how to "push her buttons". That he understood. Lol.