This tire needs to be replaced ASAP right?

The only time I've had issue is with the new style wipers.. With them it was never an issue with the arm but rather the blade itself.. take them off,, throw them away and install old style blades,, no more issue..
If your arms are in fact the issue, my guess is some bone head without a clue bent them thinking they know better than anyone else and created your issue.

I just recwntly purchased 2 new arms because some bonehead decided to help me by closing my hood but failed to notice I didn't set mine back in place after cleaning my windshield. Both replacements fit and worked exactly the same as the old with no bending or adjustment needed.

 

It was probably a POS when it rolled off the assembly line.

 

As much as I avoid the safety guy, I think you made the right move.

 

if you have any doubts about anything ... its best to just replace it.. stuff breaks at the worst possible time in the worst possible places.

 

I used to work for a small fleet that had 250 dry van trailers and all the tires looked like OP's. In fact when they ordered brand new trailers they would send their own recaps to the plant to be installed on them. I drove there for 11 years and popped 3 or 4 trailer tires every year. Their mudflap brackets on every trailer were bent all to hell and had the cheap black rubber replacement mudflaps on them.

Company I'm at now runs virgin rubber on their trailers. I've been pulling the same one for 7 years and never had a trailer tire blow out. Still got the original Great Dane mudflaps on it. You can always tell a cheapskate company when their trucks roll by with little things like that where they cut corners. All the money wasted on road calls for trailer tires it's difficult to imagine those retreads were worth it. Now the flip side of that is your typical fleet driver will run over curbs and drag anti-big truck boulders underneath their tandems so maybe there was some logic to it.

 

6? years is max age for steer tires. No age limit for drives, or trailer tires.