Your tire philosophy

I am on board with the alignment thing. But go to a shop that actually does suspension work on all kinds of trucks, including things like king pins and spring replacement. Don't consider the Mickey Mouse setups that they advertise at truck stops, indeed use them as a last resort for anything.
Buy the best tire you can afford. in 43 years I have tried almost everything. At the moment I am running Firestone FS 591's with centramatics, Bridgestones on the rear. I Don't rotate anything, don't balance the rears.

 

I'm a company driver

Your safety depends on those steer tires. Buy the best.

 

I really like Bridgestone 283A on the steer or Hankook AL21. Hankook makes really good tires. I’ve been impressed with them. Don’t buy the cheap Chinese stuff. They don’t last.

I don’t rotate anymore because I have a 6x2 with trailer tires on the dead axle but I do flip the drives around on the rim once a year. With a 6x4 I rotated every 110-120k.

You don’t NEED a regular alignment schedule. If you run your hand along your steer front to back and vice versa and it’s anything but smooth, you need an alignment. Being you have one shoulder wearing off, if it’s been gradual, just rotate them. If it’s fast wear, you probably have a camber issue or something is worn out.

If you’re not running a balancing product, I highly recommend it, on all wheel positions. I use Centramatics.

Shocks won’t cause tire wear. If you want to keep a decent ride quality, I’d say every 225-250k and use gas shocks.

My choices would be
Bridgestone, Hankook steer
Bridgestone, Michelin on drive and tag
Michelin, Hankook trailer
If duals on the trailer, I’d stick with Bridgestone or Michelin

A backup would be Continental. I’ve run those too and had good luck with them.

 

My steers are smooth to the touch running my hand across in both directions. I’m just getting more wear on the outside edge of the passenger steer compared with the driver side tire. Is 130000 miles about what you can expect a steer tire to last?

 

I can get 18-20k miles per 32nd on a Bridgestone or Hankook. It sounds like your wear has been gradual. That’s not a problem. Just rotate them and watch it. Or flip the problem tire around on the rim to wear the other edge.

 

What kind of Bridgestones do you have?

 

I’ll add that it’s pretty rare for a tire to wear perfect it’s entire life. Have a tread depth gauge on you to monitor it. That’s why you rotate or flip a tire around on the rim to counter the wear and maximize its life. If you keep track of tread wear you can properly adjust your air pressure for maximum life and move tires around to do the same. I use the load inflation tables for my pressure settings and that works fine. I run a 16 ply tire on my steer as well. I don’t need the capacity but they wear better than a regular 14 ply tire, in my opinion.

 

Steers Mitch 16 ply
Shocks every 50,000 miles
Air pressure 110 psi
Mitch are worth every penny .
Do your best not to hit holes or side walks at high speed , specially if you are loaded .

 

Service Tire Truck Centers does a 3 axle alignment. Their alignments are on point! They also tend to have good pricing on their tires. They’er were i buy all my tires. I’ve been dealing with them for over a decade, as a company driver & as an o/o. No complaints.

 

I have michelin Xline energy they are at 15/32" and wearing at 14,018.75 per 1/32". Rotate side to side every 50k. They are only directional on first install.

Now I haul heavy and short, more regional with alot of two lane, lots of turning.