why is my truck destroying my tires?

[JimJa]

I cannot urge everyone enough to go to a shop that ONLY does alignment. Period. Every other shop/dealer doing alignment only does it as secondary source of income. Alignment can be done with a string line and a plumb bob. Those $20,000 machines look great but are not necessary if the person doing the alignment is experienced and knows what they are doing. For example, in San Diego the shop of choice is Clarence Brown Alignment. Their employees average 16 years of experience. I used them for 30 years and never had a problem. A tact to find a good shop in your area is to check with the local high end sports car dealer/club (i.e. Porsche) as most are anal about alignment and will know the "go-to" shop.

Sponsored

 

[Deleted User 61245811]

I bought a life time alignment from Firestone (as I do with any car I buy). They have them on sale from time to time (firestonecompleteautocare.com/offers/) making the lifetime just a little more than a one time. The truck had an alignment from the installer of the lift and then 4 alignments from 3 different firestone shops before I hit on one that wasn't causing uneven wear. I immediately take it for an alignment and a tire rotation when I would see the slightest change in wear so my tires never got destroyed before I finally hit on the perfect (so far) alignment. The lift/level makes it pretty tricky to get the alignment just right and stay right, in my opinion. I'm still watching it like a hawk. But the life time alignment means I just take if back whenever I want.

 

[Frenchy]

Yeah that's wheel alignment. Chances are they're setting it to zero on the tow when you're not in it. The moment you hop in it toe goes out. That's what's causing your problem there

 

[Wytchdctr]

On a totally different car/setup I had cupping issues. Tried aligning it etc. They said it was my struts. Before I did the struts I needed new tires anyway due to a nail. New brand tire... no more cupping with no other changes.

So if another pure alignment shop says it's straight. It might be the tires.. maybe.

 

[JasonTremor]

If an alignment shop doesn't show you the before and after settings, find another shop. Also, at 2.5 inches of lift, adjustment for caster/camber "can" become a compromise of sorts with OEM upper a-arms. Looking at the OP's pictures, I see no indication that the alignment cams for camber/caster have ever had a wrench on them. Therefore the alignment the OP got was likely a toe setting only, if anything.

 

[Adventure Ranger]

That is a Camber issue. Truck needs a proper alignment done, and you may need new UCA's to correct it with the levelling kit installed.

 

[deleriumtremor]

On a totally different car/setup I had cupping issues. Tried aligning it etc. They said it was my struts. Before I did the struts I needed new tires anyway due to a nail. New brand tire... no more cupping with no other changes.

So if another pure alignment shop says it's straight. It might be the tires.. maybe.

I don't know what the percentage of cupping issues are the tire versus suspension, but I have read many, many times of new tires fixing a cupping issue once and for all.

As others have said, the wear pattern definitely looks like camber and/or toe problems. I second the notion of trying another shop, ideally one that regularly deals with lifted trucks.

 

[Blmpkn]

Just because an alignment is 'in spec' doesn't mean the tires will wear even.

Being set to the maximum/outside allowances for both toe and camber will wreck a tire for example..

Find a new shop. I had a 2.5" level on mine and the fronts wore nice and even with regular rotations.

 

[Frenchy]

If an alignment shop doesn't show you the before and after settings, find another shop. Also, at 2.5 inches of lift, adjustment for caster/camber "can" become a compromise of sorts with OEM upper a-arms. Looking at the OP's pictures, I see no indication that the alignment cams for camber/caster have ever had a wrench on them. Therefore the alignment the OP got was likely a toe setting only, if anything.

I had the old man emu lift on my Ranger and never had any problems with alignment. Never even had a problem with the factory control arms.

What the OP is specifying actually comes down to the toe that is set with no person in the cab. The alignment shop needs to set the toe a little bit in by a few degrees on both sides. Once that is done they won't have that tire wear issue

 

[Colo_Ranger]

out of balance tires will do that too. Although the driver's side looks like the camber is off. The inner edge looks significantly more worn, though pictures can be misleading.

 

[Fawnbuster]

8k miles with out a rotation plus the mechanical issues explains alot.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

I have the OME 2.5" suspension lift installed on my truck. After a trip down to the US and back over several thousand miles (maybe 8000), this is what my tires look like. I took my truck in to the tire shop (the same one that did the initial alignment after the lift) for them to check the alignment. They said it was still good, no issues. The tech suggested that I contact the manufacturer of the struts because he suspected they were bad. The tires have "cupping" and this could be caused by suspension. He pushed down on the truck and it "bounces." I took a video of the bouncing and sent it to ARB (makers of OME) customer service and they said everything looks fine. This was installed about a year ago. If it's not the struts or alignment what's the problem?

this is the video https://photos.app.goo.gl/61K8SFYXHyrH8f2k6

You need specs of the Tire shop that aligned this truck... Most likely the alignment is off. You can check the toe setting yourself if you are handy... Probably incorrect Toe...

best,
Phil

 

[Grandaccess]

I started to see wear and I took it for a 4 wheel alignment, there is only 18k on the whole truck now!
they didnt have the specs for a lifted XLT on the top of the printout I seen "Tremore"

 

[Wes Siler]

Nice GFC.

Like the others are saying here, you need a new mechanic, that alignment is incompetent.

 

[Utope]

I used this method to align my toe and camber after putting on the OME.


I was -2.5° of toe, got it set to -0.55°. Driver side -1° camber, Passenger side 0° camber. I bent one of the LCA camber mounts on a rock so it's a little harder to set. I didn't dive into adjusting the UCA settings, figured I'd have 4WP check it when it's time for new tires and let them do any of the fine tuning adjustments if neccessary.

Edit, for the camber I used the iLevel app (it's free) to measure. It measures in 0.1° increments.

Sponsored