Interpret tire wear?

[Arickvan]

my diesel f250 runs unloaded at 50-60 psi on 34's

sidewalls on the front tires have a little bulge just from the engine weight

I'm not seeing any uneven tire wear in you pic below, what are you seeing?

 

[bad zuki]

Classic Heel/Toe wear. Need alignment and rotated more. Like every oil change or 5k. Solid Axle rears are there to wear tires evenly.

Also I think your tires are over inflated.

 

[TrailTamer]

I'm not seeing any uneven tire wear in you pic below, what are you seeing?

Visual inspection can be tough, even more with pictures.

run your hands over treads will make any abnormal wear obvious.

and for gods sake, rotate tires more often. I like to try to rotate tires every approx 2,500 miles on jeeps, trucks, particularly with larger tires, mud tires, solid front axles.

 

[TrailTamer]

and for gods sake, rotate tires more often. I like to try to rotate tires every approx 2,500 miles on jeeps, trucks, particularly with larger tires, mud tires, solid front axles.

you choose to be lazy or cheapass, and it's a quick downhill from there. Rotate tires 'late' and its already too late to 'save' your cupped tires. As you try to 'wear' cupping out of tires running them in rear, but by then your front tires are cupped just like your rear tires were. An uphill battle.

 

[fl0w3n]

Had time to test dropping to 30 front / 30 rear, which made the fronts look better. Then I dropped the rear to 25 and didn’t seem to change from 30 or 35, which might be due to the already feathered (I think that’s the right term) edges.

To TrailTamer point above about an uphill battle to get this corrected, I am going to call a tire shaving company that’s local to check prices. If it’s not ridiculous then I think shaving them to perfect round and starting over again with better inflation and much sooner rotation will be worthwhile considering I should still have tons of life opportunity left in these.

Two passes of RF @ 30 psi cold

Two passes of RR @ 30 psi cold

Two passes LR @ 30 psi cold (one mislabeled cuz I don’t know my direction )

And finally LF @ 30 psi cold

 

[fl0w3n]

And one more pass each on the rear after dropping to 25

You can really see the inside feathering here. Don’t think psi is going to make a difference now.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

25-30 psi on a newer diesel is crazy.

Honestly, I don't get the hyper fixation on rotating tires. I wasn't great about rotating the cheap at's on the wife's F150 and got 90k miles out of them without even running them way down

As far as pressure, people say you will wear out the centers with too much pressure, but my old boss would get 100k miles from a set of tires on his F350s 75 psi front 80 rear, loaded or mostly not.



I'd run those at ~60 and not think about it. If you're so worried about tire wear, then maybe don't run 37s on a tow rig

 

[bad zuki]

25-30 psi on a newer diesel is crazy.

Holy ship I missed that. I thought this was a toyota. I’m running 50 in my f350.

Honestly, I don't get the hyper fixation on rotating tires. I wasn't great about rotating the cheap at's on the wife's F150 and got 90k miles out of them without even running them way down

1. You had a mild street tire and not mud tires,
2. Your alignment must be perfect.
3. Certain tires wear better that others from the same product line, they can’t perfectly control the rubber blend in the mixing process so some tires can be softer or harder.

What size rims do you have OP?

 

[arse_sidewards]

Honestly, I don't get the hyper fixation on rotating tires. I wasn't great about rotating the cheap at's on the wife's F150 and

On a surface level it's surprising you're not anal about tire rotations. One would think that dumbass fanboys who go all in on one example false economy would go endorse other examples of false economy. On the other hand, it's not surprising at all since you wouldn't be a fanboy if logical consistency was your thing.

X amount of wear per mile is going to cost you the same regardless of how you spread it out. It's a question of buying pairs of tires at a short interval vs sets of four at a longer interval.

If you're the kind of woman who's likely to get suckered into the tire shop's "well you should really replace all four" pitch then maybe it's worth it. But those same people are just as likely to get suckered into paying $70 for a rotation so it's probably a wash for them too.

got 90k miles out of them without even running them way down

50k of rubber + 40k of lying, just like all those 30mpg cummings brah.

1. You had a mild street tire and not mud tires,
2. Your alignment must be perfect.
3. Certain tires wear better that others from the same product line, they can’t perfectly control the rubber blend in the mixing process so some tires can be softer or harder.

4. My grandma drives harder than him.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Holy ship I missed that. I thought this was a toyota. I’m running 50 in my f350.


1. You had a mild street tire and not mud tires,

They were all terrains, and his aren't mud tires either?

2. Your alignment must be perfect.

Maybe, never touched it, truck had 35k when they went on

3. Certain tires wear better that others from the same product line, they can’t perfectly control the rubber blend in the mixing process so some tires can be softer or harder.

Yes, I get that.

The tires I had on my 97 F350, with a DIY alignment always went 50k pretty easy also. Heavier trucks usually wear tires quicker.

I just can't imagine wasting time rotating tires every 2500 miles just to maybe get a few more thousand out of them

 

[TrailTamer]

I just can't imagine wasting time rotating tires every 2500 miles just to maybe get a few more thousand out of them

I don’t like shitty ride quality.

Something like this can’t ride all that well and likely noisy.

Btw I ran 25-30 psi in rear of my truck when unladen too. 315/70R17, and their max inflation pressure on sidewalk is 50 psi.

 

[Hooligan]

I don’t like shitty ride quality.

Something like this can’t ride all that well and likely noisy.

Btw I ran 25-30 psi in rear of my truck when unladen too. 315/70R17, and their max inflation pressure on sidewalk is 50 psi.

That looks bouncy!

I have a Dodge and due to worn ball joints it was doing that to my tires.

 

[Rockwood]

Yeah, rotate moar.

I wouldn't deflate tires until the "chalk test" comes out clean as you're assuming the tire was designed perfectly flat and you're using the correct width wheel. Running a narrow wheel will always crown the tire, and running less air to compensate will result in wallowing handling, unnecessary heat, and worse fuel economy.

Looking at Falken's stock photos for the tire off the ground:

You can see there's some crown designed into it. You can also see there's more void area on the outer shoulders, so those will be expected to take less of the load and probably why they designed some crown into it (the rubber compound in the middle is also usually harder to accommodate the load carrying). Shoulder rubber is usually softer because its needed for grip in the corners, but otherwise doesn't get used a lot driving straight down the road, and usually isn't meant to be loaded at all times (probably why you're seeing chunking/erosion on the corners rather than just wear)

So yeah, use the recommended inflation chart most manufacturers provide and adjust to your driving habits based on wear as you rotate.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

I don’t like shitty ride quality.

I don't see how it would effect the ride? Unless you mean pressure, which yes, obviously less pressure will make for a better ride, but typically make the tires wear worse. So you're saying you do this and rotate often to make up for it?

Something like this can’t ride all that well and likely noisy.

Btw I ran 25-30 psi in rear of my truck when unladen too. 315/70R17, and their max inflation pressure on sidewalk is 50 psi.

The rear of an empty truck bed can obviously be super light. If I was running empty for a long time on my 97, I'd usually drop to 50psi.

I guess I get running lower for a ride, but if the biggest concern is wear, usually higher pressure on a full size truck(to a point) is your best bet.

 

[rockota]

Yeah, rotate moar.

I wouldn't deflate tires until the "chalk test" comes out clean as you're assuming the tire was designed perfectly flat and you're using the correct width wheel. Running a narrow wheel will always crown the tire, and running less air to compensate will result in wallowing handling, unnecessary heat, and worse fuel economy.

chalk test doesn't work for anything other than driving straight forward on smooth ground...

 

[Rockwood]

chalk test doesn't work for anything other than driving straight forward on smooth ground...

I think it doesn't even work for that. You're not supposed to constantly load the tread corners (ignore BMW bullshit, its the different compounds used across a tread pattern that I'm making the point for).

Most tires use the center tread to carry most of the miles, with the shoulder used for cornering grip and (sometimes) high temperature you get as a result of leaning on a tire and grinding the fawk out of the shoulder.

 

[TrailTamer]

You're not supposed to constantly load the tread corners

and i'll be hating life driving in circles more than going ahead straight.

most of our driving miles are spent going straight than turning. so what the big deal lol

 

[YotaAtieToo]

and i'll be hating life driving in circles more than going ahead straight.

most of our driving miles are spent going straight than turning. so what the big deal lol

There are lot of winding ass roads where op lives, I can see how you'd eat up steer tires.

 

[Rockwood]

There are lot of winding ass roads where op lives, I can see how you'd eat up steer tires.

And the easiest way to save steer tires from shoulder wear due to cornering is more tire pressure.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

And the easiest way to save steer tires from shoulder wear due to cornering is more tire pressure.

Zactly

Needs more cowbell, not less

 

[FlatLander]

Tires worn so bad, you need to hold the camera 2" from them to notice the chunking/wear? On an AT? on an 8k lb truck? At nearly 25% of the tires life expectancy? OP, you get a pass for being admittedly "new" to tires. Most others here... WTF?

30PSI is too low. Especially if you're going to be doing any hauling or towing.
You could rotate every 5k, if that slight amount of wear is bothering you. Hard to tell if that is cupping or just the picture.
Assuming alignment is good.
Another thing to do is slow down on the windy pavement. Speed through that will cup and chunk the outside. Look at trucks that see a lot of on/off ramps. The lefts are worn more if they try to carry speed on the curve.
Might just maybe have something to do with weight shifting to the outer edges of the front in a damn 3/4T truck on winding roads.