I recently bought the truck in my signature from a private seller south of Tucson, AZ. A buddy and I drove it 2100 miles back to Indiana. Had no problems along the way, but I did notice that the 10 year old BFG A/T tread blocks (33x12.50x16.5) on the rear are wearing more severely on the insides/outsides than in the middle of the tires.

This truck wasn't driven much over the past several years, and the tires show their age a little (weather cracks). But they're at least 60% tread.

What could cause them to wear like this? There is an add a leaf on the rear suspension, so maybe that plays in? Could wheel bearings use replacement? Sitting over time maybe caused them to be out of round? Any input is appreciated.

 

That's a typical wear pattern for an under inflated tire, 2,100 miles in that condition can wear off a lot of tread.

 

ill second that. rear tire pressure is low

 

Under inflated for sure.

Cool little chart.

HOW TO READ TIRE WEAR

 

Yup................under inflated............

 

I wouldn't be driving 10 year old anything.

 

glad you made it home (and not into a ditch)

10 year old tires are never a good idea (especially with the heat from highway driving)
no reputable tire shop will repair a tire that is ten years old.

not to mention the extra heat built up by running under inflated (indicated by the unevean wear)

what you call "Weather Cracks" is called DRY ROT
and is an indication of a tire that is not safe for highway/street use

get those tires off
and properly inflate some decent tires
you should be fine


reading the date of manufacture of tires
Tire Tech Information - Determining the Age of a Tire

 

Thanks for the info and advice.

I understand the risks associated with running older/cracked tires. It was a risk that I was willing to take, given that the only alternative was ordering tires in Tucson and paying over $220 per tire. I looked for weeks trying to find some suitable used tires to make the trip on, to no avail. Used tires were in much worse shape than the ones I have.

These tires are going to be replaced soon enough, so I'll be interested to see if the newer tires (aired properly) display any of the same wear patterns.

 

Yup, your tires were definitely under-inflated. A few suggestions that I can make as my $.02:

1) Under-inflated / Over-Inflated - Both cause the tire to wear unevenly, and more quickly. Over and under-inflated tires are cause the vehicle to lose traction on any road surface because of the lack of surface area the tire is touching the ground with, thus causing you to stop more slowly (when applying excessive force to your brakes), and causing you to have to take wider turns because you simply have no grip. This is a very serious issue that MANY motorists do not look into, causing thousands of dollars of damage to their tires and thus forcing them to be replaced pre-maturely.

Also, under-inflation causes you to use more fuel when you travel, which isn't good for our old gussling beasts!

Simply checking your tire pressure once a week will solve this issue.... but wait... there's more!

2) Nitrogen inflated tires - They last longer, and keep your rims dry inside the tire. Why? Because nitrogen is taken from the atmosphere (dry nitrogen), and pumped through a compressor to your tires. The Nitrogen molecule is a more sufficient way to inflate a tire because:

a) it's a larger molecule than atmospheric gas, and therefore leaks through your tires much less quickly due to it having a higher viscosity than air. I.e. It can't permiate through the rubber as quickly, like as if you were trying to fit a square object through a circular hole. Overall, it keeps your tire pressure longer and to the right amount.

b) It's an inert gas, so it's not volatile and is easier to handle. It's also dried before it's pumped, and therefore won't cause any rusting inside your tire/rim because there is ZERO moisture to attack the precious metals that make up your rim.

c) you end up saving on fuel costs and you can improve your economy by approximately 10-15% (depending on driving conditions).

d) once your tire DOES start to lose pressure, the tire can be topped up with regular atmospheric air. Now I know you're thinking that "won't it just do what air inside a tire would do?" and the answer is no... The oxygen from the atmosphere is so diluted, that the effects of rusting and having your tire lose pressure quickly are negligible.

Another reason to use nitrogen is the fact that spacecrafts, the military and nascar all use it. So why can't we?

My best suggestion to you... use nitrogen... not air.

 

Just for refernce.................Do you sell nitrogen??????????? Just kidding...........But some real good selling points for it...........

 

Lol, I just know a lot about it. I've done many speeches at my unverisity for it for a few classes.

It's really useful, so I figure... why not share?

 

I run mostly nitrogen in all my tires (and lungs)



"Dry air contains roughly (by volume) 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.039% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases."
Atmosphere of Earth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



I know Costco does Nitrogen tire fills
but honestly,
I can't see how it can make much difference on a street wheel/tire
since there is no way to purge the atmospheric air (oxygen and other gasses) out of the tire

spacecrafts, the military and nascar all use special wheels with two valves, one to fill and another to purge, that way they can flush most of the atmospheric gasses out.
this is not available for most street wheels

 

Ah, here is where you have to put on your thinking cap. Notice how I said that Nitrogen is a larger molecule? Well, for that exact reason, Nitrogen itself can be seperated from everything else (or most of it... which includes O2 and CO2).

There is a filtering process which takes place in all of the Costco compressors when it needs to run the motor to refill.

Here is a diagram showing how it's done (in simple terms):



It's actually much more complicated than the picture shown, but it works the same way.