I have noticed some unusual front tire wear on our 01 excursion 7.3L. It is a block type tread and the back of the block seems to be wearing down more then the front of the block. As you move your hand in a counter clockwise direction, your hand will drop as it goes from one block to the other. This wear seems to be across the full width of the tires, on both front ones. The rears seem to be flat going from block to block. Here are some picts (when I took the picts I had already rotated the tire so no the front one are on the back but on the same side of the rig).

here is the front tire with a block across the tread to show difference in hight between the tread blocks


here is the overall view of the front tire


here is a block across the rear tire tread


here is the view of the rear tire tread


I don't know if it is alignment of just the way it is going to wear but I need to hold off on an alignment until the my town goes through and graders for the first time this year to fill in the million of pot holes on my dirt road. Thanks.

 

That looks like the classic sign of ball joints going bad. I have the same issue on my '99 F250 SD. I'd check that out. If they don't have too much play, then I would get it in for an alignment ASAP.

 

I just replaced the drivers side, I think, last fall and the passenger side still feels nice and tight. Both sides wearing about the same.

 

That is called "feathering" and is due to mis-alignment, now the trick is to find out what is causing the alignment to be out. With M/T type tires it's very common, especially on oversize, to have issues. Definitely get the alignment checked and rotate more often.

 

Mine did that too. I took it to an alignment shop and was told I didn't need an alignment at all. I was advised to rotate the tires, but swap them side to side on the rear and things would even out. I was told the only issue was that I didn't rotate my tires often enough, but that the suspension on the truck was fine. So, I don't know if you rotate often or not, but you might try it. My tires, after about 3000+ miles are d*mned near evenly worn now. So, can't say the alignment shop knows what they are talking about, but it worked exactly as they said it would

 

That could be true Ace. We bought it last fall and the tires were practically new then. It probably has 8-10000 miles now. So I since I have the right front on the right rear and left front on the left rear, I should just swap the rears to opposite sides? Did the shop give a estimated number of miles for each rotation? 3000, 5000 or some other?

 

I too had the same issue, took it to the dealer and they said alignment was fine. But why would it constantly pull to the right? So I found a frame and alignment shop, he found the camber/caster was off, put in a different shim and no problems since. It's cheaper to have a reputable shop check it then it is to replace tires prematurely. I rotate every oil change now....anywhere from 5,000 to 7,500 depending on where or how hard I have been driving it. Will be getting 50,000 out of the TOYO M/T as long as I keep rotating. Also, don't think they should be rotated from side to side, always been told front to rear.

 

rotun, you're right about the front to back, however, my tires were badly worn. They were worse than the original posters tires. So, I was told if I rotate them, but then switch the rears they will wear back in to square, and they did. Also, it makes sense your camber/caster was off due to the lift. You can't lift a coil sprung, fixed control arm/radius arm vehicle without changing the caster.

So, going forward I'll rotate them front to back, but more often.

Wildstang, I was told that the tires I have need to be rotated more often than you might otherwise, and to rotate them every 3000 miles. My understanding is because I have "D" load range tires on a heavy truck. So, if it were "D" load range tires on a 1500 or something it'd probably be every 5000+ mile rotations, but on the Super Duty you tend to "need" rotations more often.

Again, what they advised worked. By the way, the shop was Les Schwab, which is a pretty big outfit and they certainly could have done an alignment and charged me appropriately but felt it was unneccessary.

 

Ok, I will leave them in the orientation they are now. I will try and monitor the wear so when the fronts and rears feel about the same or the fronts a little more then the rears, then rotate again.

 

The DR lift came with the cams, and was aligned post- lift, it was after driving with the lift for about 10000 miles it started to pull, he found the right side was out and replaced just that cam.

Did you keep the rears swapped after they squared out or just kept them on same side then rotate to front? Just curious in case I run into issues again.

+1 on the D range, E can go a little longer.

 

It's been about 3500 miles and I tell myself about everyday that I'm going to rotate them, but then it rains, or it's cold, or I'm lazy and don't...so whenever I do it I think I'm going to just rotate them to the front and see what happens. They are now very square.

 

If alignment checks out, and ball joints etc. are all good...

It may be normal.

Solution is to just rotate the tires.