Hey all,

So the stock HD3's are choppy as heck on the steer axle (what a surprise). The drive axle tires look great and are wearing evenly. I do local hotshot moving loads around towing anywhere from 15k-30k daily. I'm concerned about the safety factor when my steer tires look like this (picture attached). I'm thinking of just replacing the two on the front with some kind of cheapies until the rears wear down more at which point I'll drop the cash and get 6 new ones all around. In the meantime and per the picture, do you guys think I can run these safely to get more life out of them or should I put some "cheapies" on and if so, which ones would you recommend? I currently have 32k miles and will probably see 20-30k more miles out of the rears is my guess. cheers.

 

Friend of mine has fronts that look just like that on his 22 F-450. Mine have the shoulders scrubbed, but center is much more even than that. I put new shocks on shortly after the tires were put on and I suggested he might want to do the same. He confirmed the new shocks took the hopping feeling out of the front end he didn't realize he had. So whatever you decide for tires I recommend at least checking your shocks or replacing them at the same time. The factory ones are not great.

 

get a correct steer tire and problems will go away.

As long as there is 4/32 on the steer tires they are within DOT guidlines.

Try these. Wearing great.

 

Mine looked similar @ 35K, swapped out for a set of Michelin Agilis with Centermatics, expensive tires, people are having good luck with Roadmasters. If your hot shooting and going thru DOT inspections, when a inspector sees those tires just gives him an excuse to look deeper into your inspection.

 

won't make a damn, if the loser is gonna give you a ticket, then he will anyways. That would not be my reason to replace tires.

I run Contenintal hs3 which is a steer tire. I got ford warranty to put them on for free last November at 9k miles. 24k on the truck now and they are straight. Most all heavy hauling.
I don't do hot shot, mine is mostly all backroads/farm road driving which is uneven. I rotate the frontd side to side every 7500 miles.

 

looks like feathering to me. check your toe angle.

 

We run the Cooper Roadmaster RM170, same as pictured, on our F450 & F550’s, hotshot use. Have a set with 40k, still wearing well.

 

It's just what these garbage tires do. Mine were shaped like eggs on a balancer. Replaced all 6 with good tires.

 

The Conti's wear like that because they are Traction tires on a steer position on a truck with a 45* turning angle, yeah, they ARE going to scrub like that and are not meant to be scrubbed. You will find the same wear pattern on all F-450 trucks with tractions on the steer. It's not an alignment or shock issue. When turning tight the outer outside side, inner of the opposite side will rub sideways on the pavement and because its broken up in lugs, some actually will tear the lug off if going fast enough. Keep in mind there is at least 5300 pounds on these tires. I have Roadmaster 170+ on my front now and there are times taking a run where I can hear the tires scrubbing, and have since slowed it down a bit so not to wear the tires out too quickly.

There are several decent steer tires out there, the Roadmaster tires are the least expensive quality ones I have found for 19.5" tires. They are half the price of the Conti,

 

Thanks for all the input guys. I figure I might as well try to get a few more miles out of these by swapping them with the outer rears (though I am worried these are so drastic from the inner rears that I'll have uneven weight distribution and traction on them in the back), then look into the roadmasters as suggested.

 

Why ruin your outer rears? Then you WILL have 6 tires to replace, because your rears should be matched in pairs with even wear.

Why not just replace the 2 front tires right now, and enjoy the drivability benefits of a steer tire on the steer axle (instead of a drive tire on the steer axle), and then leave the rear dually pairs which haven't given you an problems, and which are wearing evenly, and which have many thousands of miles of use remaining... alone... like the Ford Owner's manual suggests?

 

On my 2011 450 Cab and chassis I went through steer tires long before the drives. I was ok with that because it broke up the hit of buying 6 tires all together. I plan on doing that on my ‘22 now as well. Although I have one tire on the steer axle that has 25k less on it because of a semi truck hitting me and peeling the tread right off.

 

I agree. I don't know why, but my HD3's are doing okay on the front of mine. Yes, they show some uneven wear. But honestly, that is very common on duallies. My truck tracks straight, and runs smooth at all speeds. Incidentally, while I agree a solid shoulder tire is way more appropriate on a steer axle with 19.5's, I believe my HD3's have both steer and drive tire icons on them.

 

zoom in on the pic of the tires and you will see the roadmasters are doing pretty good.
I kept my original steer tires in the back yard as spares should I need one. I think I will sell them now or try. I have over 25K on the roadmasters now as steer tires with one rotation side to side.

The rears, original tires from when I bought the truck, are doing fine, even with a bunch of towing.

 

Good point, I need to measure tread depth on the drives. I’ve been wanting to go bigger on all 6 for a while in hopes of a little more comfortable ride but still not sure that’s even possible. My thought process was get as much out of these as possible before upsizing BUT that’s thinking the drives will need replacing around 60k which may not be the case from your question. This is my first dual truck and I’m really not sure what to expect for mileage out of the drives.