Alignment Or is this Normal
Thread Starter
|
Mountain Pass
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 178
Likes: 0
From: Franklin, WI
Alignment Or is this Normal
We had a loooooong winter in Big Whiskey and I left my manual hubs locked all winter for ease of engaging 4WD. I noticed severe tire wear on inside edges of both front tires.Is this a result of driving with hubs locked??? Whenever we got on just wet pavement (no snow) We disengaged the 4WD. I have an appointment for an alignment set for Monday.All feedback welcome ...Thanks
Posting Guru
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,296
Likes: 1
From: muskegon mi.
if it is anything bad the front end alinment will tell you dont give the shop any clues and if it is a big repair get a second oppion. I left my hubs locked from dec. till last of feb. no extra tire wear.
Senior User
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 440
Likes: 0
From: Montana
I live in an area of Montana that gets a lot if snow. I leave my hubs locked all winter for as long as I can remember. (and I'm pretty old--46) No unusual tire wear ever if your alignment and ball joints are good.
Budman
Budman
Elder User
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 726
Likes: 0
I never believed that tire rotation stuff completely, not that I don't rotate my tires...but it really depends on the type of driving and type of wear you're getting, I think. Tire rotation will never fix out-of-spec. alignment like so many dealers try to convince you it will (when you want them to take care of it before you take delivery of their vehicle).
I have had some slight wear on the '06, outside rib and inside rib (less than outside rib). The remainder of the tread seems quite flat. I think this is cornering wear. Dealer says toe-in is good.
I used to drive a delivery truck that I used strictly in the city, neighborhood type delivery, and I ran loaded quite heavy much of the time. That route was in an area that experienced heavy traffic during the day and there were few left-turn traffic signals. So I always tried to make my stops where I would not have to make left turns and wait for traffic alot. The alternative was right-hand turns.
But right turns on city streets with tight corners wears the left front tire much more than the right. Often it looked like "out-of-toe" wear, but only on one tire (LF). On that truck, tire rotation was a must to prevent premature replacement of only one tire.
But your wear, like others said, sounds like toe-out. One puzzling thing is you haven't complained of your steering feeling "fuzzy", heavy, imprecise, like you have two under-inflated front tires. That's how toe-out feels to me, but maybe yours wasn't that bad. Do rotate your tires after your alignment if you can or you may be in for some squirrley handling until the tread squares up again. I've even gone to the expense of re-mounting the front tires on the opposite side to accomplish this (had snow treads on the back).
Thread Starter
|
Mountain Pass
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 178
Likes: 0
From: Franklin, WI
Thank all for the replies. These tires are new with less than 5000 miles on them. I do have a small steering issue that has the symptoms of the "death wobble". This truck never had a steering stabilizer installed. I have one but have yet to install it. Hopefully it is a simple alignment fix and the stabilizer will take out some of the shimmy I expierience on bumpy roads.
