I have a 97 F-250, 4 wheel dr. with a 460 and 16 inch stock tires. Ijust bought a whole set of brand new tires, and the fronts look choppey, like if you run your hand over them, there kinda sharper in some places of the threads. What would cause this?........Thanks

 

The chopping comes from a lack of rotating the tires in an X pattern to, if you will, walk the lugs on the tire the other direction. By X rotating the tire you are insuring even wear. As UTfball said "pics would help".

It is a good idea if want to acheive maximum life from your tires to rotate and balance on a regular basis (every 3k-5k) and keep you air pressure checked weekly.

 

My tow rig is a Dually and rotating tires is out of the question. Steer tires last well over 40K miles and never see a rotation. Plus rotating steel inner rears and outer Alcoas is tough to do, and the cost outweighs the benifits of remounting.
Anyways, tires that scallop are due to either scrubbing from a lack of proper alignment.
Tires that are "cupping" start of with light feathered edges and turn into large voids or waves. This is a result of a poor damper.
Check the shocks for wear, and have the alignment checked before it wears out the new tires.

 

On NEW tires? Pics please......

 

About them tires choppey...sorry didnt reply sooner....but someone apparently banned me....hmmmm.....but anyways...too get the story straight....they were not on new tires....I put new tires on the truck, and then they chopped...(thats probly the guy who banned me, when he said...ON NEW TIRES....but anyways...new tires were fine...after I put about 3000 on them they chopped. I did take the one guys suggestion too change the front shocks and I just did 2 days ago. Ill see if they straighten out. And I did have a fulll 4 wheel alignment just after I put the tires on because I changed the front springs.
And too the guy who replied about the duallies and rotating....I hear ya 100%. I never rotated tires in my life. Dont belieive in it unless you have a problem with one of your tires going bald for a specific problem and just wanna save money on buying that one tire.
But anyways I have a racecar also that is tubbed. I have 31x18.5x15 in the back, and 165x80x15 skinneys in the front. Thing goes down the track straight as an arrow. I would like too see rotating tires guy rotate the tires on that.
But anyways someone must of got upset.....and too all you other guys who responded.....Thanks a Million......Ill let you know what happens in a couple days if it got better or worse......but maybe that shock situation....never thought about....seems too ride a little better...(being a 3/4 ton...feeling every crack in the road).....but thanks guys

 

You dont believe in rotating tires? On a vehicle with 4 tires that are the same size, you can can increase the use of your tires by alot! You can always keep the bit better treaded tires on the back and keep getting maximum traction out of your set of tires.

Ive seen guys not rotate their tires before, (tires on a racecar are a little different!) and then they wonder why then get very low miles outta them!

I always rotated tires from front to back, only when needed in an X pattern. Some guys wont have em any other way then the X and thats ok , but from all my experience there was no difference between a front to back rotate, and a x rotate.

 

Ive never heard of that before Ben. (Not saying just because ive never heard of it it cant happen though) I have x rotated radials for guys that wanted them like that, and never seen a tire separate due to the x rotation.

Through all my time as a tire guy, I never ran into that, and the guy that taught me (had over 30 years of experience in the tire game) never once told me about it.

Interested to hear what others have to say about it.

 

Front to back only used to be the way with radials. Now unless you have unidirectional tires, a cross pattern is recommended.

 

Ill be honest with ya, I havent had to rotate too many sets of bias tires at all. Whenever we got bias ply tires in(for a vehicle) it was either for a flat repair, or to get a new skin. (or the tire was alot larger, on something that didnt need to get rotated.

We used to x rotate drive tires for one particular truck driver, he claimed that he gained alot more use from the tires that way!

The way a radial is designed I cant see how it would hurt to x rotate though.

 

Thats very interesting man, thanks for sharing that, ya got me curious now, specially since i havent heard of it!

 

UT - The problems you are talking about was with the OLD steel belted radials of the 70s & 80s. Modern radials have aramid, kevlar or whatever belts. If you rotate your tires every 5000 miles or so, you are better to X them. If you wait until 10,000 miles, not so much.

 

Sorry too get you guys going about rotating tires, but all sounds interesting though. I know everyone is looking too save a buck or two.....but is it worth it for cool. Trucks were made too spend money on. If your looking for tire life and m.p.g......buy a chevy cobalt. I do have too say I agree with 75F350 though, the dually dude. Duallies are serious trucks, and how do you rotate them things. Hes got a point. I just do too many burnouts, and my backs are bald and my fronts are choppy. So i am screwed either way...ill just keep buying tires.

 

Duallies are easy to rotate. Front to rear inside, rear inside to rear outside, and rear outside to front, thats the standard way of rotating them!

Theres a whole lot of difference in comparing tire life to mpg too! I mean if you can get 50k out of your tires instead of 40k out of them just by rotating, why wouldnt you?

(Kinda like saying if you could get an extra 10 horsepower out of your truck by using one brand of gas over another, why wouldnt ya?!)

 

While 6 wheel and even 7 wheel rotations are common, 7 being the easiest since it only requires on wheel off of the ground at any given time. (in case someone at home is rotating them) Many dually trucks have only 4 aluminum wheels. This would mean that an inside rear wheel (steel) would then go on the front, and a front wheel would have to be flipped around and used as an outer rear wheel. I can tell you with 99.9% certainty that I am did not spend the bucks on Alcoa's to hide one in the rear, and to install a steel wheel up front. I will not turn one backwards, and ruin it. Just not gonna happen.
While some rotations can be a snap, I am not making that arguement, just saying that rotations are not an option. In my case, this is not an option.
I do take care of my tires and they last quite a long time.
As far as cost effectiveness, it would cost a small fortune to re-mount tires just to rotate them. The benifits in my case do not outweigh the effort.
Rotating is not a cost effective solution for me.

 

Yeah i can see in your case how it wouldnt be an option. Ive never seen a dually, that I have changed tires on, that has had only 4 aluminum wheels. The rims have been the same so the rotate would work. Now I dont wanna generalize, but Im pretty sure most dually's have rims that can be swapped from front to back.

I can see why you wouldnt want to ruin the alcoa's, those are very nice rims (always loved alcoas on a big rig!!)

I never used to be into rotating tires either, till i worked at a tire shop and seen just how much it helps with longevity of the tire. You dont have to believe me, but try it sometime on a vehicle (doesnt have to be a dually!) and you may be surprised!