Cupping on newer truck and newer tires

When was the last time you got an aligntment? What were the camber and toe numbers?

 

My experience with bad tire wear was either bad balance or alignment. Also once the tire started wearing bad I could never get it back to good wear no matter what I did. so my best advice is good balance, tire pressure, alignment, and rotation every three thousand. Just run the ones you have tell their shit.

Wish you luck!

 

Well the guy at les swab said cupping. And the guy at discount tire said to just rotate every 3-4k.

Its basically when you rub your had across the tire front to back it grabs your hand in only one direction.

Rear to front is smooth and front to back it grabs your hand on the front edges of the tread. But it is the same for the full width of the tire.

I mean I always check my tires every month or two and rub them across the tread so i know what it fells like for bad alignment. But have never experienced it across the whole width.

So I guess I just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this? And if better aftermarket shocks could help with the problem?

 

I mean its basically a brand new truck? Shouldn't need an alignment til about 50-60K?

The truck only has 17,000 miles on it.

I was just thinking with it being a sport and the heavier 10 ply tires maybe the stock shocks are just not good enough?

 

Just Cuz its new don't mean much buddy mine had 10,000 on it and was wear outer edge. Most tire shops will check it for free its always a good idea!
Will also give you a good base to start trouble shoot off of.

 

Too high of pressure and you'll get center wear. Too low and you get wear on the edges.

Cupping is from the tire going up and down and skipping. If your shocks are real bad they can cause this especially on rough roads. If your tires are out of balance it skips down the road and cups or scallops.

Feathering is your tire dragging down the road, when your toe is out of spec. I couldn't remember the number but one site said this, "It only takes a 1/8 inch of toe misalignment to drag the front tires sideways the equivalent of 28 feet for every mile traveled"

Here's a good link.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/car...r-tires-can-tell-you-about-your-car-8#slide-4


Suppose you could also have problems with ball joint or wheel bearing etc but I'd suspect you'd have noticed that.

 

Alignment can drift with milage. Subaru in fact recommends an alignment every 12k.

 

Thanks

 

X2 ---^ thanks

 

Thanks for the link.

Here's is what I got. I guess I just have never had this happen to tires before.

Would have been nice to have a tire guy know what the hell they are talking about? Oh well i guess its just a job for them to pay the bills?



Heel-Toe
It Looks Like: Feathering, only the ramps run front-to-back along the tire rather than side-to-side. The leading edge of the tread blocks will be worn smooth while the trailing edge will be sharp.

The Diagnosis: "[It's] definitely one of the most common conditions we see," Rogers says. "Because it's so common, a lot of people think it's normal." Heel-toe wear is typically a symptom of insufficient tire rotation intervals. So check your car's maintenance schedule and make sure you keep up. Misalignment or worn or damaged suspension bushings, ball joints, and wheel bearings can also cause heel-toe wear.

 

My duratracs have cupped since new, before lift, after lift, and with at least 5 alignments, nature of the beast, shocks are fine, it's how these trucks wear tires, my stock dunflops did the same, just more noticeable on larger tread blocks. Your over thinking it, rotate before 5000mi and you will avoid some serious noise

 

I vote toe being out. I've had 2 of these trucks, 1 lifted 1 not, 1 with e load 33" DTs 1 with 30" GYSAs, neither were bashed offroad enough for toe to be out that often. Neither held toe for shit. Anytime I ever noticed tire wear it was on drivers front and toe was out every time. Multi-year alignments are the only way to go so you can get free ones every 6 months to stay on top of it.

 

Rotate your tires more often. We would see this a lot on commercial trucks' drive tires. The front edge wears from torque applied during acceleration. We never rotated the tires so you would get the sawtooth effect. This is also likely a function of your rapid acceleration habits.

 

The rears (power wheels) are perfect. Its only on the front.

I am going to say its a combo of heavy braking and not rotating enough.

So my solution will be to rotate more and keep braking hard.

 

The effect is the same under braking in the front, as you can see.

You could learn to drive better too, that might help.

 

I've been fighting the same issue for a couple years now with my 2007. It is very apparent on more aggressive tires but the stock tires seem to wear better (probably due to being a more on-road tread pattern). My alignment is good, pressures were good, shocks were new 5100's, new coils, new leaf packs and I could not eliminate the cupping. I was rotating my tires front to back every 5,000 miles and it was not enough to eliminate the issue. I finally went on the tire manufacturer's website for the tires (they were Cooper AT3's) and saw that they recommended rotating the back tires straight forward and criss crossing the fronts. I changed to that method of tire rotation, stuck to 5,000 mile intervals and it seems like the tires even out by the time they are rotated again. I know that didn't solve my issue but it does at least keep my tires wearing evenly. If you let the cupping go too far, they will start vibrating the truck at slower speeds.

 

It doesn't sound like cupping anymore now that he has further explained what it is. Feathering from a toe misadjustment is the best bet. Keep your pressures correct and rotate the tires like Pugga said towards the end of his post. Backs straight forward and fronts to the rear on opposite sides. That is a general rule for rwd.

 

A trailer is pulled ?
how often and what's the tongue weight ?

Just sayin'
'cause if the tongue weight squats the rear
then that temporarily changes the toe setting when the trailer is being towed.
This in effect, causes the toe setting to become variable. (out of spec)

Your tire pressure is set too high when towing.
I normally run 34 psi up front, 32psi rear.
If I'm pulling muh trailer with a loaded bed...
the rear tires get bumped up to 34 psi. (hwy duty)

Rear tire pressure will not compensate for weight distribution.
and if the springs are too soft... you'll have too much squat at the rear.
You may need stiffer rear springs or maybe add overloads to compensate.

It is important to try and keep the vehicle level (F to R)
when towing.

toe (as stated prior ^) is most culprit to tire feathering.

Look thru this link... and tell us what you see.

http://www.aa1car.com/library/tire_wear.htm

 

Now correct me if I'm wrong but I'm almost positive toe should stay the same through the range of suspension travel, except perhaps extreme angles. Otherwise you'd end up with bumpsteer.