Tires cupping

I had cupping on my tires, swapped out the factory billsteins and it fixed it.

 

Correct me if i'm wrong but would't you have to remove the tire from the rim to do that?

I'm pretty sure my tires are directional, not positive.

 

I doubt it. Cupped tires can't be balanced smoothly or wear back back evenly. My old Duratracs cupped so they couldn't be balanced after a number of road force balances. Moving the cupped tires to the back just caused my whole truck to shake. So then they replaced all 4 under warranty as a defect.

 

I'm getting some cupping too. When I replaced my LCA's, I noticed the rubber bushings at the bottom of my 5100's were quite worn out. I needed to get my truck back on the road and didn't replace them. In my case, this could be a contributing factor. Gonna look into replacing them.

 

So left front to right rear, and right front to left rear, the tires stay on the rim, but by switching the sides, you reverse the tread pattern rotation. This allows for more uniform wear.

 

Anybody out there had any trouble with odd tire wear on Left Front only. Original became cupped and vibrated. Replaced with BFG all terrain TA's, same problem, Replaced with multi-mile mud claws, again same problem. Now into second set of mud claws and problem persists. Had to replace due to ruining one tire and did not want to match new against 60% worn tires. Did rotate and balance several times same problem. Alignment is in specs and I have no lift kit so is stock height. I have also tried running air pressure in tires from stock recommended all the way to 65psi. Steers well and all tires wearing normal other than the cupping and ensuing vibration that follows it. Original tires were 6 ply all replacements have been 10ply. One other thing I've noticed is the truck is low in the rear and lower on the left than on the right as measured from bump stops to rear spring hangers. Tends to bottom hard on even really small bumps. It rides only about an inch off of the bump stops at all four corners and has been that way since new. Is this normal? It's a short bed so excess weight should not be a problem and the hard bed cover weighs less than 150lbs and other than the spare all I carry in back is a lightweight aluminum racing jack and a couple shovels and tow rope. I bought the truck new and have even changed from the mag wheels to steel ones. Only have about 66k on the clock now. I have ordered 5100s for the front and have a leaf helper kit for the rear but have not installed it yet. Any suggestions for what I can do or change to help this problem?

 

@Roadrunner TRD
One cupping tire suggests an issue with a bad component such as a bad shock, BJ, bushings, wheel bearing, etc. the leaning is normal since the trock has more weight on left side - driver, battery, steering, and gas tank. To equalize you can swap the front spring assemblies.
But, if truck is still within warranty, you may have a good claim for dealer to check suspension components; you may even get new tires out of it.

 

Right, but your changing the direction of the tire rotation. Which isn't a problem if your tires aernt directional, it would be if they are directional. Or am I wrong?

 

Correct!

Very few truck tires are directional, only winter tires tend to be directional for trucks.

Every tire sold on factory tacoma and tundra are non-directional. 95% of all terrains and mud tires are non-directional as well.

If you run your hand along the outside of the tire you'll feel harsh sharp ridges from feathering, even on good alignments, the reversing counters the feathering and quiets the tires over time.

 

Any detriment to the tire if you start doing this when they have 20,000 miles on them? Wear is even thusfar, rotated every 5,000 just front to back not criss cross.

 

Nope, I do it to customers trucks all the time, even if they have no history with me. I'd say the first day or so it's slightly louder but its beneficial. You'll notice the side edging wear down and smooth out over time.

Old school mechanics books used to encourage it until directional tires became more common place on cars.

 

I Disagree with cupping due to over inflation.