Cupping on Duratracs

I put a set of Duratracs on my taco around 30k ago. I got a steal on two slightly used ones, and then bought two new. When rotating, I always made sure to keep the new/used tires as a pair in the front or the back for differential wear purposes. At around 70k, I replaced my suspension since it was shot. I believe this caused some cupping on the used tires. I recently had new wheels put on and the shop put one used tire in the front and one in the back. Seeing the tires side-by-side with the newer ones, you can see the wear on every other tread block. If I throw both used tires on the back, with my new suspension, will they eventually wear even again or is it too late to save them?

Cupped:


Proper wear:

Rear (wear on driver side):

 

The tires will probably never completely go back to even wear but you can help get a little better wear balance. It looks like heel toe wear which happens when a tire is rotating in the same direction for a extended period of time. You should definitely get them on the same axle and then you need to get them traveling in the opposite direction of the scrubbing.

How heel toe wear happens. The lug hits the ground and then scrubs the length of the element leaving the leading end higher than the trailing. So you will want to put it on the vehicle so that the shallower side of the lug hits the ground first.

Hope that helps!

 

2 of my 5 Duratracs are cupping, I do 5 tire rotations every 5k.

You’ve investigated the “why” more than me, but at 30k on them, 3 look like I’d expect and 2 look cupped.

Doesn’t bother me but will not purchase again.

 

Last bit here is super helpful. I’m thinking front driver to front passenger, and moving the rear driver up to front driver. Just based on the visual wear does that look right to you?

 

They cupped on my parents wrangler too, but they were so good in the snow (VT) that I got them for when I moved to UT as well. I’m thinking I want to jump to 35x10r17s after this and get the Kenda Klever R/Ts. If not it will be 285/75r16 KO2s.

 

Yes that looks correct base on the pictures. If the dark areas are the low points.

 

They are good in the snow. I went the Duratrac route because I wanted a 265/75/16 in a c load.

As good as they are in the winter, they couldn’t keep me out of a ditch last year! Operator error but I’m blaming them!

My next set will be Michelin ATs in e load.

 

I’d say it’s probably too late to save them. Once they start there is no going back.

Make sure you are rotating every 5k. On my last set of E rated I did every 10k and they were slightly cupped out at 93k. Could’ve gotten over 100k if I just rotated every 5k but I was doing 10k oil changes at that time and was lazy.

On my current set I’m at 50k and they’re smooth as butter still. Make sure you’re doing criss cross rotations not just front to back.

 

That's crazy good life, I should have rotated more frequently for sure and will on my next set. I was rotating in the style below. Do you rotate in an X pattern? I don't have the tires taken off the wheels for this, just switch positions on the vehicle.

 

I do the same pattern as shown.

 

@Pete_Patter I rotated the tires last night (luckily just before we got a snowstorm) and reversing the direction helped so much with the noise. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

What tire pressure are you running? Just based off the pictures of how the dust is on the tires, it looks like the rears may be high and the front left looks a little high also, the front right is hard to tell, but also looks slightly high. I found that 34 in the front and 28-30 in the rear (unloaded) was best on my Duratracs before I replaced them. I mostly rotated front to rear on the same side and whenever I had time I would rotate in an X pattern. I didn't have that type of feathering until the tires were close to their end of life, which was about 4/32" for me since winter was around the corner.

Cupping like this can also be caused by bad shocks constantly loading and unloading ever so slightly causing the tire to just barely unload just enough to cause certain areas to scrub slightly. So it could have been from your previous suspension that was shot since it is both inner and outer tread blocks doing this. If it where only the inner or the outer, that would indicate alignment issues.