Tire Truing/Shaving?

Anyone have any experience with tire truing/shaving? I got some BFG AT's off craigslist and had my friend pick them up for me. The guy told me they were 95% tread and great condition. Well they are 90% tread (not a big deal), but two of the tires are worn/cupped and causing vibrations. I'm tempted to get the two tires shaved by a somewhat local shop. They said they should be good once they shaved them, but it costs $110 for both tires. Anyone done this to larger more aggressive tread tires and had positive results?

 

never heard of shaving them... sounds like they would take tread off the tires to do that... just air them down a few lbs, and run them for a couple hundred miles to see if they start to wear even.... mine are giving me a small vibe in the wheel, but with a wider/more agressive AT i guess you can expect that.... shaving doesnt sound like a good idea, idk..

 

burn out, worked for my friend's 35's bfr a/ts

 

i agree with you, but its hard with the front tires lol...

 

Yeah they shave off the uneven part to make the tire flat again. You lose some tread but you save the tire. I think the low spot on mine is around 9-10/32 so I'd still have 60-70% tread.

Since mine are worn on the outside would I want more psi or less to help them out?

Sadly my 3.4 can't do that...

 

Worn on the outside means you want to run less psi

 

Ok good to know. I have someone who is willing to buy my set for what I paid, but I really like them and the wheels, so I'm contemplating keeping them. Might try the lower PSI for a week and see what happens. (probably not enough time, but we'll see)

 

Bump, anyone else have an opinion or experience with tire shaving? Really would like to keep the tires but they are a bit annoying at the moment.

 

try it and report back.

 

Only if you're too retarded to rotate your tires.

 

I am surprised that you found a shop that will shave them. The only talk I've ever heard about tire shaving is from old guys (like, 70 plus years old) Apparently, it used to be normal to have to true them by shaving them down. Since it was a common thing back in the day, and you are trying to get rid of cupping wear, rather than trying to make an egg shaped tire round again, I think it will turn out fine.

 

Worn on the outside would be under inflation. To correct, you'd want to raise the tire pressure and encourage them to wear the center of the tire down to match.

 

when i was working at a lift/truck accessories shop years ago, we would take a few of the F250s that were on 20" rims and bigger tires to get the tires shaved, can actually increase the life of the tire (provided you keep up on the tire pressure) since the tire is now "true"

but that was just what was reported back to us from the customers.

 

this, over airing would bald the center.

 

just rotate the front tires that are cupped to the rear of the vehicle

 

This will probably work also, and it's free.

I had some tires that were cupped a bit on my work truck from lack of rotation. I put them on the back and they smoothed out within a couple thousand miles.

 

I'm tempted, but I don't have that much cash to float around if they don't work. It will probably be this week if I do it.

I was surprised to, but the guy said anything 33" and under he can do. I told him they were BFG AT's and he said that's fine. Sounded like he knew exactly what he was doing.

That's what I thought as well. I have them at 45 PSI in the back right now to help with it.

That's what I've heard as well. I just don't want too much to be shaved off.

I do have the cupped tires in the back. The fronts I think have a very very minor cupping if not none, but the rear are a bit worse.

It would be a really annoying couple thousand miles if I went this route.



Here is the worst tire for reference.

 

That's really not that bad. I'd just throw them on make sure the pressure is good and call it a day.

 

It's not horrible of wear, but it's really annoying on the freeway. Around town I could care less, but I drive 15 minutes at least to work on the freeway and my 4runner is the primary trip vehicle. I may just do the rear tires and go from there.