Tire wear question

Hey everyone,

I noticed on my old set of tires, the outer tread (mainly the sharp, outermost parts of the tire) wore more than the rest of the tire. I chalked it up to positive camber and toe even though it was usually aligned OK. But I just got new tires (KO2) and had a good alignment (camber: 0.3, caster 4.0 and toe .06). I have JBA UCAs allowing for more caster and a 2" bilstein 6112 lift.

I noticed the front tires outer tread is wearing first on these new tires as well. I'm fresh off an alignment a month ago and have babied the truck. So I'm starting to think maybe the front outer treads on new tires do show wear first? Since the truck takes turns and puts a lot of pressure on the outer fronts.

Anyways, it's not concerning wear or anything, just something I noticed.

 

That usually signifies positive camber

\-/

Unless your commute involves lots of turns. Do you have any pics from the front?

 

no pics at the moment but the sharp edges of the lugs are just smoothing out a little. I think its normal to wear the front outer edges first from some of the google searches I've done. I do have positive camber... 0.3. But thats well within spec so combined with turning like you said, its kind of expected and I'd imagine the stock tires from the factory and factory alignment produce the same thing. I just never looked at my stock tires.

 

I don’t recall my stock tires wearing like that though, nor when I got larger KO2’s. Here is something I came across:

 

thanks. Its hard to explain and people probably don't notice. the edges just seem to show the wear first. Makes sense since they see all the action on turns. Unless you really looked at the edges you might not have noticed. They just aren't as "crisp" or sharp edged as the rears. Could just be my OCD. And also probably the slight positive camber. By that chart though, it would seem toe. Just had an alignment though and numbers were good.

 

Hm, I see. I suppose just continue driving it and monitoring. Which is what you’re already doing a great job on lol

 

I'm seeing the same thing and it's just about time to rotate the tires front to rear. With the suspension lift and stiffer springs/shocks I tend to take turns like a sports car because the truck can handle it. I think that wears the outside of the front tires faster. Camber and toe can cause the wear as well but if they were off by a lot, you would see some really fast wear occurring.

 

Yeah thats what I figured. Its noticeable when comparing the rear tires but nothing that looks out of the ordinary.

 

Up to a point it is normal for the outside edge of front tires to wear faster. Especially the right front. When cornering more vehicle weight is put on the outside edges of the front tires. The more aggressive you corner, the faster the wear. And since we can see better most people turn corners to the left more aggressively than to the right which puts more strain on the right front. This is why it is important to rotate so that all tires spend time on each corner and rotate in both directions equal amounts of time. You don't want to do just front to rear unless you have directional tires.