Hey guys,

After selling my old BFG's the guy that bought them from me noticed that the outer lugs of the tires were worn really unevenly.

Every other lug is shorter than the one in front of it. It would go...thick, not as thick, thick, not as thick over the entire tread.

Would that be an alignment issue or something else? I'm going tomorrow to get my alignment checked but I was wondering if there was anything else I should think about when trying to figure out what is causing it.

I really wanna get this checked out A.S.A.P. so that it doesn't any uneven wear on my new meats. I've only had em on for about 100 miles so nothing bad could have happened yet.

If you guys know of anything else that might cause that let me know so I cna get it taken care of as soon as possible.

Thanks guys,

Fink

 

I had this problem, and mine was two-fold. I had a bad alignment (will never go to Sears again), and bad shocks.

If you're sure of the shocks, then it will be the alignment and vice versa.

And I would do it soon. It doesn't take long for permanent damage to set in.

 

That is generally an alignment issue. It is usually an incorrect toe adjustment that causes it. However, I have seen tire that have never been rotated do that as well. I aligned a tacoma that had the same problem. Had real bad wear on the insie edge of the tire. only had a cople of hundred miles on tires. I found the front toe was way off even though the truck drove straight down the road.

 

Alright cool...well I'm gonna go to Sears and have it checked. My buddy's good friend works there and does a good job so I'll have him do it and have him print out the spec sheet.

Keep the ideas comin, the shocks are brand new and it was on all 4 tires so I guess if one shock could cause a problem for all 4 tires than maybe I've got a bad shock.

Fink

 

That is called 'cupping.' It's usually caused by bad shocks, but can also be caused by worn steering components and/or bad alignment.

 

Almost all the used mud terrains Ive seen around here have had that issue. The front of the lug is thinner than the rear of the same lug. Even with good alignment and new shocks after they wear a little while, they tend not to wear flat. Ive just thought it was caused by cornering and not rotating the tires as often.

 

Yeah, had the same problem with my 87' when the shocks were shot.

Erich

 

Well if the shocks are brand new, then you may have already solved the problem. If you had the BFG's on old shocks, this would cause this problem. And, if you've changed treads and shocks, you could be just fine.'

And I hope you trust that guy at Sears. They royally dorked up my Durango. I didn't drive it (wife did), so I didn't realize it until the brand new Revo's were toast.

 

I got the shocks at the same time as I got the BFG's...they were part of the lift.

The only thing I've ever had done to my steering was I had a tie-rod replaced. The other one seemed fine.

I've had the shocks on for like 25k miles or so. Would it take more than one shock to cause the problem?

Fink

 

The cupping would be due to the shock on that wheel. If you have cupping on all wheels, I would hazard a guess that all the shocks are shot. What shocks are we talking about here? I've never been a fan of the shocks you get with lift kits, but those were always on Jeeps.

I think what happens is the wheel will actually pogo and this allows the tire to "skip" and wear uneven as you describe. You can see this in detail with a completely dead shock, as the wheel just bounces up and down like crazy. The same thing happens on a smaller scale.

 

They are OME shocks, only about 25k on em. Pretty sure that the uneven wear is on all of the tires.

Could it be that I had them aired up too high?

Fink

 

Here are some links. The link doesn't mention shocks, but I've always seen shocks be check item #1. But, OME are great shocks, and should not be dead after 25K.

http://www.kaltire.com/commercial/me...es/cupping.php

Goodyear (www.goodyeartires.com) also states that suspension components are a culprit. Also, from what I got with a Google search, some tires are more prone to cupping than others.

Oh, overinflation would not cause this. Overinflation would remove tread in the center of the tire, leaving only the sides w/ tread.

 

My Nittos are just as you described. I also have OME shocks and coils that have less than 20k on them. I was told that it is more of an alignment issue or from not rotating the tires often enough. On the next set, I plan on rotating every 3k instead of 5-6.

 

Hey I talked to Cory and he said he wasn't working tomorrow but he would be on Saturday. He said if you wanted to come in on Saturday he would check it out no prob.

 

sounds like a camber problem. Get a alighment and it should be fine

 

Anthony, that's too bad. I really don't want to wait until Saturday as I have heard it only takes a little bit of mileage to make these things permanately messed up. I'll just go up to the dealer tomorrow morning and see if they can do it...if not, I'll go to Big8 Tire on College. They've seemed to do me alright in the past.

I'm really hoping it's gonna be an easy alignment fix and be done with it.

Worst case scenario, alignment checks out fine...what do I do then? God would have one heck of a sense of humor to have all 4 of my new OME shocks go out after only like 30k of use. What would you guys suggest I do if the alignment doesn't seem to be the problem?

Thanks for all the help, I'll be doing research all night tonight to try and figure out the best thing to do. I may get a rental car if I can't get it figured out tomorrow...I really do NOT want to ruin these brand new kicka$$ tires.

Later,

Fink

 

x2 on the CUPPING OUT.

 

That's cool I understand however I would still recomend Sears (it wont be free because cory wont be there but there) however the other guy who does them is super Anal about stuff and will be sure to do it right and he can print off anything you would like. I think it's $60 something for the whole shabang. Give me a shout if you have any questions.

 

Well I got it aligned and we're back in business.

A while back I came down hard on a rock or something (I really don't remember) and punched a hole through my skidplate. Just past that hole is the adjustment for my toe. Well...it was WAY out of whack.

Here are the numbers...

BEFORE

Left Front:
Camber = 0.3
Caster = 2.5
Toe = -0.28

Right Front:
Camber = -0.3
Caster = 2.6
Toe = -0.41

Total Toe = -0.69
Steer Ahead = 0.07

AFTER

Left Front:
Camber = 0.3
Caster = 2.5
Toe = 0.11

Right Front:
Camber = 0.2
Caster = 2.5
Toe = 0.10

Total Toe = 0.20
Steer Ahead = 0.00

So now I'm tracking perfectly straight and my tires should wear just fine. A huge relief. I asked the tire guy and he said I've only put about 96 miles on the new tires before the alignment so it wouldn't even have affected them yet, whew.

So...moral of this story, 4x4Fink needs to get an alignment more often!

Fink

 

Change the oil every 3k along with tire rotation and then get an alignment at least once a year.

Lack of tire rotation will wear out a tire a lot quicker than it should especially if you leave one tire to suffer a bad alignment.