How to Troubleshoot Truck Tire Wear
- 1). Check your tires to examine the exact type of tire wear. Tire wear comes in four basic varieties: feathering, edge wear, center wear and scalloping. Feathering happens when the tire drags sideways on the road, and it differs from edge wear because it transitions smoothly from one side of the tread to the other. Edge and center wear exhibit very distinct patterns around the circumference of the tire, while scalloping manifests as distinct wear lines or "cups" that cross the tread from side to side.
- 2). Have your drive axle alignment checked. While this may seem extreme as a first step, the fact is that drive axles generally go out of alignment well before steer axles or steering components. Drive axle misalignment may manifest as feathering, single-edge wear or excessive wear on one or both of the steer tires or any of the drive tires, depending on the type and degree of axle misalignment. Having axle alignment checked is pretty cheap compared to replacing or re-aligning other components that were in line in the first place.
- 3). Test your tire inflation pressure. Low air pressures will allow the edges of the tires to come into contact with the road before the center, resulting in excess wear on the tire edges with very little in the center. This "cupping" effect changes in severity depending upon the load and location of the tire. Trailer tires will often cup more if run at high speeds under very light loads; loose or worn wheel bearings exacerbate cupping just like they will almost any other kind of wear.
- 4). Check for edge wear or feathering on the steer tires. An axle's toe-in or toe-out refers to the angle and direction that the tires point relative to each other; toe-in means they point toward each other, toe-out means they point away. Toe angle on the steering axle changes with suspension compression, which means that you should always have toe angles set when carrying a full load with the fifth-wheel set where you'd typically have it. Outside edge wear or feathering that begins on the outer edge indicates excessive toe-in, while inner edge wear or feathering indicates a toe-out condition.
- 5). Compare the left and right steer tires for "crown wear." Most roads aren't flat; they actually slope up to a "crown" in the center and downward at the edges. Crowning a road does a great job of facilitating drainage, but it also means that vehicles in the right lane will exhibit some natural pull to the right. To compensate, manufacturers will almost always set the truck up with a slight left-hand bias. This puts a lot of strain on the right-hand steer tire, generally causing the outside edge to wear faster than the inside.
Source...