Front Tire Wear

[hogbreth]

With almost 10,000 miles on my 3500 4X4 it was time to rotate the tires. I started to jack the front when I noticed that the front left tire had some fairly serious cupping on the inside of the tread. Checked the right and it was fine. Took it to the dealer and had them check the alignment. They just installed a new high tech alignment rack that uses camera's and I was the first truck they tested. Spent the entire time with the mechanic and when all was said and done the specs were OK. He called the Tech Center and they told him:
1. We know we have a tire wear problem with the new trucks.
2. We suggest you rotate tires every time you change oil.
3. Change the Camber and Toe to Zero from present spec and increase Caster slightly.
It drives OK now but won't know about tire wear for awhile. ANY coments?

[Smorey]

Hogbreth,

I'm curious if you ever did any front end leveling. Seems that a lot of these come off the assembly line out of wack. Mine is still setting low on the left front. I wonder if the added torsion stress on the left side could have caused the wear? I plan to have it all take care of soon.

[mcfly]

I have the same issue here, only the passenger side front was getting bad. I have had it in the shop 3 times now and all three time it has come back worse than when it went in. Right now when the truck is moving down the road in a straight line the steering wheel is 30 to 45 degrees to the left. If I straighten out the wheel I will almost make a left turn. WTF is wrong?

-Rick

[mark45678]

take it to someone that will do all 3 of the adjustments with out the story! 1st set you torsion bars to level the truck then get it done. if you still have the white plastic piece in the upper control arms there is a chance its not a 100% correct. you have to remove them to set caster and camber.

[odoh]

Mark ~ the urethane snubbers I see are yellow. Is that what you are referring too? If so, I question their value and place in the scheme of things. Why are they there in the first place? We take it that you indeed removed yours? ~ odoh

[ 04-29-2002: Message edited by: odoh ]</p>

[01_Duramax_Dually]

I have an 01 K3500 4x4 with 24.5K miles now. I rotated tires at 17K. I noticed a reasonable amount of cupping on the outside on both front tires. However I did not fret this. I had a 1996 K3500 4x4 and it did the same thing. At that time I took it to the dealer and went through the same exercise as you folks are embarking on. I must have went there 3-4 times. It yielded nothing to be honest. The tires still wore the same. I believe this is an inherant condition with 3500 4x4, especially if you you use the truck in 4x4 mode frequently. Now I do have to say I immediately brought this new truck into my garage and made sure the truck sat level by adjusting the torsion bars. By saying Level, not front to back, but from side to side. Mine was only off 1/8" and took about 1/2 a turn on the passenger side. I also keep the tire pressure up to par. I run mine with 60-65 in front and 70 in back
I would recommend tire rotation around 7500 miles. Do not chase your tails on this...it is not something you can fix. Just keep an eye on them. I figure if you can get 30K-35K miles on a set of hides, then you are doing just fine.

Regards

Jeff

[sooty]

odoh, Mark is not talking about the yellow snubbers on the bottom control arms , he talking about the white plastic seals that you must remove if you adjust the upper control arm castor and camber adjusts.
o1_Duramax, Tire psi! for best tire wear your tires should be

inflated Per the tire manufactures chart. It sounds like you are running to much psi in your tires if you are not running loaded most of the time. As for not being able to fix this problem, I always have the tow set to 0 as the manufacture sets it to high for good tire wear. At 0 tow you will not get as good drivablity as with the manf. setting but the tire wear is much improved. I usually get about 50000 miles on a set of good quality tires. As you know rubber compounding is not the same for all tires and the better rubber compound will result in a lot more miles on a set of tires. Also, the type of tire such as an all season or traction tire / a commercial highway tread will make a difference on tire mileage.

[volcano4x4]

Are your tires Load Range B or Range E?
I just returned from my trailer club outing in AZ and the 3500 Chevy trucks were shod with Load Range B and the 3500 GMC had Load Range E. Maybe this has a bearing on tire wear as one of the Chevy's was wearing uneven.

[hogbreth]

The 3500 4X4 is a GMC and it has load range E with the Goodyear AT tires. I leveled the truck when I first got it front and side to side. It took 5 turns on the driver side and 4 turns on the Pax side, then I took it down for the 1st alignment this all happened within 2000 miles. At 10,000 when I noticed the wear is when it went back to the dealer and up on the new rack.

[01_Duramax_Dually]

Sooty,
I agree with you, however for whatever reason when I talk to tire shops and having had 3 3500's the owner manuals inflate requirement is to soft and I have personally seen it wear tires out faster. For whatever reason, on K3500 4x4's, they operate and run better with higher pressure. 60 fronts, 70 rears. Now I do have a trailer attached to mine alot but I am not going to inflate or deflate based on pay load. Just keep it simple and do proper maintenance. Rotation is key to tire longevity....I figure I have about another 10K miles left in mine. I still think with all terrain tires, 30-40K miles would be time well served for a set of hides.....I have a friend who has a 3500 with the street tires and he will probably get 50K. But the compound and tread design are entirely different.

Regards

Jeff