jmlcolorado

Hey folks. I made the drive from Denver to Kansas city last week. I noticed about half way through the drive that my tires were rumbling and were louder then normal. I pulled over and checked them all. Found the drivers front tire was feathering on the inside of the tire. I have about 35k miles on these and just rotated them before i left for the trip. I typically do about 50/50 mix of city and highway driving in Denver. Im thinking maybe my shocks are bad. I bought the truck at 100k and now have 185k and have never done them before. They look factory to me.

I would love some input from you folks. The truck doesn't pull in either direction unless the road is sloped. Think i need shocks? I figured if it was an alignment issue i would see similar wear on the passenger side too but that tire wear is even across the entire tread.

If you think its shocks, what is a cheap shock i could have tossed on till im back in Denver and move up the the bilsteins? Ive got a 2" leveling kit on the front.


Anyoned know nut sizes? i didnt haul down my sockets so ill go pick some up so i can replace in the hotel parking lot.

jmlcolorado

Anyone have any input?

Nate-03 D

Is the tire pressure ok?

If you do decide to do shocks in the parking lot, be warned. The bolts like to snap. Especially when they are corroded.

I'd say if you are planning on tires soon, wait till you get home. Do the bilsteins once and be done with it.

Grit Dog

If it wore that much in only a few hundred miles then it's most likely an alignment issue, just happens to not be pulling sideways.
Inside egde of 1 tire and not the other could also mean bad ball joints wrt camber causing the tire to kick out at the bottom, increasing wear on the inside.
I see that kind of wear on both front tires on both of my trucks from alot of mountian driving down I70, but not just one tire.
If you have it aligned and they tell you teh ball joints are bad, look at the printout to see if it's just caster out of spec or camber as well. My 07 has had the caster out of tolerance for some time and it does not have bad tire wear. Camber is still ok though.

jmlcolorado

Good info Grit!
I was thinking ball joint too so when i pulled over i jacked up the truck and yanked and pulled and twisted and lifted the wheel and found no movement anywhere. Ive had some pretty freakin bad ball joints so im familiar with what to look for.

Ill have to swing by an alignment shop to see what their take is on it.
I thought it was a little odd that it wore that fast myself.
I thought since maybe since i was on the highway at 75-80, which is unusual for the truck, might have made it wear different then the typical stop and go with highway it usually sees.

jmlcolorado

So I got to thinking about possible alignment conditions that might cause this wear. Castor is pretty much not adjustable unless you have adjustable control arms which I don't. But that wouldn't really effect the wear would it? That's more for return to center on the wheel.
Then we have camber. Again, basically not adjustable on our solid axle right? Unless you install offset ball joints and in that case you could be far enough out of wack to cause an issue. Again, I'm on non offset ball joints.
Last, we have toe. Now if this is out of spec, you would certainly see abnormal wear. Specifically if that measurement is too far on the plus side. Then the inside of the tires would be fighting each other the whole time your moving straight. But I would figure I would get some sort of feedback in the wheel if that was the case. Maybe it's minimal enough to provide that feedback.
Then shocks. The more I drive, the more I think I feel excessive "bounce" in the front drivers side. But then again, my head might just be playing tricks on me
Anyways, just figure I'd voice that.
Let me know if my thinking is wrong.
Thanks folks.

jmlcolorado

Well i did the shocks. The passenger side lower bolt was a nightmare! Good thing i waited till i got the truck home! There is a clip washer type thing that holds the nut still while you crank the bolt out. Well that stripped. And i was cranking by hand! I ended up having to weld the nut to the axle since there was no way to hold it! Luckily my mig fit just barely between the springs just enough to get a tack on it!
Still have the tire wear and just last night the steering started getting hard. It will steer fine but doesn't like to return to center. Looks like a new set of ball joints is the deal. Im so tired of doing ball joints on these trucks! This is the 2nd cummins Ive had. The 1st i rebuilt the front end at least 4 times in the 3 years i owned it. This one i did a complete rebuild of everything on the front right after i bought it 2 years ago. Guess 80,000 miles isn't too bad.

OOPS

Just installed a set of these last week, greaseable and rebuildable, we will see how it goes.


http://www.dynatrac.com/products_pro...alljoints.html

jmlcolorado

Man! For the price, i would hope they would last. Keep us updated!