RJ....im glad I didn't let you buy my used KM2s off of me a couple of months ago. They are now shot at just under 40K miles. You would have been cussing me..................

I have been noticing a vibration in my front end the past week or so....and steadily getting worse. I went yesterday to Discount Tire to have them try a rebalance and rotation. They did and it didn't help much. My tires were wearing on the inner lugs and one in particular was about to have exposed belts.

So it became decision time for me quickly....because I have a couple more trips coming up. Im not gonna jack around with bad tires. So I went back to Discount Tire and ordered some Nitto Terra Grapplers in 285/75/17 size. They came in this morning and got em on. Wow, what a difference. They are so much smoother and my truck feels so light and quick in comparison.

Now I know why Brian wanted to go back to 265s!!!

Anyway...the "look" isn't as impressive as the KM2s, but the rest of the benefits seem to outweigh it.











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Robert, I know our trucks are different, but when my tires started wearing on the inner lugs, the front end was out of align. No pulling, no tracking problems, nothing, but it didn't take but a few hundred miles to cause considerable wear. I too use Discount Tire, but they could care less if your FE is out of alignment. It's probably worth the $$$ to have it checked.

 

The Nitto Terra Grapplers seem to be the hot choice these days. Good luck with them.
The way tire prices are now, it's no longer a decision to be made lightly!
I will be very interested to see how many miles we all get out of our new tires.......
my Pro Comps vs you, Brian and Rob with your Nitto TG's! And Mike with his new Toyo M/T's.
Especially since we are all now on 17" wheels.
So far, loving my Xtreme A/T's......... NO road noise and the deepest tread I've ever owned!

 

You, or anyone, know a good alighment shop for our CTD's?
I saved the proper alignment specs (from a knowledge member). They are apparently very different from the Service Manual!

RJ

 

Everyone say Happy Birthday to Justin!

 

Happy Bday Justin,

I had mine aligned at 4 Wheel parts. $130 ish.

I am not sure if it was a good alignment, Had a failing ball joint at the time. I need another one but it can wait.

 

I had mine aligned recently at the Goodyear place close to the house. I took the specs in to them and they tried to match them. Then ended up on the low end of the caster spec, because he was saying anytime they increased the caster it caused the camber to go way out.

It does drive better than before, the steering has a little bit of a lighter feel. But I also had an eccentric on the driver's lower control arm that had popped out of it's track. Didn't take long to practically destroy the outer edge of my passenger front.

Thanks for the B-day wishes!

 

Factory Specs or others. Have been convinced by knowledgeable members that factory specs are too broad??
But, I have never touched mine since new.
Kept getting warnings to watch 35" tires closely for a needed alignment but..... never had uneven wear or poor drive characteristics??
I feel a bit negligent but, if it ain't broke... why fix it?

Same with ball joints.... still fairly tight at 175,000! Seems unheard of!
Only reason I can see for my apparent good luck is possibly having installed DSS and 3rd Gen Track Bar... both in first 30,000 miles... as preventative MX.
Thoughts?

RJ

 

Happy Birthday Justin!!

Around 100k my front tires started to wear a little funny and I ended up having to replace bjs and driver side wheel bearing assembly. Robert you should definitely check alignment and said items because tires usually don't wear like that on their own.

 

Happy B-day Justin! (Was actually on my Blackberry Calender for some reason....might be from Plaxo i guess.....)

ALSO...at 190,000 k on my rig....ball joints were still good....no play at all...tires all wore perfect.....im shaking my head too.......i did Ryan Woods truck less than 100K at my shop in Gainesville that one time.....and his were bad!

 

I used the specs found on here. Factory specs were much broader than what I used, but there was still a pretty big range on the specs from here for caster. They advised going as high in the range as possible, but I ended up on the low end.

 

Charlie you are prob right. It has been a while since I had it aligned.

But I really think the majority of the problem was the design of the tires themselves. They are wide, with those great big lugs. I am not knocking the BFG KM2s by the way. They did great! But just don't plan on getting 50K out of them. As long as you only try to go 40K or less, they are fine.

My steering seems to be very straight at this time. I have a trip to Mississippi coming up and then later to Arkansas (towing) so maybe I can find some time to see what is happening with the new tires and go from there.

ahhhhh........time and money are such precious commodities!

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Happy Birthday Justin!!!!!!

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TexasCTD, were you coming up 35 this morning from downtown?

 

Just trying to copy me and my tires!!

Mine are doing great so far... I'm running the 285/65/18 I believe...
Towed a pretty good load this past weekend 150* asphalt temperature 99* ambient.. Got the drives to 155* and the steers to 130*.... Front trailer tires around 150* rears about 165*


Figure truck last time I weighed 8200#
Trailer I believe is 3500ish#
Tractor is 11,000# + loader and bucket prolly 2,000#ish + my newly homebuilt 8' box blade is right at 1000#s (1/2" plate gets heavy in a hurry!)= 14,000

So what's that almost 26000#s?? I wasn't hauling it on the big trailer, but my 14,000# cap trailer, so I kept the speeds under 60 to try and keep the tires cool... My experience shows the tires really heat up exponentially over 60mph...


Lets see where was I going with this??? Oh ya tires did fine!

Whoever said that you cant daily drive a ppumped 24v..... well they just need TWINS!! Ah ha I crack myself up!