Understanding irregular tire wear

Understanding irregular tire wear

Every fleet tire manager has similar goals of maximizing tire removal mileage. The biggest issue is to reduce and minimize tire irregular wear. Tire tread irregular wear conditions will lead to premature tire removals and also reduced fuel economy. When tires are not wearing smoothly and evenly fuel economy will drop dramatically.

There are many reasons commercial truck tires may develop irregular wear. It may be just one reason or it can be a combination of many variables. Irregular wear patterns share some common factors.

When trying to understand the root cause of the irregular or uneven wear patterns, look for these common factors:
• Tire inflation pressure;
• Tire bead seating/assembly;
• Runout/balance;
• Worn or broken suspension components;
• Vehicle alignment; and
• Specific tire make/model.

Recommended tire inflation pressure is based on the worst case load that the vehicle and tire will experience. When inflation pressure is too high or too low for a specific load, the tire footprint will no longer be optimal, which can lead to shoulder cupping, fast shoulder wear and even fast center rib wear if the tire is significantly overinflated.

Did you know that we have fresh truck stories and equipment insight served up on our website every day? Click here to sign up for our newsletter to have the latest delivered straight to your inbox.

Irregular wear will certainly develop at an earlier mileage if a tire is not mounted uniformly. Tires should always be checked for concentric bead seating on both sides of the tire assembly by measuring the distance between the rim flange edge and the bead seating ring. If the distance between the rim flange edge and the bead seating ring varies by more than 2/32-in. on either side, the tire was improperly seated.

Both lateral and radial runout will also lead to irregular wear. The best way to check the tire assembly runout is to place a dial indicator near the center of the tread and spin the tire. The same exercise can be done on the tire sidewall. This will quickly identify tire “high spots.” A tire needs to be running “true” and uniformly during every tire revolution to ensure maximum tire mileage.

When troubleshooting, another important variable to consider is worn or broken suspensions, which wear over time as a result of normal vehicle operation. Steer tires may develop irregular wear if there are problems with steer axle components. Check for the following components as they may lead to steer tire wear: Worn kingpin; front suspension fasteners; weak or worn shock absorbers; tie rods; loose wheel bearings; improperly adjusted air springs; and worn steering component connections.

For drive or trailer axles, items to consider are shock absorbers, loose axle U-bolts, worn bushings and improperly functioning ride control systems.

Maintaining total vehicle alignment will play a helpful role in keeping tires running smoothly and evenly. A common steer axle alignment issue is “toe” out of spec. If there is fast outside shoulder wear on both steer tires, then that points to toe-in being outside of spec. The opposite is true for fast inside shoulder wear on both steer tires, which is a “toe-out” condition.

When tire irregular wear develops on tires from more than one axle, check and verify the total alignment of both tractor and trailer. The tractor alignment may be perfect, but if the trailer is tracking to the right or left, it leads to trailer tire irregular wear issues, as well as irregular wear on steer and/or drive tires.

The last major variable to check is if the correct tire design for the specific service vocation and wheel position was chosen. For instance, if a deep tread depth rib tire was chosen for a slow-wearing linehaul, coast-to-coast operation, it could cause shoulder step wear. A better choice would have been a slow wearing shallower tread depth design. Work closely with your tire professional to choose the proper tire design.

A great resource on troubleshooting tire irregular wear is the Maintenance & Technology Council (TMC) Recommended Practice 252, which covers step-by-step troubleshooting of just about every type of irregular condition that a fleet may encounter.

You May Also Like

FTR: Trailer orders reach highest point of 2023

Orders were at their highest level since December 2022.

trailers-generic

The latest data from FTR shows that October U.S. trailer net orders rose by more than 6,000 units month-over-month (about 21%) to nearly 34,400 units. Orders were down just over 21% year-over-year but were at their highest level since December 2022. Orders over the last 12 months totaled 294,000 units. Build improved 4% m/m in October but lagged net orders, so backlogs rose for only the second time in 2023. September had been the first month of the year to see an increase in backlogs, FTR noted.

So you want to write for Fleet Equipment?

Of course you do. As the premiere online publication for the heavy-duty truck market, charting the latest in trucking equipment, technology, and service trends, Fleet Equipment has a knack for digging up the stories behind the stories (while having a lot of fun along the way). Now you can be a part of it! But

Write for Fleet Equipment
Babcox Media mourns the passing of Tim Fritz, longtime editor and friend

Babcox Media Editor Tim Fritz passed away on Feb. 23 from a heart attack. He was 53 years old. Related Articles – Debating the merits of ethanol – Why isn’t a truck’s appearance part of the PM process? – Change is coming to U.S. energy policies Tim joined Babcox Media in 1990 and spent 31

Tim-Fritz-1400x700
What’s behind the slow adoption of FA-4 oil?

Introduced three years ago, the American Petroleum Institute (API)’s CK-4 and FA-4 oil categories were billed as the next generation of oil, improving on the engine protection and fuel economy benefits offered by previous engine oil categories.

Slow-Adoption-Oil-800x400
How will today’s ‘customer focus’ translate to tomorrow’s electric trucks?

Over the past three years, OEMs have invested heavily in driver-focused equipment benefits—from cozy creature comforts to uptime- and productivity-boosting technology. Today, significant R&D investment is going into the development of electric trucks—probing the possibilities of untested powertrains in hopes of producing a product that meets application needs.

Volvo-electric-truck-VNR-800x400

Other Posts

Eaton Cummins Endurant XD series transmission now available at Kenworth Mexico

The automated manual transmission is now available in Kenworth T680 and T880 trucks in Mexico and Latin America. 

Endurant-XD-1400
Taking the commercial driver’s license test

After struggling with shifting, the CDL test is ahead on this episode of the Fuel Efficiency Faceoff.

Fuel-Efficiency-faceoff-3
Mercedes-Benz delivers truck with 1,000-ton towing capacity to German customer

The maximum trailer load of this Arocs SLT 4463 AS 8×6 is 1,000 tons.

Mercedes-heavy-duty-global-1400
United Natural Foods to deploy eCascadia and VNR Electric trucks

UNFI will combine these trucks with refrigerated trailers cooled by Carrier’s all-electric Vector eCool TRU.

United-Natural-Foods-1400