Do your tires have flat spots, shoulder wear, punch wear, or show signs of feathering, cupping or scalloping? Tires can tell you a lot about the mechanical condition of your vehicle – if they’re inspected BEFORE they’re replaced and taken off. Catching irregular wear early can salvage the remaining tread on tires, preventing the need for frequent and costly tire replacement.
Stop the Insanity: Prevent Irregular Wear BEFORE Purchasing More Tires
Rarely are wear issues caused by tires themselves. Resolving tire problems at the source, with tire wear pattern analysis by a professional technician, is essential to safeguarding the life expectancy of tires. Pros in the know can help you identify and correct issues leading to excessive tire wear, including symptoms that point to issues with…
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- Alignment
Improper alignment is the leading cause of irregular tire wear. As many as half of vehicles and trailer traversing the roads are not properly aligned. This routine maintenance neglect may seem minor, until you consider you could be giving up one-third to one-half of tire life: 33-50% of the money you spent on those tires, going up in smoke. For those seeing irregular wear, that $200 alignment can save a pretty penny, paying for itself several time over. When was the last time your vehicle and hauler were aligned? A full vehicle alignment is recommended every 80,000-100,000 miles, or at least once per year, to prevent unnecessary and costly tire replacement (not to mention vehicle wear-and-tear, which we’ll discuss later).
- Alignment
- Inflation
Another common tire wear issue involves inflation pressure, which shows itself in cupping, scalloping, shoulder and center wear. This problem is more common in inside duals and trailer tires, which tend to be overlooked on pressure checks. This is an easy way to keep your tires in service longer, but sadly, the most overlooked. If you see these symptoms, don’t wait for total tire destruction. Check tire pressure first, then schedule an alignment.
- Other Issues
Haulers frequently traveling less than ideal road surfaces may also experience irregular or accelerated wear. Driving behavior such as a tendency to high-speed cornering and hauling loads with a high center of gravity can also affect tires, flattening or smoothing shoulders similar to wear patterns seen with misalignment and incorrect camber adjustment.
Still Think it’s Your Tires?
You may find that some brands of tires wear faster than others. This can be due to inadequate design/construction (aka: cheap tires), or tire/vehicle compatibility issues. A combination of factors, ranging from construction and tread design, to alignment, vehicle suspension, steering geometry, and work/road environment can all affect tire wear. However before you blame the tire, you must eliminate the truck.
A Symbiotic System
Tire wear can take a toll on other components, too. A symbiotic system, irregular tire wear and alignment issues on tow vehicles and trailers can each create stress and wear in the tires and drive components of the other. Since haulers and trailers aren’t mated for life, this can complicate the process of identifying issues with tire wear-and-tear, as can the inclination to frequently move tires/wheels to other positions on the vehicle.
Stop the insanity and expense of constantly replacing tires. Identify the root cause of irregular and excessive tire wear with the help of the professional automotive technicians at Ainsworth Trailer Repair today.
