Steering Pull after Tire rotation. Any guesses?

Before tire rotation, (General Grabber ATX), steering was perfectly straight and alignment numbers are good.

Did a rotation. Fronts crossed to the rear and rears straight to the front.

No uneven wear pattern upon visual inspection.

After rotating, my steering pulls to the right when the steering wheel is perfectly straight.

My guess is that the tires with their previous positions, wore to those corresponding positions. Now that the tires are in a new position, they need have an adjusting period to wear for their current positions which is causing the pull.

Should I be concerned and take further action or should I just give it some time and mileage to have those tires wear in for their current post-rotation positions?
Thanks.

 

When was the last time you had an alignment?
Also do you know if the shop checked balance?

 

Yes give them some mileage to wear in.

EDIT:
If you rotated your tires yourself, give them some mileage to wear in.

If you took it to a shop, ask them to rectify your new concerns which may be from their work performed.

 

First things first, check psi.

 

Been about 8 months ago. Both done. Since than, steering tracked straight and no symptoms of an unbalanced tire. It’s been nearly all low stress highways miles since than

 

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PSI is all adjusted and good. Front 40 and rear 38. I’ve run psi’s with those numbers for even wear since I’ve gotten these tires awhile back ago

 

Did the rotation myself as I always do. I’m thinking it just needs to wear in for those new positions. I’m just hoping it’s not a tire defect from manufacturer.

 

This

 

Okay at this point I would probably look underneath the truck or anything obvious that would have to do with the direction that it's pulling, and then probably maybe test your lug nuts if some of them are tightened all the way and some are not

If all is well there then I would probably have to do an alignment who knows what the hell.

 

Normal, you're burning off the existing feathering, give it a few days.

 

Roger. Before rotation, the rear tires that were sent straight to the fronts, both had some feathering going on among the sipes. Hope it really is just all that… burning off the feathering

 

i doubt it's a defect. i don't know your tires from experience but I've run many different sets and have come to accept that i don't like rotating tires on my truck, because of the weirdness you describe while the tires reset old wear patterns. but in my experience the tires never fully reset... it seems i lose a big chunk of mileage at every rotation. so, for my truck at least, i don't rotate any longer and am much happier. i drive the crap out of my truck and run E range AT3's.

 

Thanks for the input. Might as well go for an alignment sometime soon, especially if it doesn’t go away

 

I can agree with the weirdness. I also lose some mpgs after rotation. Also there is definitely some “weirdness” in steering feel that the wear patterns create I’m guessing. People say it’s especially important to rotate AT and MT tires… I can agree to this but the “weird” symptoms sure are annoying after rotation

 

I cross to rear, rotate forward to front on customers trucks because of these complaints.

I always diagonal all my own and families vehicles. Especially with all terrains its the only way to stop the wear from worsening.

 

I do front crossed to the rear and rear sent straight to the front as well.
Maybe I’ll try the diagonal a try

 

UPDATE:


This morning, I swapped the front driver and passenger tires. (Previously had done a rearward cross where the rear tires went straight up to the front).

Interestingly enough, all steering pull to the right disappeared and the truck steers true and straight. I’m seriously wondering what factors could have cause a pull to the right with the previous rearward cross pattern I initially rotated with. Now, the rotation pattern is a Cross (X pattern) and the pull fixed itself.

 

Seem that the tires themselves needed to match the same sides for TwilightZone reasons...
Before:
FR---FL
RR---RL

Now:
RL---RR
FL---FR

 

As stated, the first thing you do is check the air pressure. Alignment is never the problem from a rotation so there is no point in checking that unless you seriously bent something jacking it up or you mistakenly turned your control arm cams.

The problem lies in the tires themselves. It is a condition call conicity or radial pull. When the tires are made if the belts are not perfectly centered, you can get a condition where the tire wants to go less than straight. If you get two of those tires and they are headed the same direction and made worse if that direction is right since road are crowned that way you can get a nasty pull. Typically cross rotating as you have done corrects the issue. If you notice the pull going the opposite way after rotating, you should contact the tire manufacturer for a warranty claim. Otherwise just do as you have done and live with it. It doesn't hurt or cause any kind of safety issue and won't cause premature tire wear. This usually happens with lower cost tires, but I have seen it with all of them.