Uneven Tire Wear - Help

I have a set of Cooper S/T Maxx in 255/85/16. I have had those on since I installed the lift at around 15k miles, and now I have 35k miles.

I've gotten alignment three times in 2 years. First time was after getting the lift and tires installed. Second time was after it was thrown out of whack after off roading. This was done the very next day. Third time was this morning...

I've also rotated my tires every 5k miles. Once I went a little longer and did it at about 5.5k miles.

Well, I went to Discount yesterday to get my tires rotated and they told me that the inner portion of my driver's side tire is 3/32" and that they couldn't rotate them, and recommended that I buy two new tires for the front.
The last time I rotated them was 5k miles ago at the end of February, and the front tires showed a little bit of uneven wear (not the same type of inner wear, but more like uneven ridges). I was told this was due to them being on the front with the extra weight. The rear tires that went on the front were perfectly fine.

Fast forward 4 months and my front tire is almost to the wear indicator on the inner side.





Here's the kicker.. I took it to get alignment this morning, and the driver's side wasn't even that bad. The passenger side was worse, but the tire wear is not that bad on that side. There's slightly more inner wear, but nothing like the driver's side.



So now I need two new tires at 20k miles in.

Any ideas on what could have caused this? And how to fix it so this doesn't happen with new tires.

The alignment guy didn't seem to think that could have been cause in 5k miles.

 

Were they road force balanced when first installed? I had uneven wear on one of mine. That tire had 8.75oz. of weights on a factory wheel. I never have been Offroad with them. The wear began showing in 100 miles on the outside edges in the rear. Only 90% of the edges were like that. I took it to DT and and the road forced balanced/ wheel matched them. They were able to drop down to 6.5oz on that tire. I made the order a new tire since I only had 100+ miles on them. The new tire was installed and only used 2.75oz. Tire wear is even all around now. I run 35psi front and 33psi rear. This is on a 235/85/16 Cooper ST Maxx.

 

The first time they were balanced, no. I also got them balanced during the last rotation at DT, but it was the regular $40 one, so I doubt it. Not sure if that's standard or I have to ask for it.

 

Road force/ wheel match lifetime was $120.

 

Then they weren't road force balanced. Do you have them at 35 and 33 psi when cold? Mine are at 36.

 

Yes when cold

 

I didn't think balancing could have an affect on tire wear like that. I figure it was all due to alignment.

 

I see you had lots of negative toe. Negative toe makes your tires go like this looking down from the top of the truck \--/. Toe never causes a pull and will always straighten out, your tires always pointing out most likely made the inners wear quite fast. Saw a sienna come in yesterday with worse numbers than yours for toe, all the tires where on CORDS at the inner shoulder! No bueno.


Balance issues would be something such as choppiness of the tires shoulders, feathering of the edges, or cupping which would be from intense up and down movements (such as bad shocks) as you drive down the road, kinda looks like scoops and bumps out of the tire.

 

The wear looks like too much negative camber. That's how they wear on lowered cars, as the suspension compresses/car gets lower you get negative camber.

Although I hate when I can notice any positive camber (looks wise), for the front, I was told on trucks it's better to have slightly positive camber than slightly negative.

When you get unever wear/lumps, as in evey other lug or stud on the tread is higher than the other, that's usually an indication of bad shocks.

 

It cant be camber, as OP said the drivers has more wear yet is was barely off from correct, therefore the toe being so far negative must have caused it.

 

I do have that as well.. you can kinda see it in the second picture. I have OME nitrochargers that have been in the truck since the tires were installed. I would hate for them to be the cause of that...

 

Nah those shocks are mint, here this will help you understand some stuff better regarding tire BS. Bad shocks actually causes the scooped looking picture in the middle right of the chart i posted. You can also see the middle one being your feathered wear from too much toe out.

 

Yeah your truck is too knew to have bad shocks. Adjustable damper shocks adjusted way tonlight for the vehicle could also cause the lumps long term. I agree with murderedtaco, looking at your alignment results it must be from out of whack toe. I've never had toe that far out on any of my cars, not driven like that for a while anyway. When you get the lumps from bad shocks it'll be both on the inner & outer tread mostly. We used to get a lot of cars coming in the shop for this.

 

What would cause the toe to get out of alignment like that? Last time I got alignment was last September after going off roading and the steering wheel was slightly turned.
I haven't hit any major potholes or done anything crazy.
Maybe the alignment shop didn't tighten it down?

 

I'm not sure exactly but I don't think it's from being left loose. But of course bending something can cause it as well as slop in the steering. I only take my truck out to the desert & run local fire roads, it happens to me too but I doubt I have bent anything. It never happened to me when I had a lowered car.

I have to take back what I said about not driving long with my toe out of whack that long. I just got an alignment a couple of weeks ago & my toe was much worse than yours. But even though, I did not have tire wear like you did. -1.00 & -.084

I haven't got it aligned in years cause my coilovers & upper ball joints were shot so I didn't care. Finally this month I replaced coilovers, UCAs/uniballs, & tires.

1st gens are known for having sloppy steering rack bushings. I replaced mine with polyurethane bushings as well as the sway bar when the truck only had 40K mi on it, made a huge difference. I'm about to replace them again as that was well over 10yrs ago. Not sure if newer gens have the same issue. Next time you get an alignment ask the tech if he can detect any slop in your steering.

 

Do you have wheel spacers?

 

I do.. 1.25" Spidertrax

 

Stock rim?

 

Yes, stock TRD Off Road 16" rims.

 

I had this problem with 2 tires maxis trepedors and my wranglers. Cause of issue was my front rotors were warped. Changed out the rotors and all was back to normal for me