Have an 01 screw w/ 8500-miles. Goodyears on the front are getting pretty chewed up to the point I feel it when slowing/coasting down to a stop. Anybody else with ft tire issues??? I rotated them w/ the backs now its better but I'm sure its only a matter of time they'll get chewed again. i don't do off road so the front end shouldn't be knock out of align. But city driving does wear them harder...

 

Are they the Goodyear RT/S? I have them and the tires started to "feather" at about 4000 miles. Kinda rough feeling at the edges of the tread. If you run your hands over the tire it's bumpy or rough feeling. I talked to a tire guy and he said this was common with these tires, although not all of them seem to be as bad. He said the only thing to do is to keep the correct pressure in them and keep them rotated. Sometines the tires can have a bad grind from the factory. I had this on Goodyear tires on a Ranger. It's kinda like feathering but get much more chewed up. Almost small chunks missing out of the tread. They replaced the tire for free. I had these same tires on a Chevy 4x4 and got almost 65000 miles from them.
If it's just feathering keep them rotated. I do mine about every 5000 miles.

 

What I have found is that if you can find a good alignment guy, show him the wear and if he is really good, he can adjust the alignment to alleviate some or all of the wear. It may no longer be aligned "in spec", but the tires will wear better. I once had a 4x4 Bronco II that did the same thing you describe. I happened to find a good alignment guy, he fixed it. Rotated every 10K after that and didn't even need to.....

John

 

There is a 12/12,000 warranty on alignment. If you're still covered, take your truck to your dealer and have them install the cams and align your truck. If you wait past this time/mileage limit, it will cost your about $200 (parts & labor) for your first alignment.

Hardly anybody knows about the alignment being a warranty item.

BTW, the 12/12,000 warranty also covers your paint, including acid rain damage!

 

Dennis,

I am unfamiliar with "the cams". Care to elaborate?

John

 

If you were to say adjust your torsion bars in the front, would they still do the alignment under warrenty. If so then I'm doing that as soon as I can get my truck an apointment. Save me some money!

 

I don't know if that's the right term I'm using, but all I know is you can't align these trucks unless you have certain parts installed first. Parts and labor usually runs about $160. Add the cost of the alignment to that and you're in the $200+ range.

All you gotta do is get to your dealer before it's a year old or hits 12k miles and tell them the truck's pulling to one side or the tires are wearing out unevenly. Ask them to install the parts and do a full alignment.

My service writer (who happens to be a friend) told me about this back when I had my '97. If he didn't tell me, I would never have known.

 

They did mine with no questions asked after adj. the torsion bars.

 

The "cams" in question are the means of adjusting caster and camber with one mechanism. This is found on the Ford "Twin I Beam" suspensions. In short, the cam is a hollow bushing into which the kingpin is inserted. This bushing has an internal diameter that is eccentric (not on center) with the outside diameter. The cams come in varying eccentricities (.040, .050, etc.). The cam has an octagon shaped head that allows the cam to be removed, rotated in 45 degree increments, and re-inserted to "adjust" the degree of eccentricity.

Often your alignment can be adjusted by rotating the cams one or two increments. If a more severe change is necessary, the cam must be replaced with one of greater eccentricity.

I have a friend who is an experienced mechanic. We aligned the front end of my '87 Ranger (I was experiencing too much outside wear). He had to replace one of the cams, but the other was close enough to use. His experience told him to use the end of the tolerance closest to zero degrees.

My truck originally had positive 2 and 5/8 degrees on one side and 2 and 3/4 degrees on the other. The Ford tolerance allowed for positive 3/4 degrees to 2 and 3/4 degrees. We decided to set both as close to 3/4 degrees as possible. When we made the adjustments and checked the machine, we had 3/4 on the right and 7/8 on the left side.

My friend was afraid further adjustment would just worsen the problem. I climbed into the driver's seat and closed the door. The machine now read 3/4 right, 3/4 left, PERFECT!

 

Noah'sDad, THANKS for the best explanation I have read to date. What I didn't know was even if I have the cams installed, I still might have to get them replaced at some point. That news was unexpected.

 

Dennis, cams only apply if you have the the twin I Beam. My 85 was a total PITA... in spite of putting the largest cam possible in it, my left wheel never would align properly and always scrubbed off the outside of the tire.

That is what would make me leery of buying the HD series or the Expedition... same OLD technology. A Frames give a much better steering geometry.

 

DRC,

Thanks for your info, my screw has been hijacked by the dealer, both front seatbelts failed, but they did check the front end and all is ok, so i guess the tire quality is bad. I'll just keep up the rotation and when they go get some good rubber

 

If the tires are bad, wouldn't the dealer be able to get the tires replaced under warranty?

I'm on my third truck with the same tires and have not had any problems like you're describing. I do, however, tend to run the air pressure a bit higher than what Ford says.

 

They weren't to the point of replacement, just to a point where you could feel the feathering at slow speeds. When I rotated them it went away. So i'll just rotate ever 7500 or so until its time to get new (better) tires.