tire wear

[jimi1952]

My wife and I got back from a three month 10,000 mile cross country trip. I noticed the rear tires on our tow vehicle, a Ram 1500, have some balding in the center. The right is worse than the left. I keep pretty good watch on tire pressure while towing. Not sure what caused the weird wear. Any ideas appreciated. Going to my mechanic next week to see what he thinks. Thanks, Jim.

[Midnightmoon]

Originally Posted by jimi1952

My wife and I got back from a three month 10,000 mile cross country trip. I noticed the rear tires on our tow vehicle, a Ram 1500, have some balding in the center. The right is worse than the left. I keep pretty good watch on tire pressure while towing. Not sure what caused the weird wear. Any ideas appreciated. Going to my mechanic next week to see what he thinks. Thanks, Jim.

My wife's Ram 1500 wears the right rear tire excessively and has done so since new. 150K on it now and I am religious about rotating them at 5K or so. Any more than that, and you can really see the wear in comparison to the other tires.

Her truck doesn't wear the center, it pretty much wears evenly the entire way across the tire. But it does wear extremely fast as compared to the other 3.

[RogerR]

Center of tire extreme wear is usually cased by excessive tire pressure.


Check your door panel for correct pressure. You should not adjust the tire pressure up for towing loads. Instead you should use a weight distribution hitch to balance the load and reduce rear end load.


Make sure your vehicle is in fact adequate for the job.

[jimi1952]

I'm aware about over-inflation. In my post I stated that I check tire pressure. We drove to Alaska three years ago 19,000 miles never had this issue. This is something new.

[RogerR]

Have you changed tire sizes? If the tire size is wrong for the rim that can squeeze the tire and also cause center wear.

Just to double check, you are using the door pressure, not the tire sidewall pressure? Sidewall is always correct for the trailer, never for the car even for overloaded vehicles.



Also, check for rear axel loading when hitched up by scaling your axels. See the search bar for lots of help if you need it.

[jimp]

Could also be a loose or broken belt in that tire causing it to wiggle or wobble (sorry for being so technical) while under load when towing. I increase the psi in my TV tires when towing, it tows better, JMO.

[DonaandDon]

Need more input.

How many miles are on your truck? Shocks worn? How many miles are on your tires?

Miles driven loaded before your trip? How much is the load?

What is tire pressure loaded and unloaded?

At what mileage did you notice the balding? Once a wear pattern is established is very hard to tell what and when it started.

What are your tires? "P" stands for a passenger tire, and needs to be pressed up for towing.

I thought I was careful on my 08 Tundra but found this one year while towing. As you can see one pic shows sidewall cracking and the other shows premature tread separation. At what I thought was good tread left on the tires.

"P' rated tires..... Go figure

[SkyBound]

Some thoughts I had, aside from what's been mentioned already - all good suggestions above regarding tire pressure etc.

Is your rear axle perhaps out of alignment? Did the truck ever sustain a twisted frame or was it ever severely overloaded?

Are you sure you are within your Rear Axle Weight Rating when towing? This needs to be verified at a scale.

A broken or shifted belt in the tire is also a likely cause... Do you get any unusual vibration from the rear at any particular speeds?

Lastly, has this ever happened before in the earlier life of the truck, such as on a previous set of tires?