5th gen tire wear

[Bobwilla123]

Bad outside tire wear on the front tires. At 37k I had to replace one of the front tires which I should have replaced both. The new tire has 3k on it and it is cupping bad on the outer edge. Never has this problem on the other 5 rams I owned since 1997 which were not this generation. I am old and I don’t drive it hard. I don’t fly around corners. Tires are rotated by the dealer every oil change.

The need to figure out what is going on. My personal opinion is that the Bridgestone Duellers are not for a Ram truck due to its weight. I am sure they are the OEM tires because they give you a soft ride but while turning corners you are getting a lot of tire roll.

I back my truck into my driveway so when I leave the house I just pull out. Lately I have been getting a rubbing feeling in my steering wheel. Today I went to the store and when I left I had my drivers window open. From a dead stop I made a right turn out of the parking lot, radio turned off, hvac off. I slowly pulled out and I could hear the drivers front tire just grinding away.

My son has a 2019 Big Horn and replaced all 4 tires because the outer portion of the tires had wear that I have never seen before. Looks like chunks of the sipes were missing and what remained looks like someone sat there for hours putting little cuts on what remained on the outer edge. I don’t recall what brand they were, definitely not OEM. I believe he replaced them with on/off road tires. He was at my house and when he left it sounded like the new tires were getting munched going slowly. The tires were put on by the dealer and they also did an alignment. He has also complained about high speed driving that he is getting a bunch of shaking as if his tires were not balance correctly.

In any case if I decide to replace all 4 tires I am going to go with a higher load range where there are more ply’s on the sidewall to prevent tire roll. I am happy to sacrifice the soft ride.

My ram has air suspension but I have heard that it is happening on all suspensions.

Looking for any additional recommendations.

 

[Riccochet]

It sounds like you have an alignment issue.

 

[Papa Red]

Check the wheel hub on the tire that's wearing bad. Mine did that with 32,000 miles on it and it was bad bearings. Raise the tire off the ground and see if there's a little wiggle to it. Good luck.

Red

 

[Edward Hands]

Mine does the same thing. But it appears to be even worse on the passenger's side than it is on the driver's.
I've had the alignment done twice. Both times it was within spec. But on the more "toed-in" and "positive-camber" side of the tolerances.
The next alignment will be performed with me in the driver's seat. And I will have them set toe-out and negative-camber to their maximum while still being inside recommended spec. And I will verify that the truck is in "alignment mode" in the suspension settings.

FYI - Changing from factory Bridgestone's to Falken Rubitrek 275/60/20 made a drastic improvement in both reducing the wear rate and improving the ride quality.
Setting tire pressures at 40 psi cold has NOT caused increased wear on the middle of the tread either, and should reduce wear on the outside edges.

 

[Bobwilla123]

Thank you for the feedback. Alignment was checked when I had the one tire replaced. It does it on both sides. As far as the hubs I will check those. I will look into those tires you suggested.

 

[ExpressRules]

You don't mention, but what do you have the tires inflated to?

 

[Edward Hands]

You don't mention, but what do you have the tires inflated to?

I'm curious about this too.
But if his wear is like mine and others that are experiencing this same problem, the wear is severe and ONLY on the outside edge.

 

[Bobwilla123]

I have them inflated to 42 psi cold. My past rams I got 60k-75k out of tires with proper rotations and never had alignments on any except for the gen 5 which is my current.

 

[ExpressRules]

I can't say if there is going to be an issue with my 2019 since I've only had it for 2 weeks. On my 2014 that daughter is now driving I never had any issues with bad tire wear and from the time I bought it new never had an alignment and I never rotated the tires. The 2014 currently has 144,000 miles and on its third set of tires.

I'll keep an eye out for any issues with 2019.

 

[TC Retired]

Recently rotated mine and noticed the Bridgestones doing this as well. At nearly 26k the wear does seem excessive. I really like the all weather performance of these but now wonder about switching when the time comes.

I run 40 cold and they warm up to 44 or so which is the max.

Has anyone taken them into a dealer and asked about warranty replacements? Also how dangerous are they?

 

[Edward Hands]

I have them inflated to 42 psi cold. My past rams I got 60k-75k out of tires with proper rotations and never had alignments on any except for the gen 5 which is my current.

Recently rotated mine and noticed the Bridgestones doing this as well. At nearly 26k the wear does seem excessive. I really like the all weather performance of these but now wonder about switching when the time comes.

I run 40 cold and they warm up to 44 or so which is the max.

Has anyone taken them into a dealer and asked about warranty replacements? Also how dangerous are they?

I tried setting mine at 40 psi cold. But it felt like the tire sidewall wasn't doing it share of the dampening.
So backed it back down to 37 psi cold.

 

[Bobwilla123]

Today I only rotated the left front and left rear since the left front is so worn down. After I did that I was going to wash my truck so I pulled it out to turn it around. Keep in mind I back my truck in all the time. So I started it, turned the wheel slight right and starter moving and I felt the rubbing on the left front wheel.

It is so annoying to hear the rubbing and I wonder how many other ram owners get that. The outside wear on the tires is ridiculous. The remaining portion of each tire has ample tread left. I was actually thinking about going to a tire store and have them dismount my severely worn tires and flip them so the worn portion would be on the inside.

There has to be something ram can do. Go back to the engineers. Could it be something in the electric steering, could the steering rack bushing be too soft? Could the suspension arm bushings also be so soft that they flex too much when you turn?

I do plan on calling the dealer tomorrow to see what they say. I have not complained to them about the tire wear so this will be my first contact with them about it. I don’t want to take it there and they just start throwing parts at it just to make me happy.

I retired from a car manufacturer in January this year. If I still worked there I would get some of the engineers to take a look at it to see if they could diagnose the issue but that is not possible now.

 

[Kickboxer]

Bob, welcome to the forum.
Yours is a personal issue, tire issues like you say are not common, so don't place blame on the 5th gen. Ram. No different than any other vehicle.

 

[Bobwilla123]

Hi Kick, I beg to differ with you. Many people have posted on different forums about 5th gen tire wear issue. I have had about 6 rams starting 1997 and I have loved them all. All the previous rams never had and issue with tire wear like this one. I always keep my tires rotated. I am 60 now and I definitely do not drive the truck aggressively. I don’t fly around turns.

I replaced my first tire under 40k. The outer sipes were completely gone. The new tire has 3k on it and is already cupping badly. For the remaining three tires the outer wear is bad. The remains tread I could get another 20 out of them if I flip them.

If it is just crappy OE tires that can’t handle the weight of the truck and roll when you make turns, I can easily just purchase 4 new tires with a better load range/stronger sidewall but only if I know there is not a problem with the truck itself.

 

[huntergreen]

Who checked your alignment ?

 

[Bobwilla123]

Sorry to say it was Firestone. The did provide me the spec sheet and it was within tolerance.

 

[Edward Hands]

The remaining portion of each tire has ample tread left. I was actually thinking about going to a tire store and have them dismount my severely worn tires and flip them so the worn portion would be on the inside.

I actually did just this. Because of regularly rotating the tires all four were well worn on the outside edges. Flipping them around will get many more miles out of this set.

The Falkens don't seem to be wearing as fast as the Bridgestone's did but I don't think that it is a tire folding under issue. It could be the scrub angles while turning.
I would really like to see your before and after alignment specs.

I have had mine "checked" 3 times. First by the Dealer then two different independent tire shops. The Dealer did say that it had excessive toe-in from the factory, and they corrected it. But the next two alignments were set toward the "toe-in" side of the accepted tolerance.
On this next alignment I will be working with the tech to alter the setting to minimize the front/inside tire wear. By setting the toe towards the "toe-out" side of acceptable tolerance.

 

[Edward Hands]

Bob, welcome to the forum.
Yours is a personal issue, tire issues like you say are not common, so don't place blame on the 5th gen. Ram. No different than any other vehicle.

I don't think that this issue is in many 5th Gens, but some.
I haven't been able to link it to any specific trim model or year produced.
I look at other Rams in parking lots a lot and I haven't found any others that exhibit the same severe "outer edge" wear pattern.
Like you stated "No different than any other vehicle." They all have their quirks and my truck drives great. I'm thankful that we are not plagued with the dreaded "death-wobble" that others have to deal with. But if not for this uneven wear pattern, I would be able to get many thousand more miles out of my tires without having to remove them from the rims and turn them around.

 

[chopperman1]

There is a very specific way to do an alignment on an air suspension truck. Are you sure your FS tech followed it? Truck must be set to alignment mode.

Next, what is it rubbing? If it's rubbing enough to wear the tires and for you to hear it, it has to be visible within the wheel well.

What size tires are you running? OEM rims and tire size?

 

[Edward Hands]

At this point: 30,000 miles old, tire rotation every 5000, tires flipped inside to outside at 15,000 miles. It looks like classic under inflation. But this is NOT the case.
If I had not flipped the tires around on the rims, the front outside edge would now be showing cords with 11/32" tread depth across the rest of the tires width.

Edit: All of that wear on the inside edge occurred when the tire was turned around earing out the then outside edge.