Front Tire Wear - 2019 Ram 3500 Crew Cab LWB 4x4

[MillerTime802]

My Ram truck wore a front set of tires plumb out in 10,000 miles. Both front tires wore from the inside tread (lots of tread left) evenly to the outside tread (down to bald). The first set of tires did the same thing, put on new tires, had the dealer align the tires (they weren't out very much), and 10K later, worn out in the same pattern. Dealer checked the alignment and it was spot on correct. Tire pressure was always correct and the tire monitoring system won't allow otherwise without a warning.

HAS ANYONE HAD THIS SAME ISSUE ON THEIR RAM?? AND IF SO, DID YOU GET THE ISSUE RESOLVED FOR CORRECT AND UNIFORM TIRE WEAR? (Sorry for yelling, wanted to make sure you got the question)

History for you guys follows:

Original and 1st set of replacement were factory installed Nexen Rodian HTX RH5, LT235/80R17, 6 ply sidewalls. This truck is a dually.

Mileage: 35,228 on the truck.
Drive Train: Diesel High Output 1,000 ft-lb torque with the Aisin Transmission.

Pulling Load: I have a 17,000 gross 5th wheel (not overloaded) and carry about 200# in the bed when traveling. I have about 1,000# + in reserve payload weight so there's not too much weight on the pin. The back end sags about 1 3/4" when i put the full weight of the 5th wheel on the truck. I have about 17,000# pounds in reserve on the pulling weight.

Dealer Analysis: (with assistance of their phone-in Ram technical help experts) said the tire wear is from the sidewalls "rolling" when I drive (straight and in any turn I take) causing the tires to wear excessively. This "rolling" is due to pulling heavy loads (their words) for long distances. Says 10 ply tires won't "roll' the sidewalls, huh, sounds reasonable.

THE FIX: They recommend using 10 ply side walls and recommended installing Firestone's Transforce 10 ply sidewalls tires of equivalent size to what came on the truck originally. I installed the 10 ply tires and will be heading out on a 1,500 mile trip at month's end.

Future Monitoring: I'm checking tire pressure, and tread wear along each groove prior to leaving on a trip, at my destination, and at the end of my trip when I hit home base. If the tires wear in the same pattern, the dealer and I will have another discussion.

Comments welcome and appreciated.

 

[White six four]

From what I've read and done on mine a lot of the HD trucks need the toe set to 0 not what dodge and alignment shops set the toe at. My 16 2500 was wearing the outside of the tires. Had new upper ball joints put in and aligned at an alignment shop. I thought that was my problem with outside tire wear. After it was still wearing the outsides down so I set the toe to 0 myself and the fronts are wearing a lot more even now. Look up thuren alignment specs

 

[MartyZ]

Look up thuren alignment specs

https://www.thurenfabrication.com/tech/alignment-and-handling.html

There ya go

 

[hotrod45]

On a worn tire, put your hand flat across the tread and slide your hand lightly across the tread sliding toward the center of the truck. Then slide your hand outward, again lightly, from the inside to the outside shoulder of the tire. If the excessive wear is on the outside shoulder and it is due to excessive toe-in, your hand will feel the knife-edged tread as you slide from the inside to the outside shoulder. It will feel smooth sliding from the outside shoulder to the inside shoulder. If the knife-edge is not pronounced, you probably have excessive camber as well. I suggest that you put the proper tires (the Load Range E) all around, put 800# in the bed as close to the pin as possible and have the front end aligned. Make sure the tire pressures are adjusted upward for the heavier tires. The settings for camber and toe are going to be as much art as they are science, but the only way the mechanic is going to know what is going on is to replicate the load.

 

[MillerTime802]

Update on tire wear using 10 ply front tires.

So far, I've put about 10,000 miles on the 10 ply sidewall tires. Firestone Transforce HT2 LT235/80R17 M+S. Stock alignment, verified by dealer to be per mfg. recommendations, was not changed. The tires are wearing normally. Who'd ah thunk it?

The only think that's a bit disappointing is the 10 ply sidewall tires are a "bit" noisy...making that sound like it has bad tires or out of round tires. With the stereo on you can't hear anything and there's no vibration to be felt.

This isn't to say adjusting the alignment won't work or shouldn't be done. I just took the dealer's recommendations as my first try....and it has worked thus far.

 

[MARKS2015RAM]

Same problem on 2015 3500 136,000 75% of the time I am pulling 5th wheel. Went to dealer they checked/set camber, same problem.
What I have done is change how I buy new tires. Have the worst tread tires in the rear, new on front, when two rear tires need changing the front go to the back and new on front . I keep a close eye on the hi milage tires on the back, don't want them to get to far gone nor do I want tire ware to be more than 50% difference between in and out tires, tires never get in the red on the tire gage.
This has worked for me.
Every time I see a 3500 I try and look at the tire ware, 90% of the time I see the same ware. So if you see some old man looking at your tires don't shoot it just me checking out your tire wear.

 

[MillerTime802]

Haha. Good response. Thank you.

 

[tjfdesmo]

Best wearing tire for dually will have a closed shoulder, like Bridgestone Duravis R500 HD. As mentioned before, factory toe-in spec is wacked. Set to near zero toe-in per Thuren.