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Excessive Front Tire Wear...Does Warranty Cover Items Like This?

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roegs

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I've got 7,700 miles on my '21 3500 and just noticed the outside of each front tire are wearing excessively. No cupping - just wear that would appear to be alignment related. No pot holes, accidents, etc. While I believe that possibly the alignment was off from the factory, I can also see that RAM might say it's normal wear and tear as they have no idea how its been driven. Has anyone had RAM provide an alignment under warranty?


Tire Wear 1.jpg
 
It's out of alingment.
I had the same issue on my 21 power wagon. 3200 miles and outside edge was wore out. Both tires were out of spec on Toe.
I didn't deal with the dealership. Just went straight to my alignment guy as I wanted to use tighter specs from Thuren. I didnt want "good enough" from the dealer.
$90 bucks and I'm good. They also rotated my tires for me.
I had a vibration between 65 and 70 and now that's gone too.
 
I did get my truck aligned under warranty. I had it done only having the truck 3 days and had 200 miles on it. It was off and they did mostly correct it. The dealer did tell me it's rare to get an alignment under warranty and even least likely after the first 30 days of ownership unless something was really screwed up by the factory.
 
Crusty and Dave....thanks for your comments. Sounds like I should just prepare myself for the cost of an alignment. I can understand RAM's hesitancy to warranty an alignment. My local dealer is great to work with so I'll give them the first shot at getting this corrected. Its nice having a plan B of going independent and using Thuren's specs.

Crusty....I read some of your other posts on this. Is the goal to be as close to 0.0 for toe adjustment?
 
Just because it hasn't been mentioned yet...How many times were those tires rotated within that first 7,700 miles?
 
Shouldn't have to rotate but every 5K miles.
Mine were wore at 3200 miles.
 
Really doesn't look that bad to me. Especially at that angle
 
jetrinka said:
Really doesn't look that bad to me. Especially at that angle
Click to expand...
Look at the 2 circled areas. The left side is wore down past the grove that is clearly seen on the right.

Mine wasn't that bad, but noticeable. And I had feathering at the groves, which says out of alignment.

Give it about 15 to 20K miles and it will be down to the belts. The tire is basically skidding a little sideways across the road.
 
LateToTheParty said:
Just because it hasn't been mentioned yet...How many times were those tires rotated within that first 7,700 miles?
Click to expand...
I typically rotate around 8k to 9k miles. I may start doing them more often with this truck.
 
Crusty old shellback said:
Look at the 2 circled areas. The left side is wore down past the grove that is clearly seen on the right.
..........Give it about 15 to 20K miles and it will be down to the belts. The tire is basically skidding a little sideways across the road.
Click to expand...
Exactly...I had hoped to replace these Firestones, but not that soon!
 
I rotated around 5k and the front tires were feathered nicely (#sarcasm). I will be doing an alignment when real tires are installed.

Sent from my semi-smart telephonic device
 
Again looks pretty normal to me especially for a right front tire. Most roads are crowned for water runoff which makes people compensate to the left causing light outer edge wear. The Firestone tires that come stock are not known to do anything well (even wearing) anyway. Personally I would not be concerned.
 
My BFGs did the exact same thing.
Alingment was out of factory specs. by +13 degrees on one side, -1 degree on the other. Total toe was also out. I
Never had wear issues like that on my other straight axle trucks with a proper alignment. Also didnt even have it on my IFS cars or trucks either with a proper alignment.

And that's not normal wear for 7K miles if the front end is alignment properly.
 
So technically your total toe would have been .12 which is on the heavier side of the spec (0-.20) which is not technically out of alignment. It is according to Thuren specs but not OEM. With both tires toe'd in .06 along with road crown steering input compensation this would again make for right front outer edge wear. Yes zero toe would improve things but you'd have to do some creative things with caster to compensate for the road crown otherwise hes gonna have to keep compensating (albeit less) which will still wear that outer side.
 
Reread what I wrote.
My actual measurements were -1 and 33. So total toe was 32.
So -1 over on one side, and 13 over on the other side.
And both of my tires were worn, not just the right as you assumed.
 
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