Unusual tire wear - Montana Owners Club

camper4 · 01-04-2010, 01:46 PM

I have a 2009 3075. Traveled around 15,000 miles. I just noticed one tire worn with an unusual pattern. About one third of the outside, of one tire, is worn to no tread. The rest of the inside and center of the tire have no unusual wear. the other two thirds of the outside is only worn a little.
The other three tires look great.
There are no loose or broken bolts on the suspension.
No broken welds.
The Moore Ryde Suspension has no tears in the rubber.
No shocks from factory.
The tire pressure was at 80 pounds, and is always watched closely.
The lug nuts were all at 115 - 120 pound feet of torque.
There are no apparent cracks or breaks in the aluminum wheel.
There was no apparent slop in the wheel bearings when the wheel was off the ground.
The tires are Goodyear Marathons. Made in China.

I always check the tires and wheel bearings for heat whenever I stop for fuel or potty break. No problems.
I do not know how many miles this has been going on. Could have been since beginning but I think it has developed lately.

Got any ideas?

I have the tire/wheel off and am taking it to a tire store tomorrow. I am in the Florida Keys and there is no real RV dealership within 65 miles.

Delaine and Lindy · 01-04-2010, 01:58 PM

I would get the alignment checked and sometime unbalanced tire will cause this also but it will look more like cupping. I think I would send Lonnie a PM he is the expert on tire as for as I'm concerned. GBY....

clarkandsheila · 01-04-2010, 02:00 PM

Axle bent??
When underneath sight across the two axles to see if the bow is the same in each axle. Even if not noticeable it may be worth checking or having the axle checked. Sight the sides of the tires comparing to the other axle to see if the camber is different between the two axles. Maybe the wheel is tipped a bit too much placing the load off the tire centre too much.
Run your hand across the tread width of the tire, both directions. If you can feel a sharp edge on the tread it may indicate the tire is being dragged sideways a bit instead of rolling straight.

My best guesses. Hopefully someone else can chime in.

Leaseit · 01-04-2010, 02:29 PM

Placing my money on axle out of alignment, lost camber. Id limp it back to Miami and find a axle alignment shop to check it. Then resepctable truck tire shop that balances trailer tires for a living and have do a balance on al the tires. After my experiance like that and going through the total learning curve, you can't really visually tell if the axle has lost camber or toe accurtely. Please let us know what the problem is when you find out.

PapaBeav · 01-04-2010, 02:38 PM

We had a similar problem earlier in the year and it turned out to be a bent axle. The tire in question on ours was the left rear. It had worn down to nothing on the inside. We had it replaced along with new tires just before a long trip in May and June and haven't had any problems since. As stated, have it checked by a repudiable alignment shop.

Rich

Jim Jarvis · 01-04-2010, 11:42 PM

I'm heading to the shop in an hour or so with a very similar problem. Currently in Fort Pierce, Fla.

I'll update tonight.

camper4 · 01-05-2010, 12:05 AM

Thank you everyone for your inputs. As of now my plans are to stay in the Keys as originally planned and on my way out get to an axle alignment shop.

I really can not see anything wrong with the naked eye.

It effects about one third of the tire, on the outside, but not all the way around the tire. Two thirds of the outside of the tire still has good tread. The wear is not uniform around or across the tire.

It acts as though there is a hop too. It is smoother in one direction than the other if I run my hand over it. There are also some spots of tread that stick up above in the balded section.

I leave here in April and will make an appointment to get it into a shop, unless I get real lucky and find a shop down here.
Again, Thank you for your help!

exav8tr · 01-05-2010, 01:50 AM

Sounds like what I had go wrong with one of mine. Tire guy suspected an internal problem with a belt as it was not uniform all around the tire. He said if it was alingment it would be all around. I can't speak to axles as I have none anymore, but it did this without the axles, SO????? I can only surmise a tire problem. will be switching mine to Goodyear G614 in late March.

Let us know what you find out....

Sgrob47 · 01-05-2010, 02:50 AM

I had the same problem with tire 2 years ago while traveling in Wyoming. Only bad wear was on 1/3 of tire, was told defective tire was out of round. Replaced the marathon tire with different brand. Also got Keystone to pay for replacing all the tires and had alignment check that they payed for too. Good Luck!

8.1al · 01-05-2010, 02:57 AM

I agree with Phil and Sgrob47, you have a bad tire, I would not be driving on it

Sgrob47 · 01-05-2010, 03:26 AM

Correction on tire, what was on trailer where mission. A fine tire as you all know. RIGHT!!!!

Art-n-Marge · 01-05-2010, 06:08 AM

Three possibilities I can think of:

1. Bent axle, an axle shop can check for this quite easily. I hear prices are about $250-$300 for both axles and you might have only one bad one.
2. Bad tire, unfortunately you'd have to replace it and see if it makes a difference by keeping a real close eye on it. The bad tire might have been caused by the other two possibilities.
3. Too heavy on that corner. Weigh each tire individually at the scales and make sure all four are as even weighted as possible and especially not overweight. But again, the tire wear looks way too specific.

Those are the easy ones I can think of. There are probably a lot more reasons. Thanks for providing so much info on what you had been doing. That was very helpful for us trying to assist.

8.1al · 01-05-2010, 10:20 AM

A bent axle or overweight will give you wear all the way around a bad tire may give you wear part way around

exav8tr · 01-05-2010, 11:52 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by 8.1al

A bent axle or overweight will give you wear all the way around a bad tire may give you wear part way around

This is what I was eluding to in an earlier post....My bet is the tire since it is not uniform around the tire, however, I believe I was told a severely out of balance wheel will look similar. Maybe after hitting a curb or animal, who knows.......

Jim Jarvis · 01-05-2010, 02:00 PM

mine was bent axle and out of alignment. They repaired that and set the toe & camber(?) Went from repair shop to Goodyear for a pair of those Gs.

LonnieB · 01-05-2010, 03:09 PM

Yep, you have a bad tire, most likely a seperation problem. If it were an alignment problem, the tire would be worn all the way around the circumference, not just one third of it.

camper4 · 01-06-2010, 12:12 AM

I hope you are right. At this point that would be the easiest fix for me right now. The tire is being replaced today. I told the tire shop I wanted to see the inside of it. I'll let you know how the inside of the old one looked.

TLightning · 01-06-2010, 08:49 AM

I had a similar problem...bad tire. Remove the wheel and take it to a tire shop, they can tell you if it is bad or not.

camper4 · 01-06-2010, 10:21 AM

It was a bad tire. Starting to delaminate but nothing visible yet.

The inside of the tire looked and felt like new.

Looking around the shop's "bone yard" we found another tire with a very similar tread wear to mine. The difference was that you could see the tread coming off. With mine it "looked" good. On the other tire we found, the inside of that one also looked to be in great shape.

It appears I was not far from a catastrophic tire failure.

I plan to watch this new tire very closely to make sure that was it.

Thanks again to everyone for their help. I have read this website and been a member for a couple of years but never asked for help or responded to others. I plan to become a little more active. This has been a really good experience for me.

davecain · 01-08-2010, 03:31 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by camper4

I have a 2009 3075. Traveled around 15,000 miles. I just noticed one tire worn with an unusual pattern. About one third of the outside, of one tire, is worn to no tread. The rest of the inside and center of the tire have no unusual wear. the other two thirds of the outside is only worn a little.
The other three tires look great.
There are no loose or broken bolts on the suspension.
No broken welds.
The Moore Ryde Suspension has no tears in the rubber.
No shocks from factory.
The tire pressure was at 80 pounds, and is always watched closely.
The lug nuts were all at 115 - 120 pound feet of torque.
There are no apparent cracks or breaks in the aluminum wheel.
There was no apparent slop in the wheel bearings when the wheel was off the ground.
The tires are Goodyear Marathons. Made in China.

I always check the tires and wheel bearings for heat whenever I stop for fuel or potty break. No problems.
I do not know how many miles this has been going on. Could have been since beginning but I think it has developed lately.

Got any ideas?

I have the tire/wheel off and am taking it to a tire store tomorrow. I am in the Florida Keys and there is no real RV dealership within 65 miles.

You may also like: