Inside tread wear, alignment is fine???

[NewKid]

So the inside of my front two tires are damn near bald, with the outside looking almost new. The ball joints, A-arms, alignment are all good. I even took it to a local shop to have them look at it, in case my dad and I missed something (and check the alignment numbers), and they couldn't find anything either.

Anyone else have this problem? This is going to get expensive, if I have to keep putting new tires on the front. If I'm going to be replacing tires on it all the time I want it to be the rear tires!:burnout:

Thanks guys.

 

[five.slow]

yea I have that issue too man. my truck has a prokit on it with just springs and when i did my wheel swap my jaw dropped at the completely bald inners of the fronts. i dont know if my truck needs an alignment or not though.

 

[MMCustomworks]

Had this same problem till I found a very good alignment shop that actually aligns the vehicle by what the computer reads from the sensors placed on all 4 wheels. Run from any shop that goes by stock settings on a dropped truck. The guy I use also factors in the crown of the road. Might also think about switching to a harder tire like Toyo's. Goodyear F1's won't last long on a dropped truck.

A good align will be expensive, my 4-link alignment cost me $300 but it's perfect.

Make sure before you get a proper alignment to check your tire pressure. Once the alignment is done you must check the pressure weekly to prevent wear.

 

[WhiteBolt]

So the inside of my front two tires are damn near bald, with the outside looking almost new. The ball joints, A-arms, alignment are all good. I even took it to a local shop to have them look at it, in case my dad and I missed something (and check the alignment numbers), and they couldn't find anything either.

Anyone else have this problem? This is going to get expensive, if I have to keep putting new tires on the front. If I'm going to be replacing tires on it all the time I want it to be the rear tires!:burnout:

Thanks guys.

Excessive inside tire wear usually results from bad camber settings.
Do you have a printout of your aligmnent sheet you could post?
Did the shop use SVT specs and not F150 specs?

 

[ACSVT]

Your alignment is not "good". That's the problem.

 

[01whiteL]

Your alignment is not "good". That's the problem.

+1.... My guess is they did the same thing as was done to mine and went through 3 sets of F1's up front in no time.

They are going off the STOCK settings. NTB did this with mine...... I went back 23804538043 times and they said it was perfect YET it was eating tread.

 

[L8APEX]

I had the problem. I went to an "old school" mechanic who actually streches the chasis so that it sits like it would on the road, not bound up on a lift. No computers, just decades of experience. Needless to say its perfect now, no inside excessive tirewear period, all nice and even. Even with the truck being lowered he did not need the camber bolts! Took him a day to do it but it was worth every penny.

 

[rich1011]

I had the same problem when I lowered my g35 with the eibach pro-kit. You have NEGATIVE camber. That alignment shop went by factory settings.

I don't see why you couldn't go back to that alignment shop and have them put the numbers just in the red on the print out of positive camber?

 

[themadgnome]

Yea I had the same problem, I burnt through a front set of Nitto's before I took the truck to a friends shop. He spent a little extra time on it and got it perfect. Just goes to show you computers are only as good as the person using them.

I would do a little research to find a good alignment shop. You may have to pay a little more upfront, but it will be worth it in the long run.

 

[NewKid]

Thanks fellas.

I forgot to add I'm running Nittos with only 2" shackles in the back. Not that changes anything that much, as a bad alignment is a bad alignment.

Excessive inside tire wear usually results from bad camber settings.
Do you have a printout of your aligmnent sheet you could post?
Did the shop use SVT specs and not F150 specs?

I printed up the SVT specs from the How-To section and took them up there with me to compare what they had. The "SVT" specs they had in their computer were almost the same. The caster was off by .2-3, and everything else was the same. The alignment numbers on my truck were slightly off from the both specs, but by very very little, this is coming from the mechanics mouth though, they didn't print anything out, so when I asked to see them, he just told me and couldn't give me something tangible.

I wondered how well the shop would do with all this, but I'm in town to see my parents and my dad wanted to go to the shop he always uses (for oil changes :nonono, so I'm thinking y'all are right. I just need to find a really good shop with a mechanic who will take his time checking it.

 

[Tazman1]

You have too much Negative camber. That's what cost me a new set of Eagle F 1's about 4 years ago. The tires wee only 2 months old too. I was pissed. I took it to a alignment shop and they told me that it came from the factory that way. So they took the shims out and that fixed the whole inside tire wear issue. I still to this date have NO Problems with my alignment...

 

[voodoocustoms]

What are you using to lower the front? if you are using springs, iso's, lower control arms, or any combo of these, your geometry has changed from the factory design due to the angle of the control arms at ride height. The biggest difference is roll center and the amount of camber gain experienced during suspension cycle. I can not locate my print out from the last time mine saw the rack, but I believe I was .5 negative camber on both sides. My advice is find the shop in your area that has been owned and run by the same person for generations. That is the guy who understands suspension and not just how to read a spec sheet.

P.S. I know my spelling and grammar suck. I am a fabricator and don't have time to care right now.:rolling:

 

[NewKid]

What are you using to lower the front? if you are using springs, iso's, lower control arms, or any combo of these, your geometry has changed from the factory design due to the angle of the control arms at ride height. The biggest difference is roll center and the amount of camber gain experienced during suspension cycle. I can not locate my print out from the last time mine saw the rack, but I believe I was .5 negative camber on both sides. My advice is find the shop in your area that has been owned and run by the same person for generations. That is the guy who understands suspension and not just how to read a spec sheet.

P.S. I know my spelling and grammar suck. I am a fabricator and don't have time to care right now.:rolling:

The front isn't lowered at all. Only thing on it is shackles in the back. Yeah, I may have to do a custom alignment job as opposed to reading something off a machine.

You have too much Negative camber. That's what cost me a new set of Eagle F 1's about 4 years ago. The tires wee only 2 months old too. I was pissed. I took it to a alignment shop and they told me that it came from the factory that way. So they took the shims out and that fixed the whole inside tire wear issue. I still to this date have NO Problems with my alignment...

Well I wondered if it was an issue with the actual alignment numbers and wondered if this was a factory issue.

 

[old guys rule]

The lightnings come set up that way from the factory. All Ls will wear tires out in front. My local SVT dealer stated it is set up this way for handling. He also stated that if you change the factory settings it will change how the truck handles. With that being said I might be willing to change my settings being that our tires cost so much. He also told me to rotate them every oil change for longer wear. 2nd hand info!

 

[NewKid]

The lightnings come set up that way from the factory. All Ls will wear tires out in front. My local SVT dealer stated it is set up this way for handling. He also stated that if you change the factory settings it will change how the truck handles. With that being said I might be willing to change my settings being that our tires cost so much. He also told me to rotate them every oil change for longer wear. 2nd hand info!

Well that helps me with my theory of it being a factory related issue.

I don't plan on taking the thing on a road course just quite yet, so I think it would be worth it to have it fixed up so I don't eat tires.

 

[ACSVT]

All Lightnings wear tires out on the inside, hmm news to me. If you keep them rotated (front to back) you shouldn't have any problems. I have had my hankooks almost 30k miles with 0 abnormal wear. Its all in the alignment/camber/rotation....if all that is in check you shouldn't have any issues.