Community Forums

powerwoofs · 11-16-2021, 11:34 PM

Hi everyone... on our new to us Ventana, I happened to notice these wear patterns on the the front tires on the outside lip. I've been doing a lot of searching without much luck so far, but have found that's it's possibly "river wear" and the tires will age out before it's an issue? The rear tires look to be perfectly flat and worn all the way to the edge of the sidewall.

These are the factory Michelins that came on it and I believe are dated 2017.

Looking for some feedback / assurance. I thought I had over inflated the tires and went down a rabbit hole with that one for a while, but it's definitely not a pressure issue. I haven't taken it in any where yet, as we've been on the road. If it's this "river wear" issue, then I assume a rotation side to side will help even the wear?

Crasher · 11-17-2021, 07:14 AM

I had the same wear pattern on my coach which is on a Power Glide chassis. It was a toe-in issue. It drove straight without any pulling before and after the alignment was corrected. I then rotated the tag tires to the steer position and no more wearing of the outer edge.

MN_Traveler · 11-17-2021, 08:58 AM

I would echo what crasher said. As a first step Get the alignment fixed, then keep a close eye on the tires - if the bands start showing, get them replaced asap. That is a first step though ... aging tires can start to do weird things with wear patterns ... ultimately finding the "actual" cause (if there is only one real cause) can be a bit of a crap shoot and guessing game.

With a 2017, the tires might well be five years ild or more. Look on the sidewall for their manufacture date - after the DOT indicator a four digit number -XXYY, XX being the week of the year, YY being the last two digits of the year. I dont want to open up a shouting match about how frequently to replace tires (opinions vary!} ... so i recommend you do a thread search on tire age and decide if and when you want to consider replacing the tires.

creativepart · 11-17-2021, 09:33 AM

Michelin's are prone to outer edge wear on steer axles. I found this out earlier this year on my 2017 Winnebago Class A. I saw similar wear on my front tires and posted here with my concerns. Many chimed in with "Michelins...."

I found a good local alignment shop that specialized in Semi-trucks. My toe and caster were off enough to cause this issue. However, I had been working to minimize my tire pressure to improve ride and that seems to have contributed to the wear.

I had the front end aligned and the two front tires moved to the right rear duals and the two right rear duals moved to the front.

My tires are DOT dated late-2016 for a coach built in the spring of 2017. And, I have 30,000 miles on them now. So, this year I will replace all 6 tires. But so far moving the tires, getting the front end aligned and increasing my air pressure has been the right combination of steps to take.

By the way, I had an alignment completed 2-years prior but the shop wasn't very RV savvy and said they didn't have everything they needed to complete the job so only adjusted Toe-In. I expect that this and the 15,000 more miles of pothole dotted highways contributed to being more out of alignment. Semi Trucks deal with these issues all the time, so find a place near any truck depots in your area to find a good shop.

powerwoofs · 11-20-2021, 08:30 PM

I planned on trying to take the coach in to Freightliner for some routine maintenance anyway since I don't have much info on it's history. I'll add an alignment check to the list for sure.

I didn't suspect alignment though as it doesn't pull, or wonder at all, drives perfectly straight. Hard to say with comfort steer, maybe that's masking it?

High Road Travelers · 11-20-2021, 10:17 PM

I recently noticed the same wear pattern on my steer tires and took it in for an alignment, even though it handled and steered just fine. I also increased my air pressure, although according to my weight and tire chart my inflation was good. From some of the responses I see that some people have rotated their rear tires to the front, and I am considering doing this.
When I got my alignment report I noticed that my Camber is positive, meaning that the top of the front tires point out, and that can wear the outside tread like we are experiencing. My left camber is .8 and the right is .3 degrees. I'm not sure if that is much or not, but I understand that camber can't be adjusted very easily so I will drive with it as is.
I only have 26,000 miles and the tires are dated 2017. I'm glad to see from the responses that this tire wear is fairly common and is not a major concern.
Please do let us know what Freightliner says about the tire wear and alignment.
Thanks,

Ray,IN · 11-21-2021, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wog099

I recently noticed the same wear pattern on my steer tires and took it in for an alignment, even though it handled and steered just fine. I also increased my air pressure, although according to my weight and tire chart my inflation was good. From some of the responses I see that some people have rotated their rear tires to the front, and I am considering doing this.
When I got my alignment report I noticed that my Camber is positive, meaning that the top of the front tires point out, and that can wear the outside tread like we are experiencing. My left camber is .8 and the right is .3 degrees. I'm not sure if that is much or not, but I understand that camber can't be adjusted very easily so I will drive with it as is.
I only have 26,000 miles and the tires are dated 2017. I'm glad to see from the responses that this tire wear is fairly common and is not a major concern.
Please do let us know what Freightliner says about the tire wear and alignment.
Thanks,

Two things influence camber, weight of vehicle and ride-height. Setting camber involves either using shims or an eccentric bolt.
Camber is the main cause of outside edge wear. If weight is added or removed to/from the vehicle after an alignment, most likely camber is different than when aligned.
If a vehicle does not sit level (ride height) it transfers weight to one corner and subtracts weight from the high corner.

If you only inflate tires to the minimum displayed in the load/inflation chart, you are operating your tires at 100% of their capacity.

reference: https://lusequip.com/site/1212late/Alignment_Basics.pdf

scenic route · 11-21-2021, 07:48 PM

+.8 L & +.3 R camber sounds good.

In another lifetime, I always shot for 1/2 of a degree of more positive camber on the left side than the right because of the crest/crown of most roadways. The right side of the road is usually lower causing some vehicle weight transfer to the right and a lower positive camber helps compensate for the outside wear patterns due to weight shift.

Caster was always set at 1/2 a degree more positive on the right side, to compensate for the road crown and associated weight transfer (causing slight pull to the right). Positive caster will pull to the lesser.

You don't say anything about what your toe in/out was, but I agree with the others that maybe there was some incorrect toe(in) that caused the problem. With the weight transfer, usually the right side will show more of this type of wear than the left.

A tire rotation might give you a little more peace of mind, but even though you're moving it to a more stable platform, the outside wear will likely continue in direct proportion with the rest of the treadwear.

Yes, suspension systems have improved by leaps and bounds from the past, but the dynamics of proper alignment still remain.

High Road Travelers · 11-21-2021, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scenic route

+.8 L & +.3 R camber sounds good.

In another lifetime, I always shot for 1/2 of a degree of more positive camber on the left side than the right because of the crest/crown of most roadways. The right side of the road is usually lower causing some vehicle weight transfer to the right and a lower positive camber helps compensate for the outside wear patterns due to weight shift.

Caster was always set at 1/2 a degree more positive on the right side, to compensate for the road crown and associated weight transfer (causing slight pull to the right). Positive caster will pull to the lesser.

You don't say anything about what your toe in/out was, but I agree with the others that maybe there was some incorrect toe(in) that caused the problem. With the weight transfer, usually the right side will show more of this type of wear than the left.

A tire rotation might give you a little more peace of mind, but even though you're moving it to a more stable platform, the outside wear will likely continue in direct proportion with the rest of the treadwear.

Yes, suspension systems have improved by leaps and bounds from the past, but the dynamics of proper alignment still remain.

Thanks very much for the camber analysis. I was not sure if mine was good, bad or ugly. I feel better now.
My toe before alignment was left -.01 and right -.03; after alignment toe is left .01 and right -.01.
Thanks,