Excessive tire wear on toad

[Gary Carmichael]

New tires on 2007 tahoe in feb2010 tires are wearing on the inside on both front tires, I put the front on back and vis versa front tires are wearing on inside again bad!!! I have had car lined up at two different Chevrolet dealers both said they were not out of alignment usually use Michelin but these are Bridgestone Towing bar is level from coach to car any suggestions? They have 16000 miles on tires 10000 was towing. Thanks Gary

[Jerry Winchester]

Gary,

I don't know about "excessive" wear, but my experience is that towing is hard on tires. We have only towed an H3 Hummer with Bridgestone tires and unless you are diligent on rotation, the front tires wear way faster than the rear ones and overall, they wear faster towing than driving.

Jerry

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

You didn't say how many miles on the Tahoe, hi mileage might mean worn/loose suspension parts.

You didn't say what pressure you run in the Tahoe tires. You could try higher pressure, say 42#.

When you go camping do you possibly load up the Tahoe excessively as a trailer. The extra weight would change the alignment from that of an empty Tahoe.


JIM :)

[Gary Carmichael]

Well the car only has 50000 on it but yes, my wife thinks it is a dump truck and loads lots of quilting fabric in it. Might be the culprit! I do rotate them often. and Jerry, Dwaine and Sharon Carnes said to tell you hello, we winter with them here at Riverbend, thanks for the input. Gary

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I know the answer.

I had an experience with uneven wear on an H2 Hummer. The wear was substantial and occurred in a very short period of time. I did have to replace the tires, but learned to cure the problem

I needed to release the parking brake.

[GDeen]

New tires on 2007 tahoe in feb2010 tires are wearing on the inside on both front tires, I put the front on back and vis versa front tires are wearing on inside again bad!!! I have had car lined up at two different Chevrolet dealers both said they were not out of alignment usually use Michelin but these are Bridgestone Towing bar is level from coach to car any suggestions? They have 16000 miles on tires 10000 was towing. Thanks Gary

Gary,

We tow a Lexus GX470 which is relatively heavy and "not approved for towing." After ~ 20,000 miles behind the bus the only problem I have at all is front tire wear. I just try to keep them rotated and balanced. I can feel it in the steering and handling of the vehicle if I get too far behind the rotation schedule....

[jack14r]

I tow a 1500-4 door Chevrolet truck which is similar to a Tahoe chassis and I have 98,000 miles on it and just put on the 3rd set of tires,I rarely rotate the tires and have not seen any unusual wear.

[Jerry Winchester]

Megan & Gary,

Pass on my howdy to the Carnes and tell them we will be holding the fort down during spring ball.

Best regards,

Jerry & Rae

[rahangman]

As Jon hinted, and I will confess, making sure the toad is set up correctly (as in proper key position) will keep wear down on those front tires..

[Gary Carmichael]

WELL megan saw my post about the dump truck, and I have been verbally scolded ,it seems ,she thinks I have as many tools, shotguns and ammo that I carry from place to place that is why she can not get more fabric in the coach . We are currently at a stalemate on the subject. I know I will not win this one. I remember the simple times 36' coach just get in and go no pre planning, Now when we leave we seem to be planning for the end of time with all the "things" we carry. O well I can still have a good bourbon and a good cigar life is still good!

[stevet903]

I had the same problem on my Mini, and every shop that set the alignment said it was fine. The final shop actually took some quality time underneath the car and found that although the alignment was fine sitting on the rack, the rubber bushings in the front suspension were torn, and the rears soft. This allowed the suspension to move enough under load to produce toe-in, eating the inside of the tires. Find a shop that will set it up for an alignment, and then have them take a pry bar to push against the control arms, and then have a second person to push on the front and rear edges of the tires parallel to the ground (a person on each side trying to push the front or the rear of the tires together). Most shops have a computer screen that they can watch while this is going on and it should show that something is worn. It doesn't take much movement to cause a problem.

[Gary Carmichael]

Thanks Steve, I just put a new set of Michelin tires on and will try for another alignment and check for worn bushings. Thank you Gary

[Jon Wehrenberg]

We have towed a Dodge Raider (a Mitsubishi Montero 4WD Jeep type vehicle), a Jeep Grand Cherokee, a Dodge Ram 1500, and a Hummer H2. The Raider about 40,000 miles, the Jeep Grand Cherokee in excess of 200,000 miles and 10,000 miles or so on the Hummer and the pickup. None of the vehicles exhibited unusual tire wear and none appeared to suffer from towing.

I do rotate tires with every oil change or about every 4000 miles. I do run my hand over the tires and look for evidence of an unusual wear pattern. The Jeep got 90,000 miles on one of the sets of tires and it was towed 4 miles for every mile it was driven so towing did not appear to make any difference on tire life.

In all our travels I had one blowout, on the Jeep. I do not know the cause because I saw no foreign object in the tread that would have caused a loss of air pressure and the tires were checked about 400 miles prior to the blowout for tire pressure.

I suspect if towed vehicles have excessived wear or unusual wear patterns it is probable the cause is with the toad. I do know keeping the brakes on the toad locked will create a flat spot.