Alignment issues at less than 9000 miles - Diesel Forum

Liammurphy · 12-01-2012, 05:52 AM

At about 9000 miles I noticed my front passenger tire was wearing funny on my 12 f350 dually, and it has to be the alignment....I hope this is the right venue to be posting this issue. I had an 06 f250 that the alignment went out in about every other day, I am wondering if anyone else is having this issue. it seems awful new to be having this issue, and I dont thrash on the truck, lots of blacktop roads and country dirt roads...just wanted to if anyone had any thoughts....thanks

jimmy · 12-01-2012, 09:24 AM

2WD or 4WD?

I guess Ford has done a much better job on the 99 ups that people have forgotten that Twin I Beam suspended 2WD trucks used to be THE WORST as tire wear due to factory setting being far too positive camber to allow for loaded change towards negative camber.
I hope you are under a year old as you have a covered alignment under warranty up to 12mo/12K miles.
I have taken all my Twin I Beam s in for alignment during that period if I saw the slightest tire wear. Fortunately the dealer I buy from sent drw trucks out to another shop and that shop had a guy who never more than green bands on a computer screen.

If outer tire edge wear is evident and your camber is + 1 degree on a tolerance band of -.3 to + 1.2 and the toe in is not too much toed in from spec then +1 degree is too much for your weighted normal used of truck and it needs to be lower. Too many alignments are done with green bands on screen as the guide and not experience and common sense.

Sorry for the soapbox speech on poor alignments.

STMPDUST · 12-01-2012, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liammurphy

At about 9000 miles I noticed my front passenger tire was wearing funny on my 12 f350 dually, and it has to be the alignment....I hope this is the right venue to be posting this issue. I had an 06 f250 that the alignment went out in about every other day, I am wondering if anyone else is having this issue. it seems awful new to be having this issue, and I dont thrash on the truck, lots of blacktop roads and country dirt roads...just wanted to if anyone had any thoughts....thanks

If you tow allot this will happen, when you tow the front end gets lifted up slightly and prevents a perfect allingment of the front end. if you arnt towing ?????

txpete · 12-01-2012, 07:48 PM

I mentioned about a year ago my 2011 dually had severe cupping on both front tires at about 15K miles, so I rotated the fronts and the outside backs, and installed new Billstein shocks in the front only. I mentioned that it does not look good since the polished rims are not polished on the inside and I did not remount the tires! But, the good news is that at 33K miles, no cupping on the front tires with new shocks! Oh BTW, I tow at max weight for the vehicle (aux tank in bed) almost 100% of the time, and I can not imagine why Ford planned a dually tow truck with those shocks and, as mentioned above, this front end design?

Liammurphy · 12-02-2012, 06:09 AM

Thanks for all the info, The truck is 4wd, and I tow/haul alot, it has a pretty heavy flat bed dump on it, and I load that with stone/brick block lumber etc quite often, and I tow a around at least 8k when I have my skidsteer and trailer behind it. The truck hauls like no other, but I will take it to my dealer and mention aligning it to compensate for loads, and maybe it would be good to consider some tougher shocks/steering stabilizers in the front...the front tire wear is still at a minimal and I want to get it fixed before it gets any worse, hopefully they cover it under warranty...

Liammurphy · 12-02-2012, 06:12 AM

oh BTW the truck weighs about 10,000 lb empty

baddna · 12-02-2012, 10:25 AM

I had the problem on an early 03 with Rancho branded Motorcraft shocks. I put adjustable real Ranchos on the front, replaced the tires and all is good. This truck has a slide in camper on all the time.

STMPDUST · 12-02-2012, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liammurphy

Thanks for all the info, The truck is 4wd, and I tow/haul alot, it has a pretty heavy flat bed dump on it, and I load that with stone/brick block lumber etc quite often, and I tow a around at least 8k when I have my skidsteer and trailer behind it. The truck hauls like no other, but I will take it to my dealer and mention aligning it to compensate for loads, and maybe it would be good to consider some tougher shocks/steering stabilizers in the front...the front tire wear is still at a minimal and I want to get it fixed before it gets any worse, hopefully they cover it under warranty...

Thats what i thought, i do the same i tow a trailer that is 7500 empty and it has 2000 hitch weight empty, when it is full it weighs around 14500 give or take, and when it is loaded there is around 500 pounds hitch weight,its a chipper trailer combo so it gets loaded unloaded 2 times a day with about 100 miles driven each day, this really messes with the front tires, so i rotaate every 5000 miles to get good life out of them, i had older trucks duallys01,03,05,06 and added new quility shocks to the front and rear, and still had the tire wear, so my conclusions have led me to rotate every 5000 and live with the little extra wear on the fronts, the truck is a work truck and thats what it does, it makes me plenty of money to replace the front tires every 45 to 50 k along with the rear 4 tires

gtstang462002 · 12-10-2012, 07:37 PM

I had cupping issues on my dually as well. The cupping is on both the inside and outside of each tire on both sides At 30K I broke the tires down and rotated them front to rear and have checked tire pressure weekly to keep them set at what for recommends on the door, I am at 6k miles now on the rotate and they are staying even at this point. I think that I had the tire pressures off on the original tire positions. The round front tires on straight axle duallys seems to be common though looking around. Not just a ford issue.

txpete · 12-11-2012, 03:44 PM

gtstang, you don't mention how much and how often you tow? But, it's interesting that you did not rotate front-to-back until 30K miles. Did you consider new shocks in front like I did - I learned my lesson on my Chev 3500 dually in that even new shocks will wear out and cause cupping at 150K miles. I agree with the general theory that any dually will eventually have cupping on the front tires regardless of the quality of the tires, and the more towing the more cupping - why don't they design a dually for this?

gtstang462002 · 12-12-2012, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by txpete

gtstang, you don't mention how much and how often you tow? But, it's interesting that you did not rotate front-to-back until 30K miles. Did you consider new shocks in front like I did - I learned my lesson on my Chev 3500 dually in that even new shocks will wear out and cause cupping at 150K miles. I agree with the general theory that any dually will eventually have cupping on the front tires regardless of the quality of the tires, and the more towing the more cupping - why don't they design a dually for this?

I am hooked to a trailer about 40% of the time. My average load on the trailer is 17000 lbs with the weight of the trailer. I also push snow in the winter and am hanging an 1100lb plow off the front with a couple tons of salt in the bed. Straight axles by design won't change their alignment when weight is put on them like an IFS system will. If I add anything to my suspension it is going to be a set of Timbrens to help with the fact that I am probably overloading my truck. I am a member of the rear end chattering with a trailer club as well. As we used to say at the dealer "Quality is job 1"