Better than a Man eating tyre I suppose.
Anyway, we’ve got a handful of 14 plate MAN TGX 26.480 which seem to eat through tyres in an unusual way. They wear a ridge on the outer edge of the offside tyre. Different vehicles do this and it happens with different brands of tyres. They’ve been in to main dealer and checked, but they can’t find anything wrong.
Anyone else have this happen?
Cheers, Cavey
Steer tyres?
My OE set of Goodyear steers wore alarmingly on both shoulders both sides but even like that they steered well, the replacement Bridgestones are not as good to drive on and they too are starting to wear on all shoulders, surprised to say this but the Goodyears were a better steer tyre IMO, but its too soon to tell if the Bridges will give better mileage.
Our are 6x2 440’s with small wheeled mid lifts and the mid lift is raised always when empty and off the highway (by me) when loaded at slow speeds.
I drove a Scania 6X4 over here that wore the edge of the front n/s tyre. The wheel alignment specialist said it was the bushes at the rear suspension, believe it or not, and that it was pretty common. I know it’s a different make, but it goes to show it might be the rear end that’s causing the problem. Well I’ve just reminded meself of a gorgeous bird round the corner 
I found bridgestones bad for this, i.m now running Tauras and after 100k no issues at all
Tyres only wear incorrectly if something is wrong with the lorry, alignment is a big factor and some of those laser machines are as much use as mud flaps on a tortoise. Especially the ones that require the wheel to be jacked up as it changes the geometry as soon as weight is lifted off the axle. Shoulder wear is almost always caused by toe on a 4x2 and on 6x2s it can also be caused by the rear axles relative position to each other, the two axles when viewed from above should not be parallel, but shaped like a wedge with a greater distance between the axle centers on one side, this counteracts the camber of the road and allows the vehicle to run down the road without pulling to the left.
However shoulder wear can also be caused by going around corners and roundabouts too fast, low pressure and not enough grease on the 5th wheel.
or a faulty Bridgestone tyre of which we had 6
newmercman:
Tyres only wear incorrectly if something is wrong with the lorry, alignment is a big factor and some of those laser machines are as much use as mud flaps on a tortoise. Especially the ones that require the wheel to be jacked up as it changes the geometry as soon as weight is lifted off the axle.
The latest ones take that into account. There are laser wheel alignment tools which are designed to be able to be used with a 2 post ramp. They featured them on Discovery Channels Wheeler Dealers.
Technology never stands still, but the one thing that these alignment machines, or more importantly their operators do wrong, is to align everything to within spec. That’s fine on a new vehicle, but as you get a bit of wear in all the individual components the geometry changes slightly and adjustments need to be made to counteract that.
Another mistake that’s made is to get new tyres fitted and then take the lorry for an alignment, this is totally wrong, the old worn tyres will tell an alignment specialist exactly what is wrong with the alignment as each different irregular wear pattern will tell them exactly what needs adjusting, you should always get an alignment done before fitting new tyres and if you take it in and they don’t look at the wear patterns on the worn tyres, then turn around and take it somewhere else.
Captain Caveman 76:
Better than a Man eating tyre I suppose.Anyway, we’ve got a handful of 14 plate MAN TGX 26.480 which seem to eat through tyres in an unusual way. They wear a ridge on the outer edge of the offside tyre. Different vehicles do this and it happens with different brands of tyres. They’ve been in to main dealer and checked, but they can’t find anything wrong.
Anyone else have this happen?
Cheers, Cavey
2 Axle or 3 Axle?
Happens on mine. By all accounts its down to cornering and roundabouts. It just seems to wear the outer edges out.
Are the diesel tanks on the same side ? Also does it have large fuel capacity ? The extra weight on 1 side can cause this wear
mark h:
Are the diesel tanks on the same side ? Also does it have large fuel capacity ? The extra weight on 1 side can cause this wear
Funny you mention that, my rear drive tyre on the off side is starting to look like a 50p piece!
That sounds more like a balance or shock absorber problem.
If the 50p shape of the tyre is feathered then it’s alignment, if it’s smooth then it’s a loose wheel bearing.
Conor:
newmercman:
Tyres only wear incorrectly if something is wrong with the lorry, alignment is a big factor and some of those laser machines are as much use as mud flaps on a tortoise. Especially the ones that require the wheel to be jacked up as it changes the geometry as soon as weight is lifted off the axle.The latest ones take that into account. There are laser wheel alignment tools which are designed to be able to be used with a 2 post ramp. They featured them on Discovery Channels Wheeler Dealers.
Some 5 gallon drums and good quality string works great .
Took it down to the fitters today, was told its because of uneven weight distrubtion that is causing the tire to skip when turning, the more it does it the worse it gets. Its common for our lot so they say because we do groupage. They’re coming down tomorrow hopefully to fit two new tyres to the offside drive.
So your lorry doesn’t have a rear diff then? Because that’s exactly what all the gubbins inside the drive axle does!
Just because its a newish truck doesn’t mean the alignment will be spot on. I’ve heard of trucks leaving factories with the alignment a mile out. I remember reading about an outfit who has all their brand new trucks checked and adjusted before they even go into service because they can be out.
■■■■ right there damoq, my lorry was new last year, it’s a 6x4 tractor, it had the wrong castor angle on the nearside and the rear axles were not central to each other, when viewed from above the rear drive axle stuck out two and a half inches further to the right than the front drive axle. It was shimmed to correct that and the castor angle was set correctly.
The first thing I do when I put a new lorry on the road is get the wheel nuts torqued up and send it for an alignment, this one was my 5th brand new lorry and I learned from bitter experience on the first one, I always spec (and pay the premium for) Michelin tyres, I lost a set of drive axle tyres on a Stralis in less than 6months due to an alignment problem. Lucky for me it wasn’t something an alignment shop could sort out and it had to go into IVECO to put it right. This took 6 weeks and I had murders over it, I picked up a rental unit when I took mine in and quite rightly refused to pay for it, I also demanded new Michelin tyres to replace the ones buggered by the faulty lorry they sold me.
I had to call a man I knew from my TRUCK days in IVECO HQ and threaten to chain myself naked to their railings and call the evening news people if I never got what I wanted, I was satisfied in the end, but what a lot of drama that could’ve been avoided if I’d had an alignment before I put the lorry to work!
It wears the tyres because you have a fixed steer lift axle.The truck has 4 wheels wanting to go straight and 2 that want to turn.
Once upon a time you had “floating” bag 2nd axles or direct 2nd steer systems but clearly this was too expensive.