My truck is broken....

My 2009 came thru with OEM General Grabber TRs, not the AW's. The TRs have served me well so far. I do rotate every 4-5K miles and I do it myself. The biggest problem I had were those crazy plastic wheel covers that GM used. Every time I pulled them off a few of the plastic locking tabs would break off, and I was very careful each time. Finally threw them in the garbage and bought a set of stainless steel covers off ebay.

Just thinking out loud but maybe a long period of those steering components not being right caused quicker tire wear.

Replaced mine at ~ 70000 Km also had the steering shaft replace at ~ 30000 Km.

The idler arm/pitman arm and tie rod ends are the long known weak spots of the earlier(don't know if they ever fixed it or not) Duramax trucks. I added a kit similar to the Alligator Performance one and some HD tie rod sleeves when I bought our 2006 truck. I think it particularly showed up if using oversize tires. I'm over the GVW and driving the much rougher roads in Mexico so some homework and a few upgrades were necessary. All of these trucks have a couple of weak spots, the truck forums are great places to find them as the folks who abuse them intentionally live there. We tend hard on them as well due to the loads we carry. JMHO

kerry4951 wrote:
What make tires are you now using?? I know the selection is scarce with the size 17" tires that we use.

The difficulty in finding tires, and my saga about the ordeal almost warrants a whole new thread!! LOL.

When I replaced the rear tires, they had tread life left, but I don't think they'd have made it more than another 10k miles or so.

One failed (sidewall puncture) last year on my way home from Overland Expo (OX12).

Between the time one failed and getting it replaced, I bought two used tires and wheels as a temporary solution and put them on the front.

I had Discount Tires road hazard certificate on all 6 tires, so that's where I went to get the tire replaced. The OEM tire was no longer made (General Grabber AW), so Discount Tire got a different style of General tire, a Grabber TR.

I put the new ones on the front. I made a few trips with them then the truck started to vibrate and shake, as if one was out of balance.
Discount checked them, the balance was fine. Their thought was something was wrong with the truck. I took the truck to the dealer and they said everything was fine. (I'm betting the steering parts were worn out then, and they didn't find the problem). This was last fall, at which point the truck didn't get driven much anymore since it mostly hauls the camper (for summer camping) and isn't my daily driver.

My next plan was to swap out the new tires and put the two used tires on the truck and drive it, and see if the shake went away - this would tell me if it was a truck problem or a tire problem. Months went by and I didn't get that done until January of this year. Truck had been mothballed for the winter, and what little driving I was doing was all local, so I put of the tire swap for months.

I put the used tires on, problem solved.

I took the tires back to Discount. They checked them and said both of them apparently had some belt separation problems. At most I only put about 1000 miles on those tires.
Discount replaced them with the same tire. I didn't put them on the truck... it was more convenient just to keep running the used ones for the time being since at this point I didn't have a place to jack the truck and swap the tires, and I wasn't inclined to make a trip to Discount tire in the truck, with the camper on it, and two tires thrown in the back seat of the truck, just to get them put on and the used ones removed (I had a spare pair of tires and wheels, so I was good continuing like that)

Fast forward to this summer and I had another OEM tire c-r-a-p out. The valve stem failed. I have no idea how long I drove it flat. It was good when I left my destination, and flat when I got home 200 miles later. I'm not one to take chances, so I decided to replace it since who knows what damaged it might have incurred while running flat, as well as the other tire being severely overloaded (camper on truck, towing a trailer).

So I go to Discount again, now I find out that the Grabber TR is no longer made, but there's still some in the pipeline, but scattered all over the country. I hemmed and hawed about getting those or trying a different tire, but I never like the idea of running two different tread patterns on a 4WD truck due to "unequal traction" that can occur between the front and rear axles when in 4WD. I decided to get the same tire (Grabber TR). Discount ordered them in.

A week or so later, the tires arrived, but I started to have second thoughts about using a tire that was discontinued. With my bad luck with tires, if another one failed, I'd be right back to square one with the hassle of trying to find a no longer made tire, or being forced in to odd ball set of tires again.... so I had lengthy discussion with Discount tire, they agreed to take back the brand new tires that I'd gotten in January and get me something that is currently manufactured.

The tire choices in the rare size used on 07.5-2010 DRW GM trucks is very limited and tire shops don't typically even stock that size.

What few manufacturers make them, only make in them very limited tread choices. Several that Discount Tire had access to were little known brand names, like Hankook and a few other I can't remember.

Cooper was one of the few well known brand names, so that's what I decided on even though the tread is much more aggressive than I need.

At this point I have 4 Cooper Discoverer AT3 tires and have them on the rear. The two fronts should be here tomorrow or next week.

Oh, and these tires are stamped MADE IN USA on the sidewall, so we have a WINNER as far as I'm concerned.

deltabravo wrote:

I didn't get very good tread life out of the OEM tires (General Grabber something or other)

We have the exact same truck (year, make,model). Mine also had the General OEM tires and I ended up getting almost 50K miles out of the original set before replacing. Actually I dont recall ever getting that much mileage out of any OEM tires on any of my vehicles. What make tires are you now using?? I know the selection is scarce with the size 17" tires that we use.

Peg Leg wrote:
I replaced it, ball joints, bushings on my 97 before I went to Alaska, had 197,000 on the ticker. My new one is at 37,000 and no problems. Plan on a little trek through the snow Sat. Latest for southern Indiana is 4-8".

Hi Peg Leg, I see you're from Anderson. Our younger son goes to college up there. We live about one hour and forty five minutes south of you. We're supposed to get 7 plus inches of snow tomorrow.

Looks like I should consider buying this kit:


http://www.alligatorperformance.com/product-p/cog-pisk2008.htm

I replaced it, ball joints, bushings on my 97 before I went to Alaska, had 197,000 on the ticker. My new one is at 37,000 and no problems. Plan on a little trek through the snow Sat. Latest for southern Indiana is 4-8".

Bubtoofat wrote:
... Are you running oversize tires or non stock bling wheels?
Mike

All stock.

The dealer has alignment capabilities and I will have to pay for that - the warranty won't cover it.

The front tires have been wearing funny. I have two new replacement tires on the way, which I ordered on Monday, prior to knowledge of the front end problem.

The rear tires were replaced in August.
I didn't get very good tread life out of the OEM tires (General Grabber something or other)