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N-Trouble's avatar
N-Trouble
Explorer
Aug 21, 2016

Strange tire wear

Have a set of 305/55/20 Mickey Thompson ATZ P3 tires on my 2012 Duramax. They have been a great tire and are approaching 25k mi. I noticed as of late the tires are getting a bit loud when coming to a stop. Looking at the pic below of the front drivers side tire you can see some odd wear on the tread blocks. The leading edge of the tread has a lot less wear rhan the trailing edge. I run them about 50PSI when empty and 60PSI when towing. What causes this? Its only on the front treads. Back treads look to be wearing evenly across the tread block. I know Im due for a rotation. Last rotation was about 7-8k mi.

13 Replies

  • That's not strange wear. That's normal for big fat mudd tires on a heavy vehicle driven in a lot of curves at highway speeds and dry roads. (Barring any major front end issues which typically don't show as symmetrical wear on both tires and wouldn't be expected on a newer truck like yours in general )
    Having lived in many different climates, geographical conditions and lots of miles in 4x4 trucks with mudders is what tells me this is likely normal wear.
    For example, driving the city and mountains of Colorado,NM and AZ have yielded the worst front tire wear. High speed dry road curves just scrape off tread. That's why highway and steering tires have solid ribs on the outside. Twice as much rubber to tear off leads to longer lasting steer tires.
    Same driving conditions in W WA, AK and straight up x country road trips yield the best tire wear. WA and AK have a lot more wet and frozen weather which reduces tire wear all around significantly and especially steering tires cupping like your pic. Less coefficient of friction = longer tire life. And miles upon miles of straight interstate driving means less turns and less friction.

    Combined with my horrible luck/wear of MIckey T tires in the past, everyone has their favorite tire, oil, seat covers, truck brand and Mickeys are at the bottom of my preferred tire list.
  • Called "Feathering". Since your lugs are spread out more, it's more pronounced. Cause can be different things.. Worn shocks, worn ball joints, alignment..

    Rotate them as soon as you can and check out the other things to at least eliminate them as the cause.

    Sometimes it's just the nature of the beast when towing and driving a lot.

    Good luck!

    Mitch