Tire Feathering after alignment

[SFVdave]

My 2004 Winnebago Ford E350 has Michelin tires that were put on last January because of the recall. 2 months ago, I had it aligned for our fall trip to Arizona. Tires had no wear. We traveled about 1400 miles and most of it was fighting high gusty winds. Usually had the wheel at 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock for hours at a time. When calm, the MH tracked perfect. When we got home Saturday, I noticed that the tires had feathering not just on the outer edge, but across the entire tire.
Checking the web, I found that feather is usually due to toe in. Could the feathering be caused by the wind? I have the computerized alignment numbers before and after going back 6 alignments and the toe in is well within the perimeters set by the manufacturer and the after alignment numbers.
The front tires will probably have to be rotated either swapping sides or swapping sides with inner duals because of stems. Alignment shop only guarantees alignment for 30 days and it's 65 days. So I would probably have to pay for another alignment, or perhaps they may give me a break on price.
I think it's the wind! What do you think?
Oh, the tires were properly inflated for my weight and I checked them daily while on our trip.

[SFVdave]

Reading all the tire wear information I could find online, I discovered by closely examine my photos that it's not feathering. It's heal tow wear and cause by torque stress from miles of driving in the wind! Take a closer look at the photos.

[SFVdave]

CarringB, I don't think it's from heavy braking. I anticipate my stops and have the original lining with over 60K. I hardly used the brakes at all as most of the trip thru Arizona was open highway, but boy did we have wind. The speed limit was 75 and I was doing 60mph. Semi's were passing me all the time and knocking us around even more. Weather report was winds 30-45 with gusts to 60. I would say we had windy conditions for over 800 miles of the trip out and back.

[carringb]

That feathering is from braking. It's normal when you have a heavy rig and tires with aggressive siping. I get it too. I just swap them side to side periodically to even it out.

[SFVdave]

the DW wasn't around to do the toe in check. In the meantime, I took photos of the passenger's side then the drivers's side.
Here are the photos:

[tpi]

Your MH has needed 6 alignments in it's life? What were the causes of the un-alignment each time?

Seems like a lot to me too. Are you driving lots of miles?

Always consider the cost of the alignments vs. savings in tire wear. Many of us replace tires due to age because we don't run up enough miles. A bit of extra tire wear in that case is meaningless.

Considering how far my steering wheel has been cranked over in strong crosswind, I would have no doubt this would cause scrub and extra tire wear.

[ron_dittmer]

I support the idea that severe cross winds sustained over days at a time while driving across the Great Plains, cause uneven scalloped front tire wear. That has been my experience, both with our previous and current-day rigs. With our old Toyota-based rig of 24 years, I used to dismount the front tires from their rims and flip them, remounted so the better thread is in the better place, just to get more miles of use from them. With our current rig, it is not yet time to take any action.

For the record here, both our previous rig and current rig have good wheel alignments.

[bdpreece]

Just a thought but; when you had it aligned was the coach fully loaded including water tank etc. I once had a new coach eat a set of front tires in a little more than a thousand miles. Dealer said it had been aligned empty when built and that after loading I should have had it re-aligned.

[SFVdave]

Thanks for all the info. Will go out this morning after breakfast and look at he feathering patterns and do the toe test with needles. should have an update posted in 2-3 hours.

[j-d]

Can a properly aligned RV wear tires unevenly, QUICKLY, in severe cross winds = YES!

What to do now...?

You can check Toe yourself by driving forward on a flat, nearly level surface like a concrete driveway. Drive straight forward and stop gently with the brakes. Stick a Hat Pin straight into the edge of the tread of each tire. Perpendicular to the tread, as if you'd hit a roofing nail sitting on its head. One each side, trailing edge of tire, as high as you can and still sight straight across. The Radius Arms will keep you from going as high as the center of the spindle. You can get maybe 11" off the ground. Have your Helper hold the hook of your Tape Measure on the far pin while you measure the spread to the near pin. Then drive forward till the pins are about the same height off the ground and stop again. Measure again. Spread should be equal to (Zero Toe) or a little less than (Toe In) by 1/8" to maybe 1/4".

Front end will Toe OUT if the linkage is worn. Park straight ahead, steering wheel unlocked. Go under with a large pair of Channel Lock "Water Pump" pliers and squeeze the four steering linkage joints. Squeeze with one jaw next to the Grease Fitting and the other on or by the Stud and Nut (where the Cotter Pin is). There should be Little to NO compression of the joint.

Or take it to that alignment shop and ask them to check the front end for wear.

If you rotate, you can do what I did with fronts feathered on one edge. Rotate to rear. I didn't want wear to show so I went to the Inners. A couple heavy duty truck tire techs gave me a lot of tire tips. One was to put the wear on dual tires "between" the tires. In my case that meant flipping the tires on their rims. There's nothing wrong with reversing the rotational direction of modern radial tires. The very first ones developed a "set" and would come "unscrewed" if run backwards. No longer true.

[CapriRacer]

Sagecoachdriver wrote:
My 2004 Winnebago Ford E350 has Michelin tires that were put on last January because of the recall. 2 months ago, I had it aligned for our fall trip to Arizona. Tires had no wear. We traveled about 1400 miles and most of it was fighting high gusty winds. Usually had the wheel at 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock for hours at a time. When calm, the MH tracked perfect. When we got home Saturday, I noticed that the tires had feathering not just on the outer edge, but across the entire tire.
Checking the web, I found that feather is usually due to toe in. Could the feathering be caused by the wind? I have the computerized alignment numbers before and after going back 6 alignments and the toe in is well within the perimeters set by the manufacturer and the after alignment numbers.
The front tires will probably have to be rotated either swapping sides or swapping sides with inner duals because of stems. Alignment shop only guarantees alignment for 30 days and it's 65 days. So I would probably have to pay for another alignment, or perhaps they may give me a break on price.
I think it's the wind! What do you think?
Oh, the tires were properly inflated for my weight and I checked them daily while on our trip.

Yes, a constant crosswind can cause feathering on your tires. It would be like trying to steer constantly in one direction and that causes the tires to develop a slip angle, which in turn causes the tires to develop feather wear.

[noteven]

Incorrect toe in feathering pattern should appear to be "opposite" on the other tire ...I think... if that makes sense...

Feather from hours of left or right rudder input to trim for crosswind should appear the same on both tires... I think... the one near side to the wind less than the opposite side because it was running more in line with the vehicle direction, the off side was running with "more toe in"..

Your MH has needed 6 alignments in it's life? What were the causes of the un-alignment each time?

We live in a windy place so alignments are kind of useful about 20% of the time 🙂 And our tires get scuffed off the other way because the wind generally manages to swing round so you are headed crossways into it on the way home too. 🙂

Just some ideas

[carringb]

Can you take a pic? The direction of a feathering is a good way to tell what is going on.