What is wrong with my F150

[Terryallan]

It eats tires. The BF Goodrich Long trails that came on it lasted only about 20,000 miles. I put on some Cooper Discoverer Plus. Another 15,000 ish. Then I put on Michelins. And now at 65,000 miles on the truck. I'm getting ready to put on the 4th set of new tires.

Understand. The tires, all of them. Have worn evenly across the tire. The do not cup, and they are not out of round. I check the PSI regularly, and have them rotated at every oil change.
I'm just confused as to why they don't last. I kind of understood the Coopers. I pretty well burned them off. They were pretty hard, and being hard, were really easy to smoke. But I put a limited slip in, and stopped most of the smoking, But the Michelins are still worn down to with in 1/8" of the wear bars.

Am I alone in this?

[Grit_dog]

Funny post!
,

[GoPackGo]

I've found that the key to tire life is to do 3 things:

1. Keep the tires inflated to the recommended air pressure.

2. Rotate and balance. I like buying from Costco because they offer lifetime balancing and rotations. I take my vehicles in whenever I get the oil changed.

3. Keep it aligned. I really believe this is the key. I try to find a national chain where I can buy a 3 year alignment package. This usually doesn't cost much more then the price of 2 alignments and you can bring it in every week if you want to !

My last vehicle was a Honda Element. When I traded it, the tires (Michelins only !) had way more then 100,000 miles on them and were still in decent shape. Admittedly, an Element is a different beast then a truck, but the principals are the same. It's not rocket science. I've been driving for over 45 years and I've learned a few things.

Tim

[DianneOK]

In our over 50 years of diving each....we have never worn a tire out....other than the black and white work vechicles 🙂

[Mn_Redneck]

My Ram 2500 quad came with BFs 73000 miles and there still going!!!

[TRIPLE8]

Hi, not knowing if you live in flat or mountain (you say you are in the foothills). I cannot get more than 20000 miles on a set of tires. I live in the mountains and am probably one of the slowest drivers up here. combine that and pulling a trailer they will wear very fast.

[Oaklevel]

Wow........ guys

Any way to the OP I feel your pain I never would believed it but after owning a Hemi Dodge 8' Bed 4 Door as gentle as it could be driven, the back tires were wearing out twice as fast as the front. I stopped rotating tires on it. There just would not last either way. I have owned over 10 pickups over the years & it was the worst set up I have ever owned, the rear was just too light. not to mention it took me for a ride empty on the interstate at 55mph in a rain, With a small slope in the grass with no foot on the gas the tires would spin (2WD no limited slip)......... 🙂 my solution was to add two more tires to the back & a Cummins & limited slip.. & at least 2500 lbs. more.

[jdog]

down home wrote:

jdog wrote:

down home wrote:
Our F150 has factory limited slip. Probably time to examine the clutches and steels. It doesn't slip much. It is a 5.4, with 3.54 gears, I think. It can spin the tires if I demand it.
Maybe you have 3.73s? Maybe the rear end needs tightening up?
We had a couple, of Dodges with gear lockers, in the rear end. Even with the 3.18 it was exciting on wet turns. There was more wear, on the rears from turns. The gear lockers don't slip much, at all, under any power, in turns. Got pretty good tire wear, on the 2000 Dodge though.
Bad alignment, even if with factory tolerances can wear tires,on edges and cup etc. Having tough time to get Dealer to set exactly on spec and not with tolerances. He doesn't know or care but I think he just lost a Customer, if I don't change my mind.

The clutches wear in a limited slip. use to a rule of thumb to tighten the clutch pack at about 50,000 miles. I don't see a lot of slippage but probably should. The higher the numerical ratio, the lower the gear and the easier it is to spin the tires or for the tires to leave a little rubber even at reasonable acceleration becaause of torque multiplication. NHTSA forced a rule several years of max acceleration of 3.3 mph per mile per hr or some such. Slam the pedal to the floor and it accelerates worse than at 1.4 throttle. They played all kinds of games with the electronic master. reprogrammed you could probably burn the tires off.


Why would 3:73 make the tires spin? How do you "tighten the rear end"? I guess 3:73 must be super power gears, sure they are!

I know about gear ratios! Lower gears are for more pulling not spinning tires! By the way, limited slip rear ends only work at low speed, not when your going down the road.

[jdog]

down home wrote:

jdog wrote:

down home wrote:
Our F150 has factory limited slip. Probably time to examine the clutches and steels. It doesn't slip much. It is a 5.4, with 3.54 gears, I think. It can spin the tires if I demand it.
Maybe you have 3.73s? Maybe the rear end needs tightening up?
We had a couple, of Dodges with gear lockers, in the rear end. Even with the 3.18 it was exciting on wet turns. There was more wear, on the rears from turns. The gear lockers don't slip much, at all, under any power, in turns. Got pretty good tire wear, on the 2000 Dodge though.
Bad alignment, even if with factory tolerances can wear tires,on edges and cup etc. Having tough time to get Dealer to set exactly on spec and not with tolerances. He doesn't know or care but I think he just lost a Customer, if I don't change my mind.

The clutches wear in a limited slip. use to a rule of thumb to tighten the clutch pack at about 50,000 miles. I don't see a lot of slippage but probably should. The higher the numerical ratio, the lower the gear and the easier it is to spin the tires or for the tires to leave a little rubber even at reasonable acceleration becaause of torque multiplication. NHTSA forced a rule several years of max acceleration of 3.3 mph per mile per hr or some such. Slam the pedal to the floor and it accelerates worse than at 1.4 throttle. They played all kinds of games with the electronic master. reprogrammed you could probably burn the tires off.


Why would 3:73 make the tires spin? How do you "tighten the rear end"? I guess 3:73 must be super power gears, sure they are!

[down_home]

jdog wrote:

down home wrote:
Our F150 has factory limited slip. Probably time to examine the clutches and steels. It doesn't slip much. It is a 5.4, with 3.54 gears, I think. It can spin the tires if I demand it.
Maybe you have 3.73s? Maybe the rear end needs tightening up?
We had a couple, of Dodges with gear lockers, in the rear end. Even with the 3.18 it was exciting on wet turns. There was more wear, on the rears from turns. The gear lockers don't slip much, at all, under any power, in turns. Got pretty good tire wear, on the 2000 Dodge though.
Bad alignment, even if with factory tolerances can wear tires,on edges and cup etc. Having tough time to get Dealer to set exactly on spec and not with tolerances. He doesn't know or care but I think he just lost a Customer, if I don't change my mind.

The clutches wear in a limited slip. use to a rule of thumb to tighten the clutch pack at about 50,000 miles. I don't see a lot of slippage but probably should. The higher the numerical ratio, the lower the gear and the easier it is to spin the tires or for the tires to leave a little rubber even at reasonable acceleration becaause of torque multiplication. NHTSA forced a rule several years of max acceleration of 3.3 mph per mile per hr or some such. Slam the pedal to the floor and it accelerates worse than at 1.4 throttle. They played all kinds of games with the electronic master. reprogrammed you could probably burn the tires off.


Why would 3:73 make the tires spin? How do you "tighten the rear end"? I guess 3:73 must be super power gears, sure they are!

[jdog]

down home wrote:
Our F150 has factory limited slip. Probably time to examine the clutches and steels. It doesn't slip much. It is a 5.4, with 3.54 gears, I think. It can spin the tires if I demand it.
Maybe you have 3.73s? Maybe the rear end needs tightening up?
We had a couple, of Dodges with gear lockers, in the rear end. Even with the 3.18 it was exciting on wet turns. There was more wear, on the rears from turns. The gear lockers don't slip much, at all, under any power, in turns. Got pretty good tire wear, on the 2000 Dodge though.
Bad alignment, even if with factory tolerances can wear tires,on edges and cup etc. Having tough time to get Dealer to set exactly on spec and not with tolerances. He doesn't know or care but I think he just lost a Customer, if I don't change my mind.

[colliehauler]

I had that problem when I was 17 one set only made 5,000 miles. Now at 55 tires last a lot longer.:B

[fla-gypsy]

"What is wrong with my F150?"

The operator perhaps?

[down_home]

Our F150 has factory limited slip. Probably time to examine the clutches and steels. It doesn't slip much. It is a 5.4, with 3.54 gears, I think. It can spin the tires if I demand it.
Maybe you have 3.73s? Maybe the rear end needs tightening up?
We had a couple, of Dodges with gear lockers, in the rear end. Even with the 3.18 it was exciting on wet turns. There was more wear, on the rears from turns. The gear lockers don't slip much, at all, under any power, in turns. Got pretty good tire wear, on the 2000 Dodge though.
Bad alignment, even if with factory tolerances can wear tires,on edges and cup etc. Having tough time to get Dealer to set exactly on spec and not with tolerances. He doesn't know or care but I think he just lost a Customer, if I don't change my mind.

[old_guy]

when is the last time you had a thrust alignment?

[mark5w]

You are the cause. No excuse for burning out from stop except your lead foot. I could smoke my twin turbo F150 IF I want to. But I don't want to burn up my tires.