tire sidewalls

[sleepywheel]

My 2009 Chev CC 4x4 2500HD has an unusual problem with the front tires. With the truck fully loaded at its 9200 lb. GVW weight, I find that the steer tires will roll over onto the sidewalls when I turn a corner. There are scuff marks about 1/3rd of the way up the sidewalls and on both front tires, though a little moreso on the passenger side than the drivers side. The tires are Bridgestone Duravis M700 load range E LT265/70R17 and inflated to 80 psi cold. The tires are the original factory tires and have 10,000 miles on them.

Anyone have any ideas or experiences with this problem? Should I try inflating them a few more psi and see what happens? The tires are rated for a maximum pressure of 80. I'd hate to blow out a sidewall turning a corner at a busy intersection.

[RockyRoadCamper]

Buy the highest side wall rating you can afford. I think ours are G or
H.

[5percent]

It is most likely alignment. Your description sounded exactly like our issue right down to the passenger side tire being more worn on the outside.

We just had our truck alignment adjusted to allow for the shift in weight caused by the camper. The guy who did the work explained it all very carefully and hopefully fixed the problem. We will find out as we are about to leave on a trip. He told me to come back when we returned from the trip and he would re-check the tire wear patterns to see if all was as it should be.

5percent

[sleepywheel]

silversand wrote:

SleepyWheel wrote:
The tires are Bridgestone Duravis M700 load range E LT265/70R17 and inflated to 80 psi cold. The tires are the original factory tires and have 10,000 miles on them.

....if you have the OEM rubber-stemmed valve stems on those rims, you'd better check their air pressure rating! You may have valve stems rated only to 60/65 PSI. Check this out ASAP.

....now, back to the possible side-wall roll: I would have the front end (IFS) of that truck checked out with your full load on-board at a reputable shop.

Good luck,
Silver-

Thanks. The OEM valve stems are rubber and a tire shop wants $100 to put in the upgraded metal valve stems. That's going to happen next week.

It's also going into the alignment shop next week. I'm thinking that the front end was aligned from the factory with an empty truck and now that it's loaded down, the camber is way out. That's what happened with my previous cube van, worn the tread off the inside of the tire really quickly.

[GeoBoy]

delete

[silversand]

SleepyWheel wrote:
The tires are Bridgestone Duravis M700 load range E LT265/70R17 and inflated to 80 psi cold. The tires are the original factory tires and have 10,000 miles on them.

....if you have the OEM rubber-stemmed valve stems on those rims, you'd better check their air pressure rating! You may have valve stems rated only to 60/65 PSI. Check this out ASAP.

....now, back to the possible side-wall roll: I would have the front end (IFS) of that truck checked out with your full load on-board at a reputable shop.

Good luck,
Silver-

[sleepywheel]

Thanks for the replies everyone. My first inklings that something was wrong was when a tire guy looked at my tires and said that I was rolling the tires onto the sidewalls when turning. After reading some of the comments posted on this thread, I dropped by a different tire shop this morning and asked them to have a look. According to them, the marks on my tires are not caused by rolling over onto the sidewalls but caused by curbing. That confuses me because I don't remember parking or driving near curbs. My driveway is wide with no curbing and the places I go to all have docks with flat level pavement everywhere.

I originally started out with the mfgr's recommended tire pressures of 50 psi front and 72 psi in the rear, which was fine with the truck empty. Once I put the weight on, the truck felt squirrely when driving so I raised the pressures to 80 psi for all four wheels. It now drives and feels solid though I'll have to do the chalk line trick once I figure out what's going on.

On my way home tonight, I dropped by the scales and weighed my truck. Total weight was 8900 lbs with 5120 on the rear and 3780 on the front.

I guess what I have to do now is to clean off all the scrub marks and watch to see when they appear.

[chevor]

How much weight is on the front end? I think its rated for 4800 pounds.

[adayjk]

Is this happening only at full, or very near full, steering lock? If so, it is not a problem. To help with turning radius all sorts of odd looking things happen at full lock.

If you mean cornering at speed (above 10mph) and this is happening, first things first. Verify that your tire gauge is correct. I know you will say that all the other tires are fine with the same gauge, but the fronts are the only ones that get turned at speed. If you thought you had 80 psi and really had 50 psi it could be the problem.

[d3500ram]

Just brainstorming here and thinking outside the box (or circle, as it were...)

Are the rims correct width for the tires in question?

Perhaps the tires are overinflated causing the condition?? (I know, it doesn't makes sense, but just tossing the idea out for discussion.) I set my tire PSI per the TRUCK recommended pressure for front/ rear not max as determined my the tire mfgr.

[jimh406]

Raften wrote:
Can't get my head around how they would roll up that much at 80 psi.

That's why I'm suggesting it isn't the tires.

[MTRhino]

I put 45,000 miles on the M700's that came on my truck with no problems. Most of those miles were hauling or towing or both. I replaced them with a different tire because I need more winter and off road traction, but I did like the Duravis for handling and wear.

[Raften]

Can't get my head around how they would roll up that much at 80 psi.

[CapriRacer]

I'm struggling with this. Are you sure the scuffing is from the tire rolling over and not from hitting curbs or the like?

Are you also sure the vehicle is loaded properly and not front heavy?

[jimh406]

I think its a independent suspension overloaded or out of adjustment issue.