Bowlegged F350

[adeakins]

I need help. I bought my F350 DRW longbed new in 2020. Since day one, this truck eats the outside edges of the front tires. Sounds like a camber issue. Looks like a camber issue. It isn’t a camber issue. I’ve had just about as many alignments as oil changes. Ford shops, truck specialty shops and independents with sterling reputations, all have had a shot at this. I run the Michelins which is what came on the truck. I’ve had Ford dealers tell me it is what it, live with it. But I can’t keep throwing $700+ at local tire dealers (yeah, I’ve asked them, too) every 15,000 to 20,000 miles. It does seem to be affected by the whether you drive straight roads or mountain. I drive both. Straight in the winter (Arizona) and mountain in the summer (western NC). Some tell me it’s because it’s a DRW but I look at every DRW I get close to and most don’t seem to have this problem. I have a friend who has a GM DRW. He drives mostly mountain roads and he gets some of this wear but not like my Ford.

 

[Badbart56]

At what mileage are you rotating your tires?

 

[jasin1]

I need help. I bought my F350 DRW longbed new in 2020. Since day one, this truck eats the outside edges of the front tires. Sounds like a camber issue. Looks like a camber issue. It isn’t a camber issue. I’ve had just about as many alignments as oil changes. Ford shops, truck specialty shops and independents with sterling reputations, all have had a shot at this. I run the Michelins which is what came on the truck. I’ve had Ford dealers tell me it is what it, live with it. But I can’t keep throwing $700+ at local tire dealers (yeah, I’ve asked them, too) every 15,000 to 20,000 miles. It does seem to be affected by the whether you drive straight roads or mountain. I drive both. Straight in the winter (Arizona) and mountain in the summer (western NC). Some tell me it’s because it’s a DRW but I look at every DRW I get close to and most don’t seem to have this problem. I have a friend who has a GM DRW. He drives mostly mountain roads and he gets some of this wear but not like my Ford.

My 2020 Ram dually does the same thing….replaced front tires before I hit 20k the tread still looked great but the outside edges were cupping and made my front end vibrate and felt like a flat spot on the tires…I wondered if it could have anything to do with all the maneuvering at slow speeds…turning the wheel the opposite way while the tires are hot from driving and trying to back into a site can’t be the best thing to do with the tires while at a dead stop.
It’s more then likely just front end alignment though but it tracks straight

 

[Mark-wny]

WAG (wild azz guess). Limited-slip rear end??? What did Darrell Waltrip used to say…
“pushin like a dump truck”

A lot of rubber in the back firmly planted on the road under a lot of weight.
Turn the steering wheel and she just wants to keep going straight.

 

[fjr vfr]

I second what Mark said. If you're hauling a heavy 5th wheel the front tires are working real hard to get the whole thing going in a different direction. You might try boosting up the pressure a little more in the front?
I assume your truck is a 4x4? If it were a 4x2 you could try a different profile tire.

 

[Camp-a-Palooza]

I used to be a tire guy so when I first looked ay current truck the 1st thing I noticed was the wear on the outer edges of the front tires. I was told by the Dealer it was because it was a dually to which I said B.S. This truck goes down the road straight as an arrow and the alignment is good. I've done some research and it appears the explanation is not B.S.

 

[Raptor Dave]

On a dually you'll be better off to rotate your tires about every 5-7K max.
Will it stop it? No, but it'll even the wear out better.
I run a hard 77-78psi in the front.
YMMV
:whistling:

 

[vampress]

That is a strange one to hear. I have a 2019 F-350 DRW and can’t say I’ve seen an issue like that with ours. It mainly is used towing the fifth wheel or our horse trailer and rarely driven without towing anything. I do have all the tires rotated every other oil change, which means they are rotated about every 200 hours, which works out to about every 10,000 miles. The first set of OEM tires were replaced last fall at a little under 55,000 miles on them. I did not see any funky wear on them, just plain down to wear bars on the tires. The new set of tires are wearing just fine also and have about 20,000 miles on them.

 

[workinonit]

I too have never heard of this phenomenon. That would drive me nuts. Pretty much makes my mind up about getting a dually.

 

[Notanlines]

I also have never heard of this. Our F450 presently has 81,000 with tires never rotated. The front Continental tires are in need of replacement, but only natural after 81k.
Ford dealer will replace the two front tires when our new truck arrives, but that was part of our agreement.
None of our dually company trucks had this trouble as I remember.

 

[essarebee]

I haven't experienced this, or heard of such a problem. I only have 30,000 miles on my 2017 F-350 DRW and I replaced the tires only because of age. I did quite a bit of research before getting the dually and I never ran across this complaint. I tow a 5th wheel camper. As a side note somewhat unrelated - I have premium wheels and Ford says to not rotate the inner duallys unless there is a problem. The inner wheels are, of course, steel wheels unlike the other 4 decorative premiums. So, I simply swap the 2 front wheels side to side, and the rear exterior wheels side to side every 6,000 miles.

 

[Hoopy Frood]

My 2020 Ram dually does the same thing….replaced front tires before I hit 20k the tread still looked great but the outside edges were cupping and made my front end vibrate and felt like a flat spot on the tires…I wondered if it could have anything to do with all the maneuvering at slow speeds…turning the wheel the opposite way while the tires are hot from driving and trying to back into a site can’t be the best thing to do with the tires while at a dead stop.
It’s more then likely just front end alignment though but it tracks straight

Not too unusual with a Ram dually. The toe-in is set according to the factory settings, but that won't work many times, the toe-in should be set differently. Here is a good explanation of why and what: https://www.thurenfabrication.com/pages/2013-2022-ram-3500-alignment?srsltid=AfmBOoor1f7KOmEjz3mfvOXrR8NqeCA2FQ3dneCPdaxo54NX1_DUsjkD

 

[JABURKHOLDER]

On a dually, with alloy rims, the only way to rotate tires is unmount the tire and remount on a rim in different location.
Moving the tires side to side does nothing. The outer edge is still the outer edge.
If you have steel rims, tire rotation is no problem.

 

[Badbart56]

On a dually, with alloy rims, the only way to rotate tires is unmount the tire and remount on a rim in different location.
Moving the tires side to side does nothing. The outer edge is still the outer edge.
If you have steel rims, tire rotation is no problem.

Regardless of which rims you have the bottom line is, you can rotate them (properly) or you can replace them.

 

[geo-KEY]

This is not that uncommon. Even when I had a F350 DRW with a 2011 Alpine, this "unusual" wear happened. And, actually, this has been discussed years ago on this Forum. When hitched up, the rear is lowered slightly. With the front end lifted a bit, the toe-in, if aligned correctly, will slightly tilt the tires so that the outer band wears a bit more than the inner band of the tire. There's two solutions, as has been discussed. Either adjust the toe-in against the specifications to not toe-in as much. Yes, this means that the inner band of the tire will wear more when not loaded. Or, as I did, install air bags on the rear axle and adjust the pressure to tow more level. At this time, on my F450, I have to run around 80 PSI in the air bags to keep from wearing the front tires on the outside band.

Just my two cents,
Ron

 

[Boomguy-KEY]

Hello,
I used to deal with this a long time ago on f350 trucks at work.
So hookup to your trailer and have the rear axle weighed, then unload the truck and re weigh it.
Get the unloaded weight and add weight to the bed of your truck to simulate the loaded truck weight with trailer and have it realigned at the loaded weight and that should help with tire wear issue.
I did this trick on our trucks after numerous tire replacements and tire wear was helped tremendously.

 

[Notanlines]

Boom, I’m going to ask what most of us are curious about: What did you put in the bed that weighed 4,000 pounds? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[vampress]

Regardless of which rims you have the bottom line is, you can rotate them (properly) or you can replace them.

I agree. Ours get rotated about every 10,000 miles. And yes, it takes a couple hours for the oil change and tire rotate since they have to demount and remount all 6 tires. But, at least I got decent wear out of them, even if my first set was the factory Michelins that I didn’t like.

 

[Raptor Dave]

Whether you like the place or not. One of the reasons I purchased tires at Discount Tire is free rotation. I have aluminum rims on the outside and a steel rim on the inner rear. All 3 rims are different so all 3 must be broke down and mounted.
One other reason was 12 months same as cash!
If I can use someone else money free for a year I'm all in. :bow:
Some will think that they just add the interest to the price of the tires.
They were the least inexpensive place I could find on the internet. (at the time I purchased)
I have them put the front to the inner rear.
Inner rear to the outside rear.
Outside rear to the front.
Keeping the tires on the same side.
Before purchasing new tires I called around and was quoted prices as high as 325 to rotate them. Some give you a little discount if you purchased them at their store.
It was a no brainer for me.

 

[Boomguy-KEY]

Boom, I’m going to ask what most of us are curious about: What did you put in the bed that weighed 4,000 pounds? Inquiring minds want to know!

We actually used counter weights for swing stage cantilever beams that weigh 55lbs each.
We had also gotten a truck load of gravel. That worked well since it was needed anyway.
You could ask if you could borrow a truckload of gravel and return it and maybe buy them lunch.
Lowe’s also sells big bags of material that you could grab 2 of and then return after alignment.