Ok I have 33" Tires on 15x8 wheels, Recently my truck has been vibrating threw the steering wheel like crazy so I figured I needed an alignment, took it in and they checked it, everything was just about right. well I had them rotate the tires and now everything is 100 times better, but I was wondering what couldve caused this to happen? The wear is only on the inside but it is sparatic. I was thinking maybe bad shocks? So I replaced the fronts, is there anything else I should look for?

 

suspension components
the wheels werent bolted on correctly
shocks
uneven tire PSI

i'm sure people can add to this...

 

A situation where you have wear on the inside only is indicative of negative camber, something an offroad truck shouldn't have.....

The alignment checked out okay?

Also, I'm confused as to how the uneven wear caused vibrations....and it shouldn't totally go away....even though you moved it to the back, you should feel it in your seat, even though the steering wheel is smooth now. Vibrations don't just disappear unless you re-balance the wheel or replace it altogether.

I'm voting for it being a loose mounting of the wheel, which has been corrected.

 

have you had your tires ballance recently?

 

Well, I still do feel the vibration in the rear end! not a much as I did when the tires were in front. I just didnt want this to happen to the tire I moved to the front, and just have a full set of crappy tires then. Hopefully it will be fine!

 

Assuming that you have a 98+ Ranger, your front suspension is of the Short-Long Arm type. It is a characteristic of SLA suspensions that the camber goes negative at both the top and bottom of suspension travel because of the shorter length of the upper control arms.

When you cranked your torsion bars to push those 33's farther away from the truck, you also moved closer to the top of the suspension travel. That made your camber more negative than the factory intended which wears the inside edges of the front tires.

It sounds like you have erratic cupping wear of the tires as well. Although this can be aggravated by loose steering/suspension components or bad shocks, it is more often a characteristic wear pattern of the tire itself, especially aggressive off-road tires. You can reduce the cupping by regular rotation per the owner's manual. It is also important that you get the alignment checked. Excessive negative camber or other misalignment can wear your expensive tires much more quickly.

 

Unbalanced tires. Or tires could possibly be out of round.

 

thats what i was hinting at.

 

Most likely you will have to spring for the "camber adjustment kits"
runs about 100$ for both sides.
Most shops will install them free as part of an alignment if they are needed.


ASK ME HOW I KNOW!

Rand

 

Torsion bar crank = excessive inside tire wear.

Also get your ball joints checked.

People will tell you that you can crank the bars and the camber doesn't change. They are full of it.

 

Hey i had the same thing with my swampers....I forgot to post this....The reason mine did it maybe same for you...Our Trucks arent heavy enough to keep them down all the time..the tires were to heavy for the truck..We put them on a Full size and they ride like a dream..So big tires on a light truck aint always good but hell im still gonna do it again

 

Thats what mine look like. Swap em to the back and do a few burnouts and you will be good.

 

Hey, Luke, I got that steering rack installed today. What a job. Just shoot me if I ever say I'm doing it again...

 

mine do the same thing, though it seems when i crank the front end off of the ground on a jack the tires toe in, and when put down toe back out, so shouldnt it wear the outside of the tire more with the tbar crank? looking at our suspension setup i would think it would work the opposite way but thats what ive noticed. because they toe out when the suspension compresses i would guess that the wear on the inside would be from braking, since thats when the most force to change anything is on the tires.

 

The camber goes more negative at the top and at the bottom of the suspension travel. Negative camber means that the tops of the tires tilt inward slightly when viewed fron the front.

Like this but not as pronounced -> / \

This causes rapid wear to the insides of the front tires.

When the torsion bars are cranked to raise the front of the truck, the static suspension height moves into the negative camber range. The higher you crank them, the worse the problem becomes.

 

i always thought that when you cranked the t-bars you got positive camber like this \ / and wear on the outside of ther tires and if you let them out to lower the truck you got netigive camber like this / \ and inside tire wear

 

A Twin I-beam or Twin Traction Beam Ford suspension doesn't have torsion bars but it behaves that way when raised and lowered. With an SLA (Short-Long Arm) suspension (any Ranger 98+), camber goes more negative at both extremes.