Quote:
Originally Posted by Bushbasher
This is about tyre wear and looking for the cheapest fix I can live with...
.................................................. .
The problem is, the rear is still stiffer than the front causing the car to feel like the front is wandering on bumpy roads plus the rear eats the shoulders off the tyres because it doesn't lean over as much as the front in corners. Rotating them just means the front finishes the job with still 10-15k km worth of tread left in the middle of the tyre. If I don't rotate I'm changing rears at nearly twice the rate of the front because they take the shoulder down to canvas by just over half way through the tread life.
.................................................. .
Cheers
Bushbasher
|
I can't comment on your theory of why the rear tyres are wearing because I am not a suspension engineer, but speaking as an old mechanic, it is not something I have come across before.
My experience, similar to others above, is that if the live rear axle is not bent, and is aligned straight ahead, then tyre wear is usually very even across the tread, given correct inflation.
In fact my first thought is that it may just be the brand/type of tyre you are running causing the wear problem.
I can only refer to my BA LPG wagon I owned for 13 years. For a reasonable road tyre, but higher load rating for towing, I was recommended and ran through 2 sets of Yokohama A Drive tyres, 99H (high load), on standard 16” rims. They lasted for yonks, like 80000 kms, probably a little hard and I was always pretty careful in the wet, but they served me well. I don't rotate my tyres generally, so I can see what each wheel is doing and monitor wheel alignment as required by tyre wear - my BA never needed changing alignments. It was explained to me that the 99 load rating meant the tyres had stronger/stiffer side walls, but not as much as a light truck tyre.
To the suspension. I like a very standard car, but I wanted a bit more clearance for driving on unsealed roads. I found that King Springs made 30mm higher front coils which I preferred to purchase instead of having someone reheat and reset the standard springs. I took it to a respected suspension dealer in Perth, and asked for him to supply and fit those front coils , and reset the rear leafs by about the same amount. He had very good advice as he had done a lot of these for Main Roads WA apparently. He recommended fitting an extra leaf, but not resetting the original leafs, the extra leaf alone would make it about 35mm higher, and avoided any heat treatment of the standard leafs, also it made it a much quicker and cheaper job. And just that extra bit of load capacity for towing a caravan. All sounded good to me, and that's what was done.
The wagon sat quite level, and in fact most people would not notice it being higher, it looked good. It gave me about 175mm clearance under the front crossmember, and the rear axle had about the same, you cant increase that without going to bigger diameter wheels/tyres.
The car drove well, I did notice it could be a bit skittish in the rear on a bumpy wet road, but that was to be expected, drive accordingly.
Anyway, that is my experience with a similar vehicle.
Cheers.