Tire Edge Fethering On '05 And Up Obs Trucks

pm26 · January 25, 2008

OK, I want some answers on this. More and more posters are bringing up this same issue - excessive feathering of the outer edges of front tires on '05-'07 OBS 1500 series. I have this issue with my truck too. I had to rotate the tires at 3k miles and had the truck aligned. It helped a little, but it did not cure the problem. Why is GM not addressing this issue and issuing a service bulletin for this?

The rear tires do not exhibit this type of wear. Which tells me it is not a tire problem, but front end alignment issue. i was advised to drop the front camber setting to 0.0 degrees. It is presently slightly positive : 0.1 degrees. Positive camber means the wheels are slightly angled inward. The toe-in is slightly positive also, but only about 0.03 degrees, which should not cause a problem.

What IS THE permanent FIX for this? Why was this not an issue with pre '05 trucks? What is the target alignment setting? Why isn't this issue addressed in greater detail? It also seems that not everybody had this issue. Which confirms that it is probably alignment related.

I am getting ready to get the front end realigned and request 0.0 and 0.00 camber and toe settings. The caster is OK, as the truck does not pull.

Note: The alignment specs for these trucks are extremely liberal and sloppy. The range of acceptable settings is simply too wide. As a rule these settings must be numerically equal on both sides. Somebody needs to come up with a good set of target alignment settings to minimize the front tire wear on the edges. Tires are expensive and I would like to get at least 40k out of the OEM tires. Has anybody switched to better quality tires and watched the problem disappear? Are the OEM Bridgestones too soft to wear rapidly on the edges? As I have already stated, this does not happen on the rear tires which are fixed on a rigid axle with presumed 0.0 toe, camber, and caster settings.

Zembonez · January 25, 2008

Every GM truck I ever owned has feathered the fronts. It's inherent in the suspension design. It's a result of weight, steering geometry, etc. As long as I keep them rotated I never really have any issue.

The trucks our company has never been able to keep tires on are Fords. They eat front tires... always have.

pm26 · January 26, 2008

Every GM truck I ever owned has feathered the fronts. It's inherent in the suspension design. It's a result of weight, steering geometry, etc. As long as I keep them rotated I never really have any issue.

The trucks our company has never been able to keep tires on are Fords. They eat front tires... always have.

Thanks for the response. This topic came up before and some claim that they do not have this problem. If so, how can it be inherent in the suspension design? Do you cross rotate the tires, i.e. left front to right rear and right front to left rear? And how often?

Zembonez · January 26, 2008

Every GM truck I ever owned has feathered the fronts. It's inherent in the suspension design. It's a result of weight, steering geometry, etc. As long as I keep them rotated I never really have any issue.

The trucks our company has never been able to keep tires on are Fords. They eat front tires... always have.

Thanks for the response. This topic came up before and some claim that they do not have this problem. If so, how can it be inherent in the suspension design? Do you cross rotate the tires, i.e. left front to right rear and right front to left rear? And how often?

I really wish I knew why they do it. I had several realigned with no improvement. I generally just rotate front to rear and they seem to wear ok. I rotate about every 10K. I'm 100% with you on the fact that they probably shouldn't do it. Upper and lower control arm setups like pre GMT900 trucks seem to all do it (at least the ones I have had). Even my S10 Blazer years ago did. I drive fairly aggressively but not like Mario Andretti...

So far my GMT900 isn't doing it yet but I only have about 5000 miles on it. It is quite a different front end setup so maybe they fixed it.

pm26 · January 26, 2008

When you had the truck realigned, what settings did they change? The toe setting is the one primarily responsible for uneven tire wear, but like I said, mine is so close to zero that I do not expect this to be the main cause.

Zembonez · January 26, 2008

When you had the truck realigned, what settings did they change? The toe setting is the one primarily responsible for uneven tire wear, but like I said, mine is so close to zero that I do not expect this to be the main cause.

I don't think they did much actually. I just had an alignment done because I "thought" I had a problem. A friend owns my dealership so they did it under warranty. I don't think it actually changed anything as far as wear went. Those suspensions go through a lot of camber change when you turn because of the design. That may be a factor in the new truck redesign.

I hope the new ones are as durable as the GMT800s. Feathered tires maybe, but they really lasted.

pm26 · January 26, 2008

I was hoping that there would be a service bulletin on how to minimize front tire edge wear, specifying certain optimal alignment settings. Someone mentioned that the OEM Bridgestones feather fast on the edges because of their tread design. I have no other adverse issues with the suspension - no shimmy, vibration, clunks - yet.

tl3upn3dn · January 26, 2008

I also noticed this on my 2002. Seems to feather on the outside edge but wear more on the inside edge. I also have 285 BFG all-terrains. I just cross rotate them every 5000 miles and let the rear end wear them back smooth. Got 80,000 out of my first set of BFG's, so i don't think its a real issue. The ride is smooth too, no shimmys or vibrations.

Zembonez · January 29, 2008

Hey Pete. I asked my GM Service Manager buddy about the feathering tire issue and his response was quote: "I've been getting complaints since the 1988 redesign and I haven't seen anything that actually fixes it"

He also said that there haven't been as many complaints with the GMT900s... yet anyway. He's been with Chevy since 1984.

pm26 · January 29, 2008

Thanks Jim, appreciate your help. I take it this problem happens with all kinds of tires. Maybe some brands are more resistant than others to this type of wear.