Wear problem - circumferential feathering

[Kestas]

A guy at work just bought new tires and had an alignment done at Belle Tire in Livonia. 8K later he notices one of his front tires is feathering.

The alignment was rechecked by the same shop and found to be only infinitesmally off. As usual, the guys at the shop are trying to "explain away" this problem.

All research on the internet shows feathering in the axial direction (across the tire width) as due to poor misalignment, usually bad toe. His tire shows feathering on the inside of the tire in the rolling direction. None of the web sites address this pattern of feathering. Is this also bad toe?

 

[pastmaster]

Kestas,
How ya been? Michigan Summer has only about 3 weeks left until Labor Day! Where did it go?

Feathering in the manner of which you describe can also be caused by worn suspension parts including bushings, shock absorbers and springs too soft. Tire design and specification of build, wrong tire for the suspension type. Cheap Tires on a BMW or M-B or Porsche? JEEP or sophisticated 4WD?

Is it Front Wheel Drive? Porsche; Rear Wheel Drive? It could be something as simple as air pressure!

Like Dr.Z says, Vedersehen

 

[Tosh]

I get that kind of feathering (but on the outside) very slightly and about at that mileage, and then I know it's time to rotate (like right now). I attribute it to hard braking on mine, as the tread blocks are wearing on the front part relative to the road. But hard acceleration could cause feathering on the drive wheels, causing more wear on the rear part of the tread blocks. So keep your hard braking balanced with hard acceleration for even wear.

 

[CapriRacer]

Feathering is sometimes a normal wear pattern.

As the individual tread elements roll through the footprint, they have to change from being oriented in the form of a circle to being oriented in a straight line (in contact with the road surface.) This means the tread element resists going into the footprint and wears the edge of the tread element into a rounded shape - and as the tread element leaves the footprint, the tread element holds onto the road surface, then suddenly releases, and this causes wear on the other edge. We call this wear pattern "heel and toe" - and not only does it describe how you get it, it also describes what it looks like. But you can feel this pattern if you rub your hand circumferentially on the tread face of the tire. It will be rough one direction and smoothish the other.

Some folks have described extreme examples of this wear as "feathering" because the "toe" gets a thin edge of rubber. And some have taken this wording to the extreme and apply to to whenever they encounter heel and toe wear.

It seems that front tires are more suseptible to this and I think it has to do with 2 things: Toe, and slip angles generated during cornering. So it shouldn't a surprise to find the one side of the tire has the wear and the other side doesn't as the vehicle rolls and the camber changes during cornering. This completely changes how the tire is oriented to the road surface.

While it is true that toe will cause "feathering" in the axial direction, a slight bit of toe will aggravate "feathering" in the circuferential direction.

It has been my experience that vehicle alignment specs are too wide by half, especially toe. This is not the target (nominal value), but the tolerance. I have seen many tire wear problems develop when the alignment is on the outer half of the tolerance, but only rarely when the alignment is within the inner half.

Hope this helps.

 

[Kestas]

Pastmaster, it's good to hear from you. I keep reminding myself there's only 3-4 more good weekends left in summer. I refuse to work on cars during these weekends. That's what winter is for.

The car in question is a Ford Ranger XLT FX4 with 90K. The tires are Toyo AT Open Country with a coarse tread pattern.

CapriRacer, your explanation is a good one. It tells me how the wear pattern develops, especially since the tire has a pronounced crown, where the tread center is higher than the edges. I believe this is the answer I was looking for.

 

[Dominic]

Toyo Open Countrys are very soft tires as it is, so its a good bet its just the tire if the alignment is right on and the suspension is in good shape. Ford rangers are not known for smooth tire wear, like most smallish trucks (the S10 and colorado has the same issue).

 

[Nebraskan]

I live near Glenn, MI and work at the Fenn Valley Winery.. getting ready for a buys fall with grape harverst.

Just had to chime in.

My wife had alignment work done locally and every time you entered the freeway you could hear the tires squeal. Drove remarkabley well until the front tires wore out. LOL Got new ball joint and tie rods on the front and aligned it myself with the help of my daughter, Samantha. We have it at about 3/8" toe in and drove to Nebraska and around. Handeled great and shows now adverse wear happening. Now the Buick....that's a different can of worms.