Odd tire... wear?

My tires seem to have an odd wear pattern, I guess?
Kind of hard to tell in the pics, but on 3 of them, on the inside, every other lug seems to be getting more contact the other others.

Dri rear:

It's really noticable in the pass side rear

You can kinda see it in the fronts, too.

I had first noticed this, oh, 8+ months ago? But only on a tire that was on the dri rear. I swapped the rear tires, and the issue followed the tire.

Just recently I noticed it on the other tires.

What would cause this? And it's not a one-off occurance. It's been like this for a while.

And since it's not just on the front or rear, the only thing I can think is it's something with the tires?

 

[Anime]

It could just be how that tread pattern wears when used on pavement. Not all tires are designed for optimal treadwear on the road, especially those with fancy tread designs that are more about looks than function.

It could be as simple as the alignment being off in the front, which caused the tires to start to wear like that from the camber/caster/toe setting making them scrub, then they just continued to wear like that after being rotated, and of course the ones on the front would contined to wear the same as the others. It can be hard to make a tire stop wearing a certain way if it's already developed that treadwear pattern.

If it is the rear axle that's causing it, it's possible you either have some wobble in the springs (loose u-bolts, worn spring/shackle bushings, loose shackle/spring hanger bolts), wobble in the axle shafts (bad bearings, worn shafts), bent axle tubes, or even something as simple as worn shocks, or shocks that just aren't up to the job of controlling the weight of big tires.

I don't know if the square u-bolts attached to the springs are related, but it's a bad idea to clamp the main leaf springs to the overload spring like that. You can clamp all of the main leaf springs together, but don't clamp anything to the overload leaf. I'd suggest taking the clamp off altogether, or just clamping the main leafs in front and back, or just in front.

 

[gavin]

the odd wear has only recently started, and I've had the tires for several couple years.
and it's also on 3 of my 4 tires at their current locations. They also haven't been rotated in forever.

I've had other issues with these tires; as much as I like the tread and compound for winter driving up here, they've done great, even Interco all-terrains aren't particularly DD friendly.

as for the square u-bolt, I put it as close to axle as possible, and where the leaf packs are completely flat. Figured it would be okay there.
Since I had to take off the OEM clamps when I installed my long AAL.

 

[Anime]

If the tires just started wearing that way, then it's either something that changed on the vehicle to cause it, or the tires might have reached a wear point where there are differences in their compound or some other variation causing it.

My guess would be the rear wheel bearings/axles being worn, since that's exactly the sort of thing that would cause the movement to create an every other tread wear pattern. Either that or worn shocks.

You can use rectangular clamps to put the 3 stock leaf springs and the AAL together, or re-use the stock clamp to just clamp together the stock leaf springs, but don't involve the overload leaf in the clamping.

 

[4x4junkie]

My guess is it is those tires.
The wear looks the same on each tread block of the same shape (for sure that tread pattern was designed with visual effect as a priority over even wear/noise concerns).

Wear caused by bad bearings or shocks (or more often, from failing to rotate your tires) typically shows up as different rates of wear alternating between same-shape blocks (scalloped wear).
You could try rotating them (certainly it wouldn't hurt), though I'm not sure how much it would help in your case.

I would suggest maybe a switch to BFG ATs, or maybe the Goodyear Duratrac (been hearing a few good reviews on those).

Agreed on the clamping, leave the OL out of it.

 

[boominXplorer]

Everyone has covered about all the normal issues but how much air do you have in them? Anything over 30psi is too much for large wide tires on our trucks.

 

[gavin]

My guess is it is those tires.
The wear looks the same on each tread block of the same shape (for sure that tread pattern was designed with visual effect as a priority over even wear/noise concerns).

Wear caused by bad bearings or shocks (or more often, from failing to rotate your tires) typically shows up as different rates of wear alternating between same-shape blocks (scalloped wear).
You could try rotating them (certainly it wouldn't hurt), though I'm not sure how much it would help in your case.

I would suggest maybe a switch to BFG ATs, or maybe the Goodyear Duratrac (been hearing a few good reviews on those).

Agreed on the clamping, leave the OL out of it.

I didn't think it would be caused by bearings/shocks/etc due to the consistent wear. And, of course, it's pretty much exactly the same on 3 of 4 tires.
I figured it was these; I know some of them are out of round. I had 2 replaced already, but even these have a bit too much lateral and radial runout. But, don't have the cash for new tires at the moment. Plus, they really do awesome in the snow and ice up here. I have been pleased with their performance.

Everyone has covered about all the normal issues but how much air do you have in them? Anything over 30psi is too much for large wide tires on our trucks.

32psi since I got the tires 6'ish years ago.