lemme pick your brains...C1500 front suspension problems

[zzford]

My daily driver is a 98 Chev C1500 pick up that I bought new. The truck has gone thru 3 RF tires in the last year or so. All failed due to belt slippage. I have inspected the front end and found no problems apart from just a trace of play in the pitman arm. I had it aligned by a local reputable shop, they couldn't find any problems (apart from the pitman arm) either. The tires have a good wear pattern and it drives nicely. The only thing that I notice that is suspect, is when performing a tight turn, forward or back, you can feel the front tires side slipping. That is to say, it feels as though the tires are trying to roll off the bead. The front of the truck will lurch sideways slightly when this happens. I suspect that the Ackerman is off, causing the wheels to track in the wrong arc. I don't believe there is any adjustment for this, am I right? The truck has never been wrecked in any manner and as I stated earlier, I am the original owner. Any Ideas?

[unklian]

Ackerman is generally not adjustable.

What brand tires are you ruining ?
What air pressure ?

[wayne petty]

very few cars have perfect ackerman angles...

exactally what on the belt failed.>?

did it separate from the tread, the sidewall fail?
get a lump on the inside of the tread or the outside of the tread..

how much air pressure do you run...  right at the max psi that is molded into the side of tire???  how accurate is your gauge???

do you turn your wheels into a curb to park it..   do you park next to the curb and turn the wheel distorting the tire agenst  the curb to get out of the parking spot...    

is your truck lowered... or have excessive camber and wide tires.  (camber is leaning out at the top when pointed straight ahead...) excessive camber  or even factory settings when you have wide tires...

also... how are the shocks. do you have a large pothole that gets hit often on that one side?  wheel tramp/tromp will also kill the belts.. 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o   do to out of balance conditions or weak worn shocks...    even new cheep shocks may not have enough damping force for some situations...      washboard roads?

i have found that some balance machines are out of calibration and require weights to be placed at 3 points on the wheel...  8 Oclock  , 4 and 12 usually how they line up when the machine is not set right....

and nose in parking...    too tight agenst the curb...    or a car wash traction chain??

do you have a infrared temp gun... 40 to 50 bucks at many stores... pepboys has a pocket version for 20... but the temps are limited...

measure the tire tread temps... inside .middle outside after a trip... the temp range should be close...

any chance that the bearings or the brakes are draging on that wheel causing excess heat from the rotor to be transmitted to the wheel tire combo...

sorry if i am rambling..

wayne

[Jbird]

Sounds like a control arm bushing or a ball joint is wore out to me. That's where I'd be looking.   Jbird

[enjenjo]

My thought would be an enviromental problem. Some place where you drive often is damaging the tire.

[zzford]

The tires are Cooper and I run 34# of pressure in them. I live in the sticks and there are no curbs to hit, maybe gators, but no curbs. The belts are separating along the outside of the tread. I don't recall if all the failures have been in the same location on the tire ( inboard or out), but the failures are all the same as far as at the edge of the tread surface.  The A arm bushings are good as is the balljoints. Believe me, I have been under the front end more times than I've been to work. Since new, I am the sole driver and the truck sees the same use since new. Back and forth to work, weekends an occasional trip to Home Depot. It is always the right front tire that fails. The other three haven't caused any problems at all. My tire gauge isn't an expensive model but it seems to be accurate on my other rides.

[enjenjo]

Are you using factory wheels?

[zzford]

Are you using factory wheels?

Yup, although they are not the ones it came with. It had the factory aluminum wheels that I replaced with stock steel wheels. Both lateral and radial runout is good.

[wayne petty]

the only think i can think of at this point is too much camber on the right side...  most shops lately do not reset the alignment if it is close...  so a little extra camber on the right side is usually ignored...

usually the left side has 1/2 of a degree positive and the right 1/4 of a degree positive... this keeps the cars running straight down the road as the crown wants to push them to the right...   if the right has more or the roads are totally flat it might heat the outer tread area more  as the weight of the car/truck is on that...

[unklian]

Time to switch tire brands.

[tomslik]

Time to switch tire brands.

that'd be MY thought....or at least rotate and balance...

[zzford]

Defective tires was my first thought, however, the puzzling element is that the problem is always on the right front and the way the front of the truck acts on a hard turn. I am beginning to think that it has to be related to global warming. I think I'll email Al Gore and ask his opinion.

[Danimal]

Al Gore sent me a PM and said that if we'd stop driving our cars, we'd save wear and tear on the tires and that is good for the environment. Plus then we'd have more money to spend on the parts we really wanted for our cars because we wouldn't be replacing tires and brakes.

Then he bought a Hemi I had and left 50 foot of posi marks down my street.

After all, he did invent the internet so therefore, he was the ultimate creator of RRT even though he's a moderator on Old Skool Rodz.

[papastoyss]

Al & Tipper have a home in the most posh section of Nashville. Last year the Nashville paper somehow got access to his utility records & his electric ran about $1500 per month.

[Danimal]

I just heard that the other day and he's changing all the fixtures and some other stuff. Figures they can save like $900 per month! That is my HOUSE payment!!