My front tires are feathering on the outside. The truck alignment is good. I still have the original shocks on the truck. Does worn ball joints cause feathering or is it my shocks. I wonder if its the 1.5 Daystar spacers causing the problem. Also when the truck hooked up to the alignment machine, does the computer take know about the 1.5 lifted front end, or does it just go off of factory specs.

 

Better yet, what would you guys look at first?

 

might need the offset balljoints, 1.5" lift shouldn't throw anything off.

 

Do you think my shocks with 99,500 miles is the problem.

 

My right front tire is getting chewed up on the outside edges at 30,000. I'll be curious to see what the problem is. I'm going to have them rotated and see what happens. It just started in the last couple of thousand miles.

 

Get the front end checked. Its most likely ball joints.

 

What is your toe-in value? It seems our trucks like very little toe-in. My truck was feathering the outside of the tires also untill I reduced the toe-in. 6 months later the wear seems to be evening out.

 

Is the wear equal on both tires? Even if alignment is good with an inverted y style steering linkage your toe can change as suspension cycles, so if your shocks are bad then abnormal suspension movement can wear tires. My shocks were done at 35k

I would also consider ball joints are worn. If upper ball joints are loose it can give positive camber and wear outside of tires. I would think you could feel if the were that loose in the steering...but to check just jack up front end and grab tires at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock and push/pull to see if there is excessive movement in upper ball joints.

 

Yes the wear is equal on both sides, sharp edges on the tread. I just had the tires put on about 3000 miles ago and this started immediately. Also had this problem with last set to. Do you think the 1.5 lift up front screws the alignment up. Everytime i get my alignment checked they say its in spec, spec for factory or spec considering the 1.5 inch lift?

 

I think i will replace upper and lower ball joints, shocks and get an alignment and that should cure the problem i hope.

 

Lift shouldn't throw anything off too bad. 1.5in lift up front will pull your axle towards the drivers side a little, maybe like 1/4in. "in-spec" alignments mean nothing, lift or not. Just because the kid at the alignment shop sees all green on the computer screen doesn't mean your truck is set up correctly. As said above our trucks seem to prefer very little toe, i like ~1/32in toe-in. Ask them to make sure tie rod are tight so it will stay. Camber can't be adjusted unless you get adjustable upper ball joints. I think the general verdict is if nothing is bent/worn and the camber checks out with out a lot of difference between the two sides, don't worry about it. If camber is off and won't align, get adjustables. There are a lot of opinions on caster, but with a lift i think most would say you want ~5deg positive caster or more. lots of people max it out, helps with return to center.

Ask for a print out of your specs next time they do an alignment and make sure they are what you want!!

 

Too much toe in. Like was mentioned just because its in the green dont mean that much. Scribe the tires and measure the toe in . then back it off, The big problem is the alignment people dont understand what effect the different settings have on wear and handling. It would take a LOT of positive camber to wear the tires. Like out at top 6 inches to get wear like you discribe in 3k miles. Then it would be smooth outside wear, you got sharp edges when you drag your hand over tread thats a dead giveaway to toe in wear.
Loose parts will let tires go toe out , wear would then be on inside of tire.

 

I have the same problem but just with the right front. Wears out the outside edge really fast. I too have a leveling kit installed. Ball joints check out fine.

 

You need to get adjustable track bars or at least those drop track bar bushings or whatever they are. It's hard to tell with a small levelling kit, but the truck will not drive/steer right if the front axle is not centered under the truck. The higher you go, the worse it gets. Truck is constantly pushing to the left. Not the typical "pull" you would feel in the steering wheel, but a push generated by the chassis being out of square. Accelerates wear on the whole front end.

Yeah, yeah, I know there's 100 guys that ran their trucks with nothng but leveling spacers for a 100k miles and no problems. What-ever.

 

mine was tie rod ends....