Tires: tire wear on large trucks, equal tire balancing, drive axles

Question
I manage the fleet for a state of colorado fish hatchery unit.  We get alot of strange wear (mostly heel and toe) and one person I talked to said that equal tire balancing compound will help tires wear longer and more evenly.  I feel that this would only help with out of balance issues like cupping.  Please verify whether equal will help with  our wear problems.

Answer
Steve,

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't true.  That applies here.

Equal only affects the vibrational properties (and I have some severe concerns about that!), so unless the wear is vibrational related - such as cupping wear - then it will not change this type of wear.  So I am in lockstep with you on this!!

But there are a lot of things that can cause heel and toe wear.  In some respects, it's a naturally occurring wear due to the individual tread elements going in and out of the footprint.

If the wear only appears on the drive axles, I suspect the vehicles are climbing a lot of hills, and unfortunately, this is the natural result.  However, drive axles can be a little out of alignment and you can get the same result.

If the wear appears only on the steer axles, then I suspect the vehicles are doing a lot of sharp turns, and again a little bit is misalignment can magnify this condition.

Hope this helps.