Tires: Tire Wear on a Dodge Ram 3500 4X4, dodge ram 3500, dodge ram 3500 4x4

Question
Mr. Smith,  I am the proud owner of a 2003 Dodge Ram 3500 4X4 pickup with single rear wheels.  And my front tires are giving me a fit. I bought the truck from out of state (good deal) and drove 500 miles before I checked the air pressure.  The tires felt a little squishy and rightfully so, the dealer had only inflated them to 45 psi all the way around.  The placard states 60/70 F/R.  I decided to run 70 psi because the truck is a diesel.  I use the truck for light hauling (trailering) and have never abused it.  But I noticed, starting at about 8k miles, the tires on the front appeared to be cupping.  The rear are fine.  At about 10k miles I had to have 1 rear tire plugged in the very middle of the tread.  For these reasons, I have not rotated the tires.  I felt like something must me wrong with the front end to be eating up the tires they way it is so I didn't want to ruin them all.  And I was sort of afraid of putting a plugged tire on the front.  Foolish, maybe, but now at 30k miles with loads of tread left, my tires sound like something designed by Mikey Thompson for off-road use only.  Did I mess up with the inflation?  What about the Rotation?  I really can't afford the new tires at this time and have plenty of time for the warranty.  What would you recommend that I do?  Thanks for your time.

Answer
Roger,

The one thing you haven't mentioned is alignment.  That's what's causing the cupping wear and all the rotation and the inflation pressure does is not aggravate the situation.

So get an alignment.  Be sure to get a print out.  Look at it closely.  Most vehicle alignment spec are way too wide to provide good tire wear, so you want all the values near the nominal - certainly within half of the allowable tolerance.

Also, you'll want to take care of the tire that was plugged.  Plugs by themselves are improper repairs.  They tend to leak - either to the outside (the tire loses pressure) or they leak into the casing (and cause a separation).  This is the type of thing where it will be fine for thousands of miles and all of a sudden the plug starts to leak.

Hope this helps.