Tires: Tire Wear, goodyear wrangler rt, goodyear wrangler rt s

Question
I have a 2004 Ford Ranger 4X4 with Goodyear Wrangler RT/S  P245/75R16  109S tires. I have owned the truck for three months and have maintained the tire pressure as indicated in the owners manual and pressure sticker inside the gas fill door.   The truck has 4500 miles on it and I have noticed a strange wear pattern forming on the front left tire, outside tred.  Each section of tred pattern is wearing at an angle with the front of the pattern higher than the rear of the pattern.  

What do you think is the cause of this pattern?  The other three tires appear to be fine.

Thanks for your time.

Dan Cornell

Answer
Dan,

This is called heel and toe wear.  If you look at a tread element you'll notice that the leading edge is round, like the heel of a foot, and the traling edge is pointed, like a toe.

To some extent, this is normal for tires that go around corners.  However, it can be aggravated by misalignment.  

So why only one tire?  Could be you make much more turns in one direction than the other.  An educated guess would be that this wear on the Left Front means most of the turns are to the right.

Hope this helps.