Tires: tire noise, goodyear wrangler, alignment settings

Question
I have Goodyear wrangler p275 r20 on my 08 Dodge Ram 4x4  quad cab.  I have 31,000 miles on them at about 22,000 miles I started to get a repeating noise, most notable at 35 mph. It has been getting worse and has been significantly worse after the last rotation.  The dealers service say it is from the tires, caused by feathering or fish scaling.  Tire dealer said it is more common with these tires.  Is this a accurate Diagnosis, and if so what to do and what is a better  replacement tire. for highway and in town use.  That wont have this problem.

Doyle

Answer
Doyle,

I am of the opinion that this is caused by mis-alignment - and it is called irregular wear.

Irregular wear is caused by misalignment and aggravated by insufficient inflation pressure and insufficient rotation practices.

My experience says that the published alignment tolerances are too wide.  Not the target value, but the allowable deviation from that value.  I think it ought to be half of what is published.

Put another way, the alignment should be within the inner half of the spec.

You should be aware that even vehicles that do not have a pull can be out of alignment.  There are settings where one out of spec condition is offset by another out of spec condition – typically camber vs toe.  

Also, many alignment techs think that if the factory did not make provisions to make adjustments for the alignment, then they can’t make an adjustment and will declare the vehicle “OK”.  This is totally wrong.

ALL alignment settings are adjustable, but it may require an eccentric bolt, some shims, etc.  A GOOD alignment tech will know what to do and the vehicle should leave a shop with ALL the alignment settings close to the nominal.

So find yourself an alignment tech who agrees with what I said - and use him.  If they don't agree, keeping looking.

Since this is cause by misalignment, it really doesn't matter what tire you use.  They will all develop this problem.