Tires and centramatics

[Rev.Vassago]

Anyone suggest a good place to pick up a set of centramatics? Is $180 per axle as mentioned earlier in the thread the going rate for these?

I got mine from Peterbilt. It ran be about $800 installed if I remember correctly. But, I also got the tires rotated at the same time.

If so, that's not a bad deal if they really increase tire wear.

I think you mean DECREASE tire wear. If they increased wear, I doubt they'd sell any. :wink:

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If your truck goes straight that means your scrub line is good. Your front alignment could still be off, namely toe in. Maybe you have too much.

Tires do tend to wear like that, but usually it's from the outside in. I haven't seen it start on the inside like that.

Neither has anybody I've had look at it, which is why I'm thinking it is a tire issue rather than a truck issue.

With your truck being a set-forward axle, I'd expect it to treat tires a little better.

As I said, I'm having the whole thing gone over when I actually do replace them, and by a reputable tire shop.

[brian griffin]

Rev, you may want to have the shop check the kingpins by jacking the front off the ground and moving the tires in and out from top to bottom.

I/we had a similar wear pattern and that was the problem.

Worn out kingpins might be causing the tires to ride at abnormal camber angles.

[special k]

Rev I run michelin 16 ply XZE's on my steer axle and have the exact same wear patterns as you. I went with a 16 ply because MI gives you extra weight if their a 24.5. Anyways the tire shop told me that because of the solid outer shoulder (like your's) I would get river wear because of light axle weight and highway use with a stiff tire. He was right but they still lasted longer than any of my other tires have. I bought a set of used 250's for my trailer and they look the same as your's. I think steer tires on a truck are like rolling dice.

[Rev.Vassago]

Rev I run michelin 16 ply XZE's on my steer axle and have the exact same wear patterns as you. I went with a 16 ply because MI gives you extra weight if their a 24.5. Anyways the tire shop told me that because of the solid outer shoulder (like your's) I would get river wear because of light axle weight and highway use with a stiff tire. He was right but they still lasted longer than any of my other tires have. I bought a set of used 250's for my trailer and they look the same as your's. I think steer tires on a truck are like rolling dice.

I think you may have hit on something here. My heavy weights are usually under 70,000 (in fact, I just re-registered the truck for 73,000 gross). My steers, however, are always around 11K, loaded or empty.

If it weren't for the cross wear from the bad shock, they would still have a lot of life in them. Unfortunately, that cross wear has eaten up all the tread on the outer edge on the one tire.

[number9]

Placed the order for Centramatics yesterday for the steer axle. Ordered directly from them over the phone for $189 + 12 shipping. Truck is running Yoko RY637 steers that right now have 50,000 on them and they look to be wearing real good. Truck had 3-axle laser alingment shortly after they went on and I just put new Monroe Gas65 shocks on it a couple weeks ago.

I plan to have the tires flipped on the wheels, spin balanced as close as they can get them and rotated same time as the Centramatics are installed. Hope to get lots of miles out of these steers.

I searched the web for several days for comments & reviews on the Centramatics and everyone seemed to swear by them. Only found 2 reports from what I remember that said they didn't work - and I suspect those guys were maybe trying to use the balancers to solve a problem - ie. result of poor maint like bad shocks, wheels, tires, etc....

We will see......and I will post my findings good or bad as the miles wear on.

[Paul McGraw]

I have centramatics on my steers but too soon to tell how much difference they will make.

On my last truck I replaced my deep tread drive tires with Bridgestone All Position Radials. The ride was MUCH smoother and my fuel economy went up by about .4 miles per gallon.

[number9]

I have thought about replacing the lugs for ribs on the drives too. Driver is in favor of it as the last trun he was in had them and he says he likes them fine. I am just worried about the ribs getting him in a bad spot in the winter where the lugs may help him out of it. :?

[Cam]

I have centramatics on my steers but too soon to tell how much difference they will make.

On my last truck I replaced my deep tread drive tires with Bridgestone All Position Radials. The ride was MUCH smoother and my fuel economy went up by about .4 miles per gallon.

.4mpg is huge. Say $50,000 in fuel in one year; .4/7 mpg = .057

.057 x 50,000 = $2857 savings per year. To save .4 mpg, I could pull my new drives off and throw them in the garbage, buy new tires and still come out ahead both in cost and ride quality But, do you think I'm going to do that?

[Paul McGraw]

I have centramatics on my steers but too soon to tell how much difference they will make.

On my last truck I replaced my deep tread drive tires with Bridgestone All Position Radials. The ride was MUCH smoother and my fuel economy went up by about .4 miles per gallon.

.4mpg is huge. Say $50,000 in fuel in one year; .4/7 mpg = .057

.057 x 50,000 = $2857 savings per year. To save .4 mpg, I could pull my new drives off and throw them in the garbage, buy new tires and still come out ahead both in cost and ride quality But, do you think I'm going to do that?

My calculations were a savings per year of about $2,200 based on my increase in MPG from 6.6 to about 7.0 and an average fuel cost of $2.50 so we are pretty close in our calculations. Still, that would not be enough savings for me to cause me to throw away a set of drive tires that cost $3,200. You would have to save enough during the life of the new tires to recover the cost of the tires thrown away as well as the opportunity cost of the additional dollar investment. So the ROI or return on investment would probably be two years or more. And cash flow is always a concern.

Also at that time I was driving regional only in the Southeast. Now I go to Canada a lot. I'm not sure how well the ribbed drives would do in winter conditions up north. Anyone have any experience on this?

But the next time I need drives, I will definately consider long and hard either ribbed (all position) tires or possibly the wide singles. By the way, the tires I purchased were recommended by Bridgestone to be used as drive tires, they weren't just any old ribbed tires.

[Cam]

Nah, nah, I couldn't just yank 'em and toss 'em, for the kinds of reasons you just explained. I had a buying decision to make six months ago, it wasn't a good one. So what, is that the first mistake I've ever made?