Tire help

[Skybum36305]

Originally Posted by rffffffff

I have a front engine flatnose bus, 2002 amtran with a DT466e.

My tires are worn out and probably ancient, although I couldn't find the date code on them, but I am having a bad wear problem where the outside shoulder is wearing out very noticeably on the front tires.

I have heard that front engine busses are murder on steer tires, and one shop said I had river wear on those tires, but that doesn't line up with what I am seeing. that being said, I have no idea what I am talking about. The same shop said my kingpins were worn, but honestly I didn't trust them at all, and my bus has about 10k miles since the kingpins were inspected and said to be fine.

but.. tire wear, kingpins, I guess that makes sense?

I had the alignment done but it didn't seem to slow down the outer edge wear much.

I have to get one more 2000 mile trip outta this bus before parking it for a while and I would love to not do the kingpins if I don't absolutely have to, so I am thinking about buying just a couple of double coins for the front and seeing what happens.

So questions: anyone experience this kind of tire wear before and if so what may fix it? Second, could this be normalish wear and I am making myself crazy? third, if my kingpins are worn enough to wear tires funny am I stupid to drive 2K miles on them? Fourth: what does a kingpin job typically cost? And fifth, can I check the kingpins myself if I figure out how to get the bus off the ground?

Okay, sixth question! Any reason not to have a tire shop just rotate the tire on the rim so I have a virgin outside just for this last trip?

pics: https://imgur.com/a/oKtWlTr

Never buy used tires for the steers and any tire more than 6 yrs old are a bad investment

[rffffffff]

A quick update: I had the tires flipped on the rims at a tire shop so the outside was on the inside for my trip and when it was up on the jacks with the wheels off I grabbed the hub and wiggled. I can see the kingpins are bad pretty easily, noticeable movement when lifting and letting go, fairly obvious, maybe a 1/32 or a little more of movement at the joint.

Originally Posted by cadillackid

Is there a good way to test for kingpin problems at home ? I’ll be at the mercy of a shop to actually change or repair them but what can a small guy do at home to see if I’m in the right ballpark. My steering gear on the dev bus was def bad the rebuild helped immensely, my drag link and tie rods seem nice and tight , I still feel at times like I have to chase it. Esp on uneven lanes or where the roads change their tilt. Ie are flat then bank.. what you describe of kingpin bearings sounds close. But I want to do some kind of check before I just call a shop and send it in ..

[cadillackid]

thats the hard thing for me is taking the wheels off.. im a little guy i just cant move those 11R22.5 wheels around. i dont have the strength to even lift one off the ground even a few inches..

[rffffffff]

I could tell they were messed up with the wheels on, just by having it jacked up and jiggling in and out on the top of the tire. Wheels off made it easy to see what was jiggling but a wheel off the ground made it easy to see that something was wrong too.

Originally Posted by cadillackid

thats the hard thing for me is taking the wheels off.. im a little guy i just cant move those 11R22.5 wheels around. i dont have the strength to even lift one off the ground even a few inches..