samhain

so after 6 months of throwing money at new parts I finally figured out the rumble I was getting. the tires!! I noticed that my duratracs in the front were wearing uneven. not in the typical way. the chunks or lugs on the center part of the front tires aren't wearing evenly. some lugs stick out further than others causing an unevenness that can be felt when I run my hand through them. so I took off the fronts and swapped them out with the backs. sure as ****, the rumble is mostly gone but I still hear a loud wa wa wa noise when I drive. that noise was coming from the front now its coming from the back. could it be an alignment issue or could it be a tire pressure issue? they were at 35 and I lowered them to 30. this is it.20141213_154512_z.jpg?1462755485728&1462755488272&1462755488504&1462755492071&1462755492738
this is one of the back tires. nice and even
20160508_173219_z.jpg?1462755485717&1462755488267&1462755488500&1462755492065&1462755492732
this is one o the fronts. notice how the some of the lugs bulge out on both front tires
20160508_174434_z.jpg?1462755485720&1462755488269&1462755488501&1462755492067&1462755492734
20160508_174441_z.jpg?1462755485723&1462755488270&1462755488503&1462755492069&1462755492736
so what do I do? do I leave them be and drive around with a pretty loud wa wa wa noice starting at 20mph or do I need to replace them

93XJeeper

Sounds like a bent rim

JPXJMOAB

That would be cupping. Do you ever rotate your tires? Also, I'm pretty sure people said tires were the problem in the last thread you made, point to be made it always consider what someone says as a possibility.

samhain

From what I've been reading many people have had this issue with knoby tires. They need to be rotated frequently but but I've only put 10k on them. Yes others mentioned tires I just couldn't believe I got such loud rumble at such low speeds. I've never seen tires wear like this. Oh well

JPXJMOAB

An aggressive tire like that should be rotated every 3k miles.

samhain

Ok. So am I good to keep driving on them or am I looking to replace these. The more I research it seems like they will not wear evenly afterwards

JPXJMOAB

In all honesty I would continue to drive on them. They'll be noisy and it takes a long time to get rid of cupping, but if they're still decently new just drive on them. Switch the direction of rotation of the cupped tires for a while and they'll even out eventually. As I said though, they will be noisy..

97grand4.0

You could try jacking up the front tire and spinning it by hand while observing if it is tracking in a straight line. We used to do that in the tire shop to check for a separated radial band.

Not familiar with this tire but a radial tire band will separate if damaged, you'd be able to see it spinning it, or detect other problem like bent rim.
Another thing is alignment, or of course defective loose parts in the front end. Usual suspects being track bar, track bar mount holes, steering pump broken loose, ball joints. steering damper shot or loose.

KaMoore

My tire shop recommends rotation and balancing every time I change the oil.

SteveMongr

Check the toe-in measurement!

CCKen

Tread wear patterns - Center Wear or Cup Wear:

samhain

That's my next step. I already bought the zj tierod upgrade. It looks like I might be toed out a bit. I measured the front tires but my measurements looked ok.

samhain

Would you recommend shaving the tires to even them up?

jedijeb

If you don't have someone to help I found an easy way to check the toe. I duct taped a wooden dowel rod to the outside of each tire, just below the center line enough to let the tape measure clear the control arms and level to the ground. Then you can take a tape measure and easily measure from outside to outside of the dowel and adjust until the front is 1/8" less than the back, measure right against the tire.

After upgrading to the ZJ tie rod I had my toe set in about five minutes.

Looking over the list of changes you made, If you are doing the ZJ upgrade go ahead and put in a new drag link so you will have all new TREs on it just in case. After that if you haven't done ball joints that would be the next culprit I could think of.

darknezz

I could have told you it was tires... My big horns did the same thing, when I got them they were all uneven worn cause the PO never rotated. Yup every oil change with tires like that.

Well now you got lots of new parts