I'm running Nitto Terra's 285/65 R18 and just noticed that the outside edges of my front tires are wearing extremely fast. Inside edges are wearing too but not quite as bad. The square edges and "bristles" are completely gone off the outside and I've only been running these tires for 2 to 3 months

Anybody know what is causing this? I noticed it last weekend and thought it was due to a few miles of driving on the road on really low pressure (20 lbs) while down at the beach in NC; however, my tire dealer and other resources tell me that such few miles of driving on really low pressure did not cause it and that its probably been going on for awhile.

I've been running 35 psi all the way around, although the tires can handle up to 80. Any suggestions? Any help is appreciated in advance.

 

You are running your tires way to low. Even to the point it could be dangerous. They should be run at around 50 for a LR E max of 80 psi. At no time should you be running those lower than about 45.

 

35 is where the tire vendor put them, and I've been suggested to run them there by other experienced members on this site. However, I agree that the pressure almost has to be the issue. Do you recommend running the back that high as well. I've been running the back at 35 and there is no visual wear whatsoever.

 

I would run them at least at 45 in the rear. It would not hurt to run them at 50.

PS if these tires were OE and came with a TPMS sensor, it would be set to go off at 46 psi. Your tire vendor should know better. At 35 you are not even at half the load carrying ability of the tire. Your axles are rated at around 4k, so each tire needs to support at least 2k, something there is no way they are capable of at 35.

PPS, my guess is your vehicle came with P series tire and the door said 35, so that is what he put in. Unfortunately that pressure is only valid with P series tires.

 

Too low air pressure. I keep mine around 45

 

I've talked to friends who run Nitto's and they tell me that they are a softer rubber than say what I run, BFG's which I run at the max psi of 50. I average 140,000 miles with the BFG's, no joke! Much harder rubber.

 

Im not so sure about softer, but id say they are not the hardest out there. Maybe the nittos for street tires, but the terra grapplers are a little harder rubber or i doubt as many heavy trucks would be running them. I cant remember what it is, but there is a chart that is a good rule of thumb floating around somewhere on this site, just to give you an idea of where to be.....There is really too many things to say specifically what pressure to run, you have to air it up and see how it sits on the ground.

How on earth do you get 140000 miles out of a tire!? I dont get that out of car tires that i drive on highway only. Thats awesome though!

 

Regular rotation, and max air pressure. I've had 3 different sets of BFG's on 2 trucks and averaged no less than 140,000 miles on every set (I do a heck of alot of driving), and the set I just replaced 2 months ago went 160,000, so for me it will only be Goodrich's on my trucks. They're great on wet or dry road and excellent in the snow! Can't say how well they wear on cars though.

 

how is your alighnment?

 

alignment was just performed not too long ago so I would say it is okay. Funny thing too, my local Ford dealer said I wouldn't be able to control the truck in the rain at 50 psi or more, so I'm getting very different points of view across the board. I'm thinking about pushing them up to 50 all the way around and seeing how they do. Everyone agree?

Does anyone run these things close to the max of 80?????

 

50 will be fine. And don't listen to what ur local STEALERSHIP tells you, I've always run mine at 50 psi, and have never had an issue with controllability in the rain, the again I'm not running Nitto's, maybe there's a difference between the 2 brands of tire. Hopefully some one with the Nitto's will chime in?

 

50 will be fine. If it was an alignment problem, it would be wearing on one of the outside edges, not both. Wear on both outside edges is indicative of too low a pressure.

 

BFG is definately in a whole different category than Nitto. I just bought my first set of Nitto's, but I drive less than 6k/year. I'm glad I came across this post, need to check my psi.

 

So I have a follow up question. When driving on the beach, how much should I air down these tires? When I was running my factory tires, most of the advice from the site was to take them down to about 18psi. I ran my Nittos at 20 on the beach last weekend and they did great, but since the tire construction is different, I'm assuming I need to keep them higher. So, when on the beach...should I deflate to a certain psi....or do I even need to deflate at all?

 

How to read tire wear.

http://www.procarcare.com/includes/c...dtirewear.html