Should a drop axle be toed in a bit? The one I checked today had "0" toe.
What brand and model of lift axle? They all have a very little bit of toe-in, how much depends on the lift axle. One of my dumps has a Hendrickson lift axle, and the other has Watson Chalin lift axles. The Hendrickson requires 1/16" to 1/8" of toe-in. The Watson Chalin's require 1/32" of toe-in.
I don't know the make or model. I asked because I'm getting some weird wear. Not sure where its comming from, was rebuilt 60k miles ago. Everything seams tight. Do you get normal wear on your tag tires?
Our lift axle tires are wearing normally. What kind of wear are you getting, cupping, edges wearing down, etc. If you are getting wear on one or both edges, could be the camber is out of whack. If you are getting spotty or cupping type wear, something is worn out or has some slop, king pins, bushings, tie rod ends, etc. And the other problem with cupped tires is they are no good now, even if you fix what caused it the tires will continue to wear funny and possibly get a wobble. Also if your tires are cupped have you noticed them wobbling.
Cupping And some treads wear and others don't but it doesn't look like an inflation issue to me. Thanks for the info, I'll have to look more carefully. Driver never mentioned a wobble, I'll ask.
Wobbling? Have you got Dayton rims?
By a wobble I mean a side to side shake or shimmy of the tires and wheels. Since self steering lift axles are supposed to be self centering, if you get some slop in the components and if the tires get cupped it will get the wobbles or shakes. I have seen some trucks going down the road and it looks like it is beating itself silly with a severe wobble. Most people around here have aluminum wheels on their lift axles.
Found some worn torque rod bushings- not real bad but worth replacing.
Cut the torque rod off with a torch, burning rubber is one of the few on-the-job smells I don't like. When I was putting the wheel back on, It was clearly out of balance. Could the balance condition cause the cupping? When I think about it, I've never seen a wheel weight on a dumptruck? Do the balance the tire to the wheel? (always have sent tirework out)