Stock BFG Wear/Rotation

I was doing my first tire rotation and noticed some unusual tire wear on the fronts @ just under 6K miles. Took it to the dealer yesterday as they wanted to investigate the situation. They were quick to let me know that an alignment would not be covered under warranty as I was 20 days past the one year period which covered alignments. I told them I was not concerned about the alignment coverage but more so the damage to the tires that cannot be undone.
After 1.5 hrs they called me out to the truck to speak with the service manager and he proceed to show me the alignment printout and continued to explain that this is pretty typical wear for this type of tire driven mainly on the highway. I expressed my disappointment in the wear and progressive noise on perfect truck.
They offered to replace the tires which I accepted and I told them that now that I know this is expected, I will be rotating them every 2.5K vs 5. He said that is the best way to avoid this type of damage in the future and I thanked them for their time. New tires should be in next week for them to install.

This was the first time I have ever been in for any problems with my truck. Fairly pleasant experience so-far.

R,
HAP

So they are replacing your tires under warranty with no out of pocket expense?

Never heard of having to rotate every 2.5k miles. Why did the dealer state that, perhaps there is a more underlining problem with your truck?

Wow I would say you are lucky they decided to replace your tires. I took my truck in with only 2000 miles on it with an alignment issue and they just went and got the tire warranty pamphlet and showed me where ford is not responsible for the tires any more, and that I should contact the tire makers themselves.

alot of different opinions on BFGs, I have never gotten great wear from them. Replaced mine at 20k, also had a power wagon before the raptor and only managed 22k on those BFGs. Now have Falken wildpeaks with 25K on them and will probably get another 8-10K out of them.

farman said:

Wow I would say you are lucky they decided to replace your tires. I took my truck in with only 2000 miles on it with an alignment issue and they just went and got the tire warranty pamphlet and showed me where ford is not responsible for the tires any more, and that I should contact the tire makers themselves.

Click to expand...

Ford does sell a Tire ESP. They were trying to sell it to me during the financing at the dealer. We got out that contract and I sat their reading all the fine print (could care less that the finance manager had to wait, not a thing he could say so I enjoyed that part) but anyways, it does not cover when off-roading so I told him I didn't want it. He said I was the first person in his career that read it all and he himself didn't know of that exclusion but then again I don't trust any dealer salesman or finance guy regardless what they say. They wanted $550 for it.

Who did you take it to, Hap? How bad did the printout look before they aligned it? I think it is pretty cool the offered to replace without too much of a fight.

We have done over 15k since Sept with one rotation and I am really happy with the wear pattern. Time for an oil change and rotation now. They are getting noisier but they are also getting thin.

The alignment printout showed everything in spec (all green) and the service manager said he was very happy with the readings. I told them I would like to see any before and after printouts if they needed to do any adjustments. They did not make any adjustments as they would not be able to get them any better.
SM asked if I read any of the many Raptor forums and I assured him I had done lots of research before bringing my truck to them. I'm sure there are many rationales surrounding tire wear: tire batch runs, individual truck personalities, road surfaces, driving patterns (routes) involving certain maneuvering/parking, tire pressure preferences, etc.

I just tried to express that I was disappointed that I had encountered this wear at the very first tire rotation and there was no way to correct the wear and noise at this point. Since I have my own lift, rotating the tires is no big deal for me even thought the SM offered to do it at the 2.5K interval to stay ahead of any potential tire damage.

I took it to "Cavalier" since I bought it from them. They really seem to appreciate the Raptor as a truck.
Just my experience so far with warranty.

What tire pressure do you run? I have had 2 sets of the same tire on my previous truck, 31.5" that both lasted about 40k miles. I run the stock set on 14 SCREW at 42-43 psi (cold) for everyday road driving.

SHIT - rotate tires every 2.5k? I'd have to rotate them every other week. Lol....
Check out the alignment sticky thread and ask them to set the alignment to @pirate air's settings.

Click here to help:
http://www.fordraptorforum.com/showthread.php?p=831699

Yukon Joe
Great Lakes Raptor Excursions
www.runraptorrun.com

I rotate stock BFGs every three months, which is about every 3K-5K miles, the manual says rotate every 5K miles. Run them mostly on highway at 44PSI.

Alignment check each rotation and Road Force Balanced every six months. If your tires are still fairly new, check if the red paint dot is still on the sidewall. It should be near or aligned with your valve stem.

The red dot indicates the high point for radial run out and radial force variation, if they just slapped your tires on any old way, you may experience irregular tire wear as a result of not aligning red dot with/near valve stem.

Some tires have yellow dot for low point, same deal, align with valve stem. If you have both dots, red rules, ignore the yellow.

My tires are wearing evenly and have about 50% tread life remaining after 33K miles.