Yeah, what he said....

 

Some of the best alignments I've ever seen come right from the dealer. More money but good results. Bish if you get a chance stop by the shop. I got a card for a guy you probably should talk to. Take care, Vince.

 

I have the same size tire on my truck but I have the E Load range (80 psig), first off you need to add more air to your tire, 50 psig is the max and Michelin did the ratings for 6.5" wide rims, I believe those are the stock rim size. The air pressure should be within 10% of 50 psi or you will have problems like feathering, tire tread seperation, or side wall failure.

I am currently on my 6th set of tires, actually 5th if you don't count my 20" wheels (one got stolen when I was on vacation, they had about 15,000 miles on them). My truck has just top 280,000 miles and my current tires are 1/2 gone, and I have yet to rotate them since they were brand new 50,000 (minus the 15,000) ago, I usually get between 60,000-70,000 miles out of a set, depends on how often I rotate and balance them. The last front end alignment I had was when my truck was in an accident 3 years ago.

My recommendation is put 50 psig, get the tire rotated and balance, if your tires still feather, get another front end alignment. Something else to look at is the wheel seating surface on the rotor, make sure it is free of rust. How much weight is on your tires?

 

I disagree with you. There is no need for high PSI tire pressure for a Tahoe. 35 PSI is fine for a tire of that size.
The rust on rotors or flange plate would not be the issue. He's not complaining about any vibrations. That's what exccessive surface rust on the mounting plate would cause.
I say the problem lies in the shocks, a worn out/ broken front-end part or bad alignment setting.
Have you had the control arm bushings checked for cracking? That too can cause problems.

Jim

 

Replaced upper and lower control arm bushings during front end rebuild at 140K. Shocks are Bilstein HD with 30K on them. Think I'll stop by and see Vince and try another alignment.

 

First off, I have ran 80 psig in my tires and yet to have any problems, I start to see problems when my tire pressure is 60 psig, like feathering, or excess outer tire wear, but putting 80 psig and rotating them fixes the problem. I have had tread serperation, not a blow out, the tire was still aired up but no tread just steel cordes due to low pressure (65 psig).

Let me ask you one thing, what makes you a better tire engineer than the the engineers that work at Michelin? Where can you say it is better to run 35 psig than 50 psig, there is a reason why the engineers at Michelin rate a LT265/75/16R Load Range C for 50 psig because that is the optimal pressure for longevity and reliabilty, unlike Firestone, Michelin cares about the people who use their tires, they would not be the largest or best tire company if they did not. Believe it or not a professional engineer has to put his stamp on tire, what does this mean, he and the company takes full responsibility for any public harm or damage if the product does not meet its design standards, for example Firestone. The company puts a warning on its tires says "maximum air pressure 50 psig (cold)", they do this because they do not want to be responsible if someone gets injuried or killed if the product is misused in any form, they could put minimum air pressure on the tire too, but that might scare people from their product seeing "Minimum air pressure 40 psig, Maximum air pressure 50 psig (cold)", and it will allow the competion a way to create a better product by having a greater range.

Am I saying for 100% and stamp it with my engineering stamp, and claim full responsibility for any damages by saying that airing his tires up to 50 psig will fix his problem, absolutely not, I am just saying, this is what has happened to me and this is how I fixed it. Will you guarantee that lowering his air pressure to 35 psig will fix his problem, probably not. In reality we both are probably wrong it could just be the way the road is made.

 

Not trying to start a pissing match, but your truck and his Tahoe are two different vehicles.
The tires you guys use have totally different load ratings and total plys of rubber.
Your tires will work better with 50PSI due to your type of vehicle and type of tires you have. Yours are rated at a max PSI of 80PSI at max load weight per tire.
His tires are rated at a max PSI of 50PSI at max load rating of the tire. Since his Tahoe will not ever see that kind of weight, he needs to run a little lower than the max PSI rating of the tire.
35PSI is a normal tire pressure to run in an unloaded Tahoe.
Just my .02 worth of knowledge. Take it how you want.
I too agree that this may or may not fix the feathering problem.

Jim

 

I have Sigma 245/75/16's on my truck, max rated at 3042 lb with single rear wheels(load range E) and they show a max psi of 80(cold), but I don't run them that high unless I have a load exceeding 5,000 lb. I think LT265/75/16 LR-C would be rated on a 7.0-8.0" wheel and I know that's the factory size tire match for an '01 Tahoe 2WD. That tells me whatever it was tested on would equal that vehicles original wheel size. It's likely also rated for about 1,000 lb less weight than a similar "E" load range tire in that size. With about 40K miles on these tires, not running 80psi hasn't shown any problems.

Mine needs new camber/caster bushings and has the same feathering effect going on now, but only on the right(front). Soon I'll have to do the work to fix it because it does bother me. An alignment can help find problems in the suspension and steering, but as stated already, mechanics don't always do a truly complete alignment and there are various types that can be done, depending on the vehicle being aligned.

Rotation is also important. While I don't rotate mine often enough, 5K is basically the standard for heavier trucks and I see good reasons to do it. Most importantly, you might find another problem during rotation which may have gone un-noticed otherwise, like worn brake pads or a leak. Balancing isn't always necessary during rotation, but if you suspect a problem, that's a great time to have it done.