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Cupping 35's

C

ChuckstrPT

NAXJA Member #791
Location
Birmingham, Alabama
So I just bought an '01 with RE 3.5 with 2 inch spacers and both front tires are cupped pretty badly....alternating tread blocks high/low/high/low... We looking at Unit Bearings? Ball Joints? Shocks?:dunno: These are 35" Baja Claw radials...
Thanks,
Andy
 
Unless that 01' has ben beat to death, your ball joints might not be the issue.. maybe a combination of all that..and out of alignment

jack up the front end and check for ball joint play (up-down) and TRE play (side to side)
 
try rotating your tires??? shocks???
 
Ball Joints, Alignment, wheel bearings, shocks all have a effect of cupping. Take it to an alignment shop and when doing an alignment have them check out every thing else.
 
claws tend to cup when not balanced and/or rotated
 
how well do the claws work with the pellets in the tire for balancing? I am looking at getting a set that are used and have some cupping already. I have some nice MT side biter rims that I will be putting them on. I have heard good things about using the pellets....
 
Balance, shocks, proper rotation, alignment...
Id start in that order.
Snap a pic and let us see the damage, pictures worth a 1000 words.
 
99xj4x4 said:
Balance, shocks, proper rotation, alignment...
Id start in that order.
Snap a pic and let us see the damage, pictures worth a 1000 words.
Click to expand...

I thought about a pic, but black with a black backround makes it hard to show the different tread block heights. I may try though.
The pressure is dead on. The shocks are RE and look fairly new. The previous owner claims recent balance and alignment. I figured I'd start there. Gotta call my usual place and see if they'll do 35's...
thanks for the info, I'll keep ya posted:sunshine:
 
Like has been said, many things can contribute to tire cupping. With big tires, they can cup just from not rotating them often enough. You can't correct the cupping, once the tires are cupped they will continue to cup more regardless of what you do. The fix is when you put new tires on, and new tires should always be balanced and the alignment checked. Since you just bought the rig, alignment, ball joints, steering link ends......everything should be checked anyway.
 
Can't belived no one said anything about the trac bar. Mine was shot and mine feathered and cupped badly. I am also running Rockers on the street so that may have something to do with it.


Parakeet
 
my 33's on my old K10 was cupping and i fixed that by put the cupped tires on back and fixed the front end steering/suspension and the tire didnt cup anymore. and i left the cupped tires on back long enough and they actually slowly become flat again.

just my .02
 
While it has been mentioned that there is not a lot you can do about cupping once it has started and with the claws being a directional tire and not able to move to the other side of the car (unless un-mounting and remounting to the rim). A large cause is from alignment and balance right? While it is hard to 100% balance a cupped tire because of the various points and a standard balancer will only put weights in a few locations.

Would the use of Air soft beads or the special designed pellets for balancing tires work extra well in this application to prevent it from cupping any further (assuming every thing else is in order)? This would insure a 100% balance all the time causing the tire to wear down at the same rate correct? or due to the deformation with there always be more wear in the cupped sections causing the vicious cycles that were discussed above?
 
Hey man I know the PO.

The shocks are only like 5 months old if that. I remember when he was putting them on after I saw him one day during winter.

I had a set of 33" MTRs that were cupped a bit and put them on the rear and it seemed to round off the edges a bit and made them a bit better. You might could do that. I know the 2 Jeeps that those tires have been on and they both keep good care of their vehicles too so that should give you a little peace of mind.

Never saw the guy beat on it and wheeled with him severl times.
 
I'm not accusing anyone of any malicous wrong doing. Just want to make sure my front end is in good shape, so we don't get bad wear patterns on the other two tires. We swapped ends prior to the drive home.
Cupping is alternating high/low/high/low tread blocks....uneven wear amongst the tread blocks. It's fairly patternistic. Normal tread wear, all the tread blocks are the same height. With this, there is obvious differences in height, even on the same tread block.
The shocks do look pretty new. I'm thinking maybe unit bearing, or ball joints. It's got 140k on it.
 
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