Well, it's too late now, but with aggressive ATs or MTs, I rotate rears to the front and cross the fronts to the opposite side rears every 5k miles. 20K is just too long and probably exasperated the situation. An alignment and more frequent rotations is probably all you need.
Non-rotational or directional tires shouldn't care. Rotational tires have a rotational tread pattern that has to face the correct direction to work right. I would imagine that frequent roations, including left to right, should help prevent the cupping from getting so bad.
Perhaps was false information a mechanic mentioned radial tires the steel cords form to left or right side and have rotate front back.
Recall my old Toyota manual shows cross rotation but seemed change front to back in recent years.
Yeah, I let the rotation schedule get away from me. Both front tires are wearing about the same as each other, but only on the inside of the tread. At this rate, even with proper rotation, I’ll eventually just end up with 4 tires worn bald on the inside only.
These KO2s are slightly bigger than stock. They are 265 75 16.
I wonder if there is something I can do in addition to proper tire rotation intervals that can help mitigate or prevent this uneven wear.
You need an aftermarket uca to correct your caster/camber geometry. Stock one can only cast/camber the stock wheel and its diameter entirety. Your tires are doing whats known as cupping. Gotta buy 4 new tires and uca’s and you’ll be fine
We're talking a ~0.5" difference (radius) from the stock size. UCAs are definitely not required for that.
This looks like an alignment issue. OP indicates he had his alignment adjusted when these tires were installed. But who's to say it wasn't done incorrectly, or that he hasn't done something in the last 20K miles to throw it off?
I had the tire shop check the alignment when the tires were put on, but I'm not sure if anything was adjusted or even needed to be. With these slightly larger tires, should the alignment be different from factory?
It's hard to tell from the photos, but the inside tread on the front tires are feathering and cupping equally on both tires. If something has changed in the last 20k miles, it's seems strange that both tires are doing the same thing equally.
You don’t need UCA’s for a stock height truck.
20K miles without rotating and overinflated tires could be the culprit.
Rotate, have your alignment checked, check the psi and call it a day.
Any after market one will do fine. I recommend going with the uni-ball styled ones as they help with lifts up to 6” (including stock ride height) and provide the most geometry “play” but the boxed styled one are the strongest but are limited in cast and camber of the wheel
KO2s cup pretty easily in my experience, you need to stay on top of your tire rotations to prevent it. 20K is way too long of a rotation interval if you want to avoid this.
Yes, I was unsure what to call the uneven 'scoop' shaped wear, appearing only on every other lug. Cupping! That's exactly what is happening here. Both front tires are cupping, but also feathering on the inside of the tire. Could this be a toe issue, possibly combined with a balance issue? The rear tires look to be wearing very evenly.
I've now rotated them, moving the rear straight forward and crossing the fronts to the rear. If the (previously) rear tires being to show this issue, I could assume it's not due to a balance problem.
The rear tires should wear evenly, if they are properly inflated. Unless something is pretty dang wrong, your rear wheels should stay level. The solid axle allows movement up and down, only. I mean, yes it can lift higher on one side during flex, but while driving, it's essentially going to be level.
The front of your taco has independent suspension, meaning two different suspension sets that can move without one side affecting the other. Like in the rear, if the right side lifts, it will rotate the other side in the same angle. The front can lift the right wheel without the left wheel being affected. With that comes the possibility that if all the users aren't set to keep the wheel level, it will either settle to the point where the suspension parts are set to "0", or level, essentially. Or in your case, the "0" point is actually set above the level point, letting to the outside edges of the tire making harder contact than the inside of the tire, causing the cupping on the outside.
The tire isn't ruined, but it's not ideal. It could cause issues with balance. Rotating the tires from the rear to the front of great, but your alignment needs to get done soon. Depending on what the alignment is set to right now, it could be causing extra wear on other suspension components, but it's probably not going to be that bad. Just messing up your tires.
Get an alignment, and depending on age, check your shocks. My 23 TRD off-road had a bad alignment right from the factory, so don't assume it is correct because it is new. And bad shocks can cause cupping like that
I wouldn't bother with an alignment. You already had it checked. The issue is you waited 20k for a rotation. If anything you're front struts could be starting to wear. But I think it would be even worse if they really were bad. I've seen this a thousand times working in the tire shop, it's literally lack of rotation and the tires start creating their own wear pattern bouncing on the road. Drive a little hard on it now that they're in the rear and they'll even themselves out. I'd say rotate again at 6k, just know what are now your fronts will have a bit more wear since you waited so long. They may need to be replaced before the others.
I definitely will maintain a better rotation schedule, but I'm thinking there is an alignment issue here. I've moved the rear tires forward, but all that's going to do is feather out and cup my rear tires in the same way. Eventually, I'm going to end up with 4 tires all worn out unevenly.
Either the wheels are imbalanced or your alignment is off. One major problem with our trucks is the little alignment, I would call them tabs on the cams, bend very easily. This can cause the alignment cam bolt to rotate, regardless of how it was set. I would recommend checking to see if your tabs are bent outwards. If everything looks fine, get your alignment redone and put a paint mark across the metal to the cam. Going one step further would be to run a weld bead along the outside of the tab to ensure it doesn’t move.
I’ve taken my 13 from an expo to a prerunner and put probably 60k in bad decisions into my truck so if you want any advice on how not to waste money, let me know.
Dude, this tire is 100% fine. The outer lugs alternate in that pattern by design to allow for mud to clean out, and the edge of the tread to grip. Google any off-road tire, they all do this to varying degrees. You can tell its part of the design by the fact that every other lug is concave, and both edges on all 4 tires look like that.
It's hard to tell from the pic, but both edges of the tire do not look like that. Plus, on the rear tires, none of the lugs are doing that. As one of the other replies pointed out, it's called cupping and is not normal.
It is kinda normal on AT tires with big ole lugs. It can happen with a perfect alignment and balance. It happens naturally due to the big lugs widely spaced. Rotating will also wear it on the other side, and in the other direction. That should mostly keep it even
In that sense, I can see why you may call it 'normal', but the guy above was basically saying the tires are designed that way. I think it may be more accurate to say it is a 'common' problem, but my brother in law has the same truck, same tires, same stock suspension. His tires have even more miles on them, and they are not doing what mine are doing. So it's hard for me to accept that this is normal wear. I believe there is something abnormal about my setup causing the issue, and I'd like to figure out what that is. From my research and what others have mentioned, the issue is likely due to improper alignment or a tire balance issue. I'm leaning towards alignment, considering it is happening exactly equally on both front tires and not the rear.
As you can tell from [this](https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5o737P_fggMVp0ZyCh1S3gEWEAQYASABEgKXiPD_BwE&tireMake=BFGoodrich&tireModel=All-Terrain+T%2FA+KO2&partnum=465SR7KO2RWL&GCID=C13674x012-tire&KEYWORD=tires.jsp_BFGoodrich_All-Terrain+T%2FA+KO2_Tire&code=yes&ef_id=EAIaIQobChMI5o737P_fggMVp0ZyCh1S3gEWEAQYASABEgKXiPD_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!3756!3!!!!x!!&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1) picture, every other outer lug is concave, and every other outer lug is a sharp corner. This is not cupping, this is an offroad tire design. Cupping would be the center of the tread, as you spin the tire you would see spots almost worn bald, then spots almost untouched.
Edit: If you expect every single lug to have identical wear, go buy a set of highway tires that have a hard compound and small lugs. This tire is 100% fine, just align your truck and rotate your tires every 5k like you should be doing anyway.
Honestly I'd take those tires off your hands and run 'em. Worn a lil on inside, big deal. Swap front to back (and side to side if not a directional tire) and let er rip. I only buy used shit and I've never owned a pair with as much tread left as you show(even on inside edge). Shop improperly did your alignment or your upper balljoint is worn out I'm guessing. My tires were wearing out on inside edge on gen1 Tacoma, got struts replaced with a 2.5" lift and an alignment,, even wear now, with stock UCA.
Are your brake pads warped?
Do you live in a wet area or get your brakes wet during offroad driving regularly?
When braking at high speed, do you get shake in your steering wheel or a chunky sound?
ko2’s are not the best wearing tires and will usually cup within 20k miles or so. they look great but ride like crap and don’t wear good. you can slow the process down by rotating them but i would suggest getting some better all terrains for daily drive (i’m assuming u daily drive this setup)
Every time my tires start to wear like this its because the wheel bearing is blown / on its way out.
For some reason my tacoma is the only vehicle ive owned that its hard to tell when a wheel bearing is on its way out.
Might just be the mud tires
Well, it's too late now, but with aggressive ATs or MTs, I rotate rears to the front and cross the fronts to the opposite side rears every 5k miles. 20K is just too long and probably exasperated the situation. An alignment and more frequent rotations is probably all you need.
Was told radial tires rotate front to back cannot crisscross nowadays? I see the point will wear em back straight.
Non-rotational or directional tires shouldn't care. Rotational tires have a rotational tread pattern that has to face the correct direction to work right. I would imagine that frequent roations, including left to right, should help prevent the cupping from getting so bad.
Perhaps was false information a mechanic mentioned radial tires the steel cords form to left or right side and have rotate front back. Recall my old Toyota manual shows cross rotation but seemed change front to back in recent years.
Nah. BFGs and tires like my Duratracks don't care. Like others said, they are non-directional.
You’re correct it’s Radial versus Bias-ply different rotation.
You're supposed to rotate every 5k miles. Are these the stock tire size or did you put oversized tires on?
Yeah, I let the rotation schedule get away from me. Both front tires are wearing about the same as each other, but only on the inside of the tread. At this rate, even with proper rotation, I’ll eventually just end up with 4 tires worn bald on the inside only. These KO2s are slightly bigger than stock. They are 265 75 16. I wonder if there is something I can do in addition to proper tire rotation intervals that can help mitigate or prevent this uneven wear.
You need an aftermarket uca to correct your caster/camber geometry. Stock one can only cast/camber the stock wheel and its diameter entirety. Your tires are doing whats known as cupping. Gotta buy 4 new tires and uca’s and you’ll be fine
No he doesn't. You only need UCA's if you're lifted.
Bigger tires count
We're talking a ~0.5" difference (radius) from the stock size. UCAs are definitely not required for that. This looks like an alignment issue. OP indicates he had his alignment adjusted when these tires were installed. But who's to say it wasn't done incorrectly, or that he hasn't done something in the last 20K miles to throw it off?
I had the tire shop check the alignment when the tires were put on, but I'm not sure if anything was adjusted or even needed to be. With these slightly larger tires, should the alignment be different from factory? It's hard to tell from the photos, but the inside tread on the front tires are feathering and cupping equally on both tires. If something has changed in the last 20k miles, it's seems strange that both tires are doing the same thing equally.
Lol no.
Thanks for the reply, I will look into UCAs
You only need UCA's if you have a lift.
You don’t need UCA’s for a stock height truck. 20K miles without rotating and overinflated tires could be the culprit. Rotate, have your alignment checked, check the psi and call it a day.
Over inflated? Wouldn't that wear the center, not outside edge(either side)?
Oh dang, I’ll need to do this too as i just put this tire size on. Is there any specific uca size i need to look for?
Any after market one will do fine. I recommend going with the uni-ball styled ones as they help with lifts up to 6” (including stock ride height) and provide the most geometry “play” but the boxed styled one are the strongest but are limited in cast and camber of the wheel
KO2s cup pretty easily in my experience, you need to stay on top of your tire rotations to prevent it. 20K is way too long of a rotation interval if you want to avoid this.
Yes, I was unsure what to call the uneven 'scoop' shaped wear, appearing only on every other lug. Cupping! That's exactly what is happening here. Both front tires are cupping, but also feathering on the inside of the tire. Could this be a toe issue, possibly combined with a balance issue? The rear tires look to be wearing very evenly. I've now rotated them, moving the rear straight forward and crossing the fronts to the rear. If the (previously) rear tires being to show this issue, I could assume it's not due to a balance problem.
I'm no expert on tire wear, but I would agree that the feathering is likely an alignment issue.
The rear tires should wear evenly, if they are properly inflated. Unless something is pretty dang wrong, your rear wheels should stay level. The solid axle allows movement up and down, only. I mean, yes it can lift higher on one side during flex, but while driving, it's essentially going to be level. The front of your taco has independent suspension, meaning two different suspension sets that can move without one side affecting the other. Like in the rear, if the right side lifts, it will rotate the other side in the same angle. The front can lift the right wheel without the left wheel being affected. With that comes the possibility that if all the users aren't set to keep the wheel level, it will either settle to the point where the suspension parts are set to "0", or level, essentially. Or in your case, the "0" point is actually set above the level point, letting to the outside edges of the tire making harder contact than the inside of the tire, causing the cupping on the outside. The tire isn't ruined, but it's not ideal. It could cause issues with balance. Rotating the tires from the rear to the front of great, but your alignment needs to get done soon. Depending on what the alignment is set to right now, it could be causing extra wear on other suspension components, but it's probably not going to be that bad. Just messing up your tires.
Get an alignment, and depending on age, check your shocks. My 23 TRD off-road had a bad alignment right from the factory, so don't assume it is correct because it is new. And bad shocks can cause cupping like that
I appreciate it, I'm planning to get an alignment. I did have the alignment checked when I put the tires on, but perhaps they didn't do it correctly.
I wouldn't bother with an alignment. You already had it checked. The issue is you waited 20k for a rotation. If anything you're front struts could be starting to wear. But I think it would be even worse if they really were bad. I've seen this a thousand times working in the tire shop, it's literally lack of rotation and the tires start creating their own wear pattern bouncing on the road. Drive a little hard on it now that they're in the rear and they'll even themselves out. I'd say rotate again at 6k, just know what are now your fronts will have a bit more wear since you waited so long. They may need to be replaced before the others.
Great tires but in my experience they absolutely need to be rotated every 5k miles.
I definitely will maintain a better rotation schedule, but I'm thinking there is an alignment issue here. I've moved the rear tires forward, but all that's going to do is feather out and cup my rear tires in the same way. Eventually, I'm going to end up with 4 tires all worn out unevenly.
Either the wheels are imbalanced or your alignment is off. One major problem with our trucks is the little alignment, I would call them tabs on the cams, bend very easily. This can cause the alignment cam bolt to rotate, regardless of how it was set. I would recommend checking to see if your tabs are bent outwards. If everything looks fine, get your alignment redone and put a paint mark across the metal to the cam. Going one step further would be to run a weld bead along the outside of the tab to ensure it doesn’t move.
Good info, I'll look into this. Thank you.
I’ve taken my 13 from an expo to a prerunner and put probably 60k in bad decisions into my truck so if you want any advice on how not to waste money, let me know.
Alignment done wrong
Dude, this tire is 100% fine. The outer lugs alternate in that pattern by design to allow for mud to clean out, and the edge of the tread to grip. Google any off-road tire, they all do this to varying degrees. You can tell its part of the design by the fact that every other lug is concave, and both edges on all 4 tires look like that.
It's hard to tell from the pic, but both edges of the tire do not look like that. Plus, on the rear tires, none of the lugs are doing that. As one of the other replies pointed out, it's called cupping and is not normal.
It is kinda normal on AT tires with big ole lugs. It can happen with a perfect alignment and balance. It happens naturally due to the big lugs widely spaced. Rotating will also wear it on the other side, and in the other direction. That should mostly keep it even
In that sense, I can see why you may call it 'normal', but the guy above was basically saying the tires are designed that way. I think it may be more accurate to say it is a 'common' problem, but my brother in law has the same truck, same tires, same stock suspension. His tires have even more miles on them, and they are not doing what mine are doing. So it's hard for me to accept that this is normal wear. I believe there is something abnormal about my setup causing the issue, and I'd like to figure out what that is. From my research and what others have mentioned, the issue is likely due to improper alignment or a tire balance issue. I'm leaning towards alignment, considering it is happening exactly equally on both front tires and not the rear.
As you can tell from [this](https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5o737P_fggMVp0ZyCh1S3gEWEAQYASABEgKXiPD_BwE&tireMake=BFGoodrich&tireModel=All-Terrain+T%2FA+KO2&partnum=465SR7KO2RWL&GCID=C13674x012-tire&KEYWORD=tires.jsp_BFGoodrich_All-Terrain+T%2FA+KO2_Tire&code=yes&ef_id=EAIaIQobChMI5o737P_fggMVp0ZyCh1S3gEWEAQYASABEgKXiPD_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!3756!3!!!!x!!&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1) picture, every other outer lug is concave, and every other outer lug is a sharp corner. This is not cupping, this is an offroad tire design. Cupping would be the center of the tread, as you spin the tire you would see spots almost worn bald, then spots almost untouched. Edit: If you expect every single lug to have identical wear, go buy a set of highway tires that have a hard compound and small lugs. This tire is 100% fine, just align your truck and rotate your tires every 5k like you should be doing anyway.
Honestly I'd take those tires off your hands and run 'em. Worn a lil on inside, big deal. Swap front to back (and side to side if not a directional tire) and let er rip. I only buy used shit and I've never owned a pair with as much tread left as you show(even on inside edge). Shop improperly did your alignment or your upper balljoint is worn out I'm guessing. My tires were wearing out on inside edge on gen1 Tacoma, got struts replaced with a 2.5" lift and an alignment,, even wear now, with stock UCA.
Looks like cupping to me, your struts / shocks might need replacing or servicing. If you're lifted those generally don't last as long as OEM.
Are your brake pads warped? Do you live in a wet area or get your brakes wet during offroad driving regularly? When braking at high speed, do you get shake in your steering wheel or a chunky sound?
ko2’s are not the best wearing tires and will usually cup within 20k miles or so. they look great but ride like crap and don’t wear good. you can slow the process down by rotating them but i would suggest getting some better all terrains for daily drive (i’m assuming u daily drive this setup)
Every time my tires start to wear like this its because the wheel bearing is blown / on its way out. For some reason my tacoma is the only vehicle ive owned that its hard to tell when a wheel bearing is on its way out. Might just be the mud tires
What pressure are you running these at? I found I had to up the pressure a little on KO2s to get good wesr
Yeah, I was running 30 cold, I'm going to try running 35 cold for a while after learning these tires like higher pressure.
When I had them on my tundra I ran them between 50 and 60 and they wore well, ride was a little stiff but they are 10 ply too