Lifted tundra outside tire wear

I have a 2012 with around a 4" lift being on the higher end of 3 inches on the front suspension, JBA uppers and my tires have a considerable amount of outside wear, I don't believe they even got to 5,000 miles before I had to rotate them just to attempt to have them last longer for me. They are pretty new and very expensive I run high tire pressures to get better wear out of my Cooper discoverer all terrains. I also feel like when i turn my angles aren't as they should be. Was there something in the steering system I was supposed to correct that I missed? I saw something about a spacer kit but couldn't figure out what they were referring to although I believe it could be related.

 

Did you get an alignment after the lift? Lifting will definitely add positive camber and contribute to outer tire wear.

I installed Bilstein 5100's and have like half the lift you do, and I could visually see the positive camber when standing in front of the truck. It took me 3-4 attempts to get the alignment shop to finally make the effort to get the camber back to normal. With your higher lift you might need additional parts to get your alignment correct. I'm sure other members will chime in with the parts you need.

 

Yes I have an alignment I may find another shop just in case because I do not want to ruin the rotated tires which were perfect since they'd been in the back. I just want this truck to be more efficient with tire wear I spent a good amount of money for that reason to correct geometry yet the same thing happened. I know it's better than before because when I had my stock UCA's with a lift my street tires were destroyed within 3 months because of excessive camber. Honestly Im starting to regret the 4" lift I did not anticipate the aggressive tire wear based off my research I shouldn't be having this issue so I'm back on the forums to see where I have gone wrong. Haven't had a chance due to all the construction midterms I've had lately. Thanks for the response though and sorry for the long writeup.

 

Check out old school alignment shops. Most of the others use factory numbers which isnt applicable to a lifted truck. We only have 2 around us that do it old school, but I did it on my 2011 leveled and my 2017 6" lifted and have had good tire wear each time using the old school way of aligning vs the typical new way of matching factory specs

 

Kind of hard to find old-school anything in Miami. I can't even find a Toyota mechanic to through money at I have to do everything myself with assistance of forums. Most the shops won't touch my truck and send me to small shops last one I went to fixed the bump steer and made it drive pretty straight but it was so quick that I think they didn't do much with camber. I really do hate south florida quick money is valued over quality work.

 

If you have it, post your alignment sheet. That would be a good starting point for the alignment guys on here.

 

Sadly I was never given one at the last shop. I may have to figure out how I can get one maybe I can ask a shop for the info if they put my truck on the rack.

 

What lift components do you have? What is “around 4 inches”

 

3.5" RC coilover lift .5" spacer on top I say around 4 because most likely its less than 4" considering how tiny that spacer was

 

The shock is halfway up the arm, so .5 inch thick spacer should give about an inch of lift.

honestly a 3.5 inch lift is too much for our suspension anyways, adding more is a bad idea

You need to reduce your lift height for a proper alignment. Are you 2wd or 4wd?

i notice the V6. Doesn’t the RC coilover come with new coils? I think they are rated for a v8 4x4, so you’re getting maybe more than 3.5 inches out of it

 

Like he said ^^ Its best practice to keep the lift under 3 inches unless your dropping diffs and stuff like that, and at that point the lift is just for looks really.

 

dropping diff doesn’t fix alignment or poor suspension articulation though

 

Spacer is .25 inches thick which equates to .5 of a lift. On the forums I was told I would be fine within recommendations for JBA. 2WD not 4WD so no differential issues or anything like that. Before I got an alignment I could see the positive camber, I don't have that issue anymore my wheels are straight from what I can see but i read something somewhere about a steering angle correction kit? I can't give much information as I didn't go into specifics. It is a little late to stay under 3 inches lol the tires which were worn did see some mileage with a bad camber alignment the fronts are now being driven with what I was told was within recommendations. What I want to do now is make sure I have specs to be given to whoever is aligning my truck but I need to put in my rear lift first. I have been putting it off due to a busy school schedule so my truck is leaning quite a bit I am so sick of it I cannot wait to level it out, but yes I have a 4.0 the 270 HP version no transfer case.

 

yep only helps with wear and improper geometry.

 

Not gonna lie, a while back I saw some baja leveling coilovers with a rebuild kit and I highly regret not picking them up. At the time I wanted a lift and I was okay with good enough. Figured in a year or two I would pick up something better. I also though the suspension would settle to a lower height. Now I am stuck with massive coilovers and a squatted truck, fun times. I was trying to see if there was a cheaper solution as I am not ready to get rid of this coilover right now.

 

I would start with pulling those spacers. Did your kit come with upper control arms?

 

No the arms that come with the kit are garbage, JBA is high quality and serviceable and worked for my application. RC isn’t the best the coilovers were good enough for me though

 

Oh on so you have those at least. I still think you’re probably getting extra lift from being lighter. Search this forum for the best alignment specs (tighter than toyota’s accepted range), pull the spacers and find another alignment shop to perfect it. Since you have uca’s you can probably fix this issue
Next time use lift spindles on 2wd

 

Oh boy to go through all that work to pull out a little piece of metal ‍ I knew I shouldn’t had done it I’ll probably pay a shop to do it I’m tired of suspension work, and next time I lift a truck I highly doubt it’ll be a 2WD but I can save someone else the headache. I used to have more specific alignment specs but I have since lost the post

 

Definitely need a custom alignment, not what the factory specs say

 

Just that is a bad sign honestly. A lazy tech will "set the toe and let it go". If they don't give a sheet it's probably not within spec.

 

That's the trouble I'm having. They didn't like aligning tundras as it is stock now that it's lifted they don't even bother to do it right, some friends recommended a few shops I guess I'll have to pick my battles and hope for the best.

 

I have had the same issue since I got my truck new. It had 3” spacer and 1” rear block. I have since removed the spacer and went with the 2.5” Toytech/Eibach coil assembly. I just had my truck aligned (again) recently... does this look OK?

 

It's in the green which mean roughly it's okay but once you modify your suspension you are better off getting custom numbers done by someone who knows what they're doing

 

At least it’s in the green, I would be happy with it. If you don’t get a sheet you can bet it wasn’t green lol

 

I feel your pain man. I paid for three alignments until it was finally done right. Best bet is to find a good shop by referral. There must be a decent off-road or truck shop near you.

 

The last one I went to was supposed to be an offroad shop specialized they didn't even give me and alignment sheet, I was in a rush so I did not bother to ask

 

here's my alignment sheet, went to a shop that specialized in alignments. Asked for a sheet and here It is, does drive pretty straight compared to before guy told me if i have any issues to give them a call.

 

also the turning feels much more fluid, just so you know I lifted the rear end 2" so I am now level, did bring down the nose a bit

 

Wheel / tire width can also cause outside wear.

I’ve seen wide tires on narrow rims role the tire edge.