[briggsy1]

Am getting major rear tyre wear especially on my inside rear and on the inside of that too. I am running 20's lowered 40mm. Is this normal?

Many thanks.

 

[joe9tea]

Hi ,
You should really get your van laser aligned after you've lowered it ,
I didn't straight away and I was ripping the inside of my tyres out .
Best thing I've done , handles a dream T:

 

[Timp]

Hi ,
You should really get your van laser aligned after you've lowered it ,
I didn't straight away and I was ripping the inside of my tyres out .
Best thing I've done , handles a dream T:

Not really gonna have any effect on the rear, and is looking at toe.

If your wheel is sitting exactly vertical to a level surface this would be 0 deg camber as the suspension is lowered or pushed down by weight the suspension will pivot and the top of the wheel move in this would be negative camber. This is moving the contact patch from the center of the tyre towards the inner edge, most vehicle have negative camber to help with cornering but obviously the lower you go the more negative the camber and the more the contact patch moves over the edge of the tyre. Then its going to wear more, much more.

The lower the profile of the tyre the less lateral flex there is in the tyre. The flex in a high profile tyre would allow you to run more negative camber than a low profile tyre. The sportsline runs on 45 profile tyre with a drop of only about 30mm??? you would think that VW have calculated this to not adversely knock the camber out so far when allowing for the max payload of the vehicle.

If you go to a good tyre fitter they will be able to measure your camber and tell you what it is they will also have what it should be.

If you go too low its gonna eat your tyres unless you buy camber adjusters but a low van does look the nuts and a 30mm drop still allows you to fly a plane between the tyre and the wheel arch.

You may have to live with the tyre wear, you could if the tyres are not directional have them turned around on the rim so the inner edge is now the outer edge. Depends how much a tyre place will charge for this as to whether it would be cost effective mate??

 

[MR T5]

Not really gonna have any effect on the rear, and is looking at toe.

If your wheel is sitting exactly vertical to a level surface this would be 0 deg camber as the suspension is lowered or pushed down by weight the suspension will pivot and the top of the wheel move in this would be negative camber. This is moving the contact patch from the center of the tyre towards the inner edge, most vehicle have negative camber to help with cornering but obviously the lower you go the more negative the camber and the more the contact patch moves over the edge of the tyre. Then its going to wear more, much more.

The lower the profile of the tyre the less lateral flex there is in the tyre. The flex in a high profile tyre would allow you to run more negative camber than a low profile tyre. The sportsline runs on 45 profile tyre with a drop of only about 30mm??? you would think that VW have calculated this to not adversely knock the camber out so far when allowing for the max payload of the vehicle.

If you go to a good tyre fitter they will be able to measure your camber and tell you what it is they will also have what it should be.

If you go too low its gonna eat your tyres unless you buy camber adjusters but a low van does look the nuts and a 30mm drop still allows you to fly a plane between the tyre and the wheel arch.

You may have to live with the tyre wear, you could if the tyres are not directional have them turned around on the rim so the inner edge is now the outer edge. Depends how much a tyre place will charge for this as to whether it would be cost effective mate??

Great replyA: My van is wound right down on coilovers with 255/35/20. When I had the coilovers fitted I didnt get the tracking/allignment done and it scrubbed the inside of all 4 tyres (the rears to the wire) in no time I bought 4 new tyres and had the geometry set up, and 6000 miles later there is no sign of the inner edge scrubbing. Im not saying its not going to, just that tyre life can be prolonged with a few tweaks. *<>

 

[briggsy1]

Wow. Brilliant reply thank you. I can see the wire just showing on the inside of the near side rear. The other off side rear seems ok, bit weird? I had the tracking done a few months ago as I always do after hitting the winter potholes.
So you are saying that the rears can be corrected with these camber adjusters? It is only a camper so not dragging around massive loads and this wear has happened after 9000 miles.

Thanks again.

 

[dereknic2000]

The trick with the rears...which cannot be adjusted for camber, is to swap the tyres...( not the wheels) the tyres every 5 or 6 K ...this will then give you more or less even tyre wear on the inside edges, as most tyres are directional it means getting the tyres swapped on the rims....but for the sake or £20 every 5K it is worth doing, it means that the n/s inner edge will become the o/s outer edge, and vice versa.....And is perfectly normal...

 

[andy_variant]

You say you had it tracked, Was that four wheel aligned?

You can have the toe-in out back corrected but not camber as timp says....

Although I've found camber doesn't kill tyres super quick (I've done 15k on my backs for example) it's the toe in, As your driving allong the tyres are fighting to drive in a straight line and hence wear!

Does the rear end feel twitchy over bumps etc?

 

[briggsy1]

Hello Andy.
Thanks for reply and yes she does feel like a small step out on some bumps from the back. I have also noticed the passenger side rear wheel seems to slightly turn inwards. Luckily we have a suspension specialist near us and I'm going to pop down tomorrow for them to check it out. They seem to think they will be able to do a 4 wheel check over and sort out the misalignment. We shall see and I'll keep you all posted.

 

[jonnie22]

interesting!!! had the same issue too, after a bit of digging about see post in steering and suspension section http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=150455 i am going to get the tyres swapped round to even out wear, dont think theres much else you can do, mines dropped 70mm, and i aint going back up, how do guys manage with tyres with slammed vans? even more tyre wear?

 

[dereknic2000]

It's the camber ( plum up and down) that wears the edges....toe in or out makes it skip about a bit..., one other thing is that worn bushes can also cause the skipping and the excessive wear...

 

[briggsy1]

All sorted today and the moral of the story is!.........

If you lower your bus the very next thing you do is a a full geometry check. The toe in was miles out!! I was virtually dragging my rear wheels along. Still some camber there but hopefully tyre wear will be massively reduced.

Thanks everyone for all your help and advice.
PS mentioned camber adjusters/shims to VW commercial centre and they said they had never heard of them.

 

[VANSPORTMAN]

Is it not possible to have something machined up to bring it back to standard camber settings? there must be some clever people on here that could make something that will do the job, they would make a fortune selling kitsT: infact now that i think about it i might have a look into that myself

 

[mudskipper]

The rear negative camber that is seen when lowering can be compensated to a degree by adjusting the rear toe. Any good alignment specialists should know this and offer to do it. It basically means that the wear will be more even accross the back tyre surface and not just on one edge.

I've got mine on 20's with 255/35 tyres and down about 70mm on coilovers and Elites in Rainham got my van just within tolerances by adjusting it like this. My tyre wear is even.

As already said, if you lower then you WILL need a 4 wheel alignment not just tracking

 

[VANSPORTMAN]

Thanks for the advice bud i'll be sure and do thatT:

 

[ALEXANDER MEERKAT]

speaking as an engineer who has been doing conversions forever, it is generally reckoned in the trade that if you modify one thing, 3 others will be a problem. thats why i havent lowered my van and get 45000 miles per set of tyres, all worn down within 2mm of each other and no shoulders worn off. simples!

 

[briggsy1]

speaking as an engineer who has been doing conversions forever, it is generally reckoned in the trade that if you modify one thing, 3 others will be a problem. thats why i havent lowered my van and get 45000 miles per set of tyres, all worn down within 2mm of each other and no shoulders worn off. simples!

Tyre wear is the price of vanity! Of which I am guilty.

 

[andy_variant]

All sorted today and the moral of the story is!.........

If you lower your bus the very next thing you do is a a full geometry check. The toe in was miles out!! I was virtually dragging my rear wheels along. Still some camber there but hopefully tyre wear will be massively reduced.

Thanks everyone for all your help and advice.
PS mentioned camber adjusters/shims to VW commercial centre and they said they had never heard of them.

Good to hear T:

Camber shims won't work on t5's as the rear hub/bearing is pressed into the wishbone, Not like golfs where the hub is bolted on (Which is where you place the camber shims) Golf rear hubs for example:-

Shim diagram:

*<>