need help with F-150 front alighment/ Kaase

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I have a 2002 F-150 Harley truck. (blower 5.4, 2 wd). It has always killed the inner edge of the 20" front tires. I have changed out the parts, like the ball joints, control arms, etc. I've had many alignments done at different places. It drives perfect, just wears out the inner 2" of the front tire treads. It has always done it. I have 348,000 miles on it. Is there a different spec that we should use for the alignment? Non stock caster, camber or toe in? I rotate the directional tires once and then you have to flip them on the rims to move the worn side to the outside. Too much work. I air them up to max trying to get the load to the middle, but it only helps a little.
Any thoughts on this? Thanks, Jon Kaase
jonkaase is offline

change the camber a few degress and set for an 1/8" toe in

i noticed a few years ago a lot of cars/trucks with more negative camber.most sport suspension will have this for better performance but tire life will be short,lol. my dad has a bmw 540 that did the same as your f150. at the alignment shop the guy told him it was in "spec"...he told him to stand the wheels up like they should be.the front adjusted to+-0 but the rear wouldn't go that far.the front tires wear even now. a lot of this started after the ford explorer rollover problems.. 

Going to take a couple aftermarket widgets, but take it to zero camber and your inner edge wear will be gone.  You will notice its going to road track a little more.

How often is it re-aligned?  With the monster wides on the F150 parts, it can be pulling toe pretty quick and also accelerate that wear.  With that high of mileage I would wager lots of interstate time, so very little in regards to pot holes, curbs, and crap.  So normal suspension stress is going to make it prone to toe out.  

Get the alignment set for zero camber, max "stock" toe in, and normal caster.  Should improve tire life a bunch.  Then have the alignment re-set with every oil change.

And the monster wides comment is that the F150 suspension hasn't changed much since the days of the 235/75/15 tires aka 1994 and earlier. The small tie rod pieces aren't set up for 285/45/20 tires.. more stress.

kim wrote:Going to take a couple aftermarket widgets, but take it to zero camber and your inner edge wear will be gone.  You will notice its going to road track a little more.

How often is it re-aligned?  With the monster wides on the F150 parts, it can be pulling toe pretty quick and also accelerate that wear.  With that high of mileage I would wager lots of interstate time, so very little in regards to pot holes, curbs, and crap.  So normal suspension stress is going to make it prone to toe out.  

Get the alignment set for zero camber, max "stock" toe in, and normal caster.  Should improve tire life a bunch.  Then have the alignment re-set with every oil change.

And the monster wides comment is that the F150 suspension hasn't changed much since the days of the 235/75/15 tires aka 1994 and earlier.  The small tie rod pieces aren't set up for 285/45/20 tires..  more stress.

kim I think you may be thinking of an I-beam frontend.ford changed to a-frame in 97.

It must be true everywhere in the later model light trucks; Chevrolets and Rams have the same tire wear problems.

Set the camber at 0 to 1/2 degree negative, the caster to 5 degrees and hold the toe-in to 1/8" to 3/16" no matter what the original specs are.
Be sure the steering damper is not worn-out. On the GM's the performance alignment place around here installs one from a Ford as they have none at all.

Even with the upper/lower A arm set up's. Sometimes the adjuster cams have to get swapped out for higher adjustment numbers to take the stock camber out the vehicle. The I beam stuff gets done with a bushing swap... I was commenting on the tie rod end and thread engagement. The F150 stuff is the same as most sedans, smaller than the larger truck stuff. So they are more prone to toe change.