What can cause this wear

[Rawze]

(referring to the pic above)...
how many miles on the tire?

If it is more than 100k miles,.. then it is called "driving". You should also see similar wear (maybe not quite as bad though) on the drivers side inner edge. If this is the case, you are ready for new tires, and nothing is wrong whatsoever, as the rest of the tire looks fine.

Making really tight right turns a lot in city streets is what causes it. Nothing can be done about it except being aware that the more city driving you do, the faster that wear is going to set in due to tight right turns. With city driving, tight right turns at traffic lights, etc. while the truck is heavy eats those edges up a bit and then once the wear sets in.. all driving amplifies it later on. A truck does not make tight left turns very often, so the steer tires will eventually always wear out on the passenger outer edge and on the drivers side inner edge. It is inevitable.


OR...

If it is less than 100k miles, and only on the passenger side but not the drivers side, then check king pin(s) and hub bearing(s) on the steer axles. If they are in spec then it is not a problem in the front end at all, but in the rear axle/tandem alignment. That is usually the result of some moron alignment shop a-hole, with one of those stupid-arsse laser-alignment devices, who has set the rear tandems perfectly parallel to each other like an idiot. The rear axles of a highway truck should NOT BE PARALLEL unless you just want to eat up steer tires and have the truck driving into the ditch every time you let go of the steering wheel.
ref: http://rawze.com/forums/showthread.php?t...0#pid16060


The only real question... is which one is it?