Front End Shimmy

I’ve noticed a slight shimmy in my front end/steering components. I can feel it in the steering wheel and actually see it in the movement of the fender mirrors. The truck is a 2022 Cascadia with 100,000 miles.

A thorough inspection of steering and suspension parts has given me no clues. Tires show no abnormal wear.

I’m no mechanic, so I’m getting routed back to the shop for an inspection. Can something like this be as simple as an out of balance steer tire? Any other possibilities that you can think of?

Years ago I had an old car that did the same thing. The steering wheel would shimmy/vibrate at highway speed. Found out one of my front tires was out of balance with a glob of grease on the inside of the wheel rim. Cleaned the grease off and the problem was solved. Maybe check the inside of your rims for anything such as grease from the steer components lube.

Upon further inspection, I rotated my tires so I could inspect the entire circumference. This is what I found. What would cause this wear in one spot? BTW, this is on my passenger side steer tire.

Wow! That's more bald than the top of my head. I guess the obvious cause would be an alignment issue.

Have you sent images to your maintenance dept. yet? They will probably want you to bring it to a shop to diagnose the issue.

Could be bad shocks causing the wheel to hop and create this baldness in spots. After looking at the outer edge wear if appears like an axle toe-in/toe/out alignment issue.

Could be a lot of things honestly. I know there was one time my truck was steering fine but kept making a weird noise (can’t remember exactly what it was now but I think it like a loud knocking noise over small bumps iirc) but it would only do it when I was empty. I checked everything out and couldn’t find anything. It didn’t happen very often so I forgot about it until a couple weeks later it started doing it again. I took it to the shop and they found the bushings on my rear spring hangers for the steer axle were worn and there was something else going on too. It was bad enough they ended up downing it and not letting me drive it until they fixed it.

Wow! That's more bald than the top of my head. I guess the obvious cause would be an alignment issue.

Have you sent images to your maintenance dept. yet? They will probably want you to bring it to a shop to diagnose the issue.

RD, as you suggested I sent the photo to our shop. They are going to let me deliver my current load in the morning (still have 193 miles to go). Then they will route me to a truck repair facility and get this checked out. The tire will definitely be replaced, perhaps both steer tires, depending on the results from the shop.

Steer tires will definitely be replaced in pairs. Same as a brake job, ya don't just change the bad sides brakes, on ANY vehicle hahaha.........Be glad ya caught it before it got a lot worse out on the road.

My guess is the truck has never had an alignment. Freightliner does not have them aligned at the factory. They don’t volunteer the information either.

I've had a question for some time and will bring it up now. At Marten, Michael has his truck inspected at the Jurupa terminal monthly. He gets his manager to book him an appointment and he gets routed so that it fits into his schedule. I would imagine that they would have caught a problem like this before the tire got this bad. I don't recall ever reading of anyone mentioning monthly inspections and wonder if it is unique to Marten or to his regional fleet.