Thanks, Alfons---I"m going to have them looked at tomorrow and see what they say.

 

We get tire complaints that are caused by all different types of issues, but typically they come in when the vehicle has much lower mileage. Mostly under 10,000 miles. On a 2008 and 40k miles it could be any number of things.

If you PM me the vin I will send you a build sheet and you can see if they were the tires that came on the vehicle. Of course there is no way of knowing if they were ever replaced but it would give you a good idea one way or the other.

 

Thanks, Chris---PM sent!

 

Really sounds like a tire with the belts out of line. I had one of my rear tires go out last summer - felt like the whole truck was going to fly apart. Swapped out both rears and it went away, now I have one of my fronts gone - feels like there is a dead tie-rod or it is way out of alignment. Went away when I put my snows on.

If it has been going on for a while, there will be a flat spot on the tire where the out-of-line belts cause the tire to hit the road differently than the rest of the tire.

Good luck!

 

I sent you a build sheet so you can check out what was original on the vehicle from the factory.

 

I'll make another comment. If these are the original '08 tires, they could be as old as 6 or even 7 years since they were manufactured. They could be just "aged out" so that the comment about internal tread separation would be apt. Are the tires sun-checked? Little bitty cracks in the rubber should be visible.

I don't think they're dangerous (at least not if you don't load the truck heavy) but they are on borrowed time, imo. I don't think I'd take any long trips with a loaded truck bed, tho. And I'd start shopping for tire deals.

Pretty good to get that many miles out of your stock tires. When I've had new vehicles in the past (Toyota pickup in the late 70's) the tires turned to dust pretty rapidly.

 

True. The tires on new vehicles, even if the same brand and all, are not the same tires you and me can buy from tire retailers. New car tires are softer. Personal experience, I bought a brand new Nissan Frontier in 2004 with Firestone Destination LE's on it. In less than 30k miles, they were gone. Replaced with the same tire bought elsewhere, truck had almost 60k when I traded it and the tires still had a bunch of miles left in them.

 

Thanks, guys, for all your opinions and suggestions in this thread! I really DO appreciate you taking the time to lend your opinions and expertise!

I got the tires rotated yesterday; I didn't hear the noise within the limited drive home.
I also stopped and got the tires looked at at a tire store. They said that I had some feathering on the rear wheels (surprise?!) and that that was likely the source of the noise. (maybe the tire rotation swapped 'em front/rear?) Refreshingly, they did not try to immediately sell me new tires, and said that I had decent tread still on them. Cool beans.

They recommended an alignment, and possibly shocks, although a cursory "bounce test" on the rear bumper showed my shocks were pretty good still.
I figured I'd get the alignment done and then go for new shocks when I replace the tires.

The Dodge Dakota has the highest towing capacity in its weight class as I understand it, and I'm thinking that maybe the super-stiff suspension is why the tires are showing distress? The truck DOES jump around a bit if I ht a rough section of road, and coming from an offroad dirt bike racing background in Hare Scrambles--where it's your suspension that makes you fast in the woods, NOT your motor--I've already recognized the symptoms of a too-stiff suspension. I'm going to see what I can do to maybe soften that up a bit and get better tracking when I get the new shocks and tires in about a year.

Again, thanks guys, for all your help, and feel free to weigh in with anything else.

 

So, the wrap-up on this problem:

I took it to a tire shop to get an alignment. They found my rack and pinion to be leaking; my upper tie rods are shot. Rear shocks are leaking---total bill = about $1,735.00. OUCH, man---what a body blow!

The guy said that Dodge rack and pinions have a high fail rate; this one was probably defective. A least the new one will have a warranty.

Thank god that the tires still have some miles on them or I'd be in real trouble, financially.

 

I think I would be getting a second opinion. In the last two posts are you referring to the same tire shop? Either way it seems kind of suspect, be it the same tire shop or not. One visit while getting the tires rotated yields possible shock replacement with no mention of leakage and a recommendation for alignment and another visit for alignment yields a list of parts needing to be replaced. Is there a leak from the rack? Do you see fluid on the ground or droplets under the vehicle about to drip off?

I am sure others will chime in but it seems suspect to me that two different visits can yield such differing diagnosis on the same vehicle. Its not like there is some diagnostics that can be interpreted differently. Leaking shocks, leaking rack, and tie rods being shot are not really subject to opinion. Things are either leaking or they are not.