Can over pressure (49 psi in this case) contribute to this odd wear pattern? Keep in mind that this is only 3K miles of easy city driving.

Over pressure should not affect your uneven tyre wear, this is most likely more to do with your tyre balance or alignment of the wheels, or cheap tyres.

I normally run maximum recommended or 10% plus on my vehicle and experience good all round wear. If you have uneven wear see a good tyre dealer and get them to check the problem out. Tyres which are out of balance will produce uneven wear and this is noticeable within a short period, this is more so with Touaregs as the weight of the vehicle will increase the issue.

I don’t want to flog a dead horse but if you are going to use cheap tyres you will only get what you payed for. Like I said the weight of the Touareg is an issue that will influence your tyres. Cheap tyres are not designed for a heavy vehicle but more general 4WD (SUV) which are lighter and as such larger market. Volkswagen recommends a few tyres for the Touareg like Michelin, Pirelli, and Good Year (plus others) which you should look at if you need to replace your tyres. Remember these tyres are designed as OEM for the heavier vehicles and as such must meet the factory minimal standards.

 

I don’t want to flog a dead horse but if you are going to use cheap tyres you will only get what you payed for. Like I said the weight of the Touareg is an issue that will influence your tyres. Cheap tyres are not designed for a heavy vehicle but more general 4WD (SUV) which are lighter and as such larger market.

I agree with Flipper Dog, you pay for what you get with lower end tires. I would warranty them if they will honour it. I use General Grabber AT2's on my Touareg, and it's been close to 40K+ Km's, and show very little wear. Warranty on the tread is 96K Km. Unbelievable! I have no doubts they will last well beyond the warranty period. I run Max pressure on all 4 corners, and try to rotate every 20K KM's. I do a lot of driving, and can't be bothered to rotate tires more often than that. With that said, tread wear still looks very even on all 4 corners, front and rear. Id probably notice the front tires wearing more at the edges if I didn't rotate them. Between rotations, I don't notice any unsual tread wear on any of the tires.

 

I would say the pressuure you mentioned is not "THAT HIGH" to cause any damage.

Maybe needing alignment?

I just sold a TAHOE 4WD and that vehicle weight is almost exactly that of the TOUAREG. Point being that tire mfg obviously accounts for this kind of weight vehicles (TAHOE of course very popular).

Be aware that most tires have a softer compund make-up on the initial rubber and after some miles get into a harder compound.
I just had my new tires, Goodyear Triple Tread Assurance, rotate / balance at 5,400 miles and 2/32 or the original 12/32 is gone. That only took me about 2 months to aquire that wear. At that rate, you can see, if the wear did not change they would only last a year and about 32,000 miles! That will not be what transpires as these are 70,000 mile tires. The tire store says they are seeing even more than that published treadwear warranty.
I could certainly recommend these Goodyears...Traction/quiet/lifespan and price was only about $300 more than your Kuhmos.

I am not sure where you are measuing this concern?
Several places along circumference?
Several places across tread width at those different circumferential axis?
Are your wheels "true"?

What's any of that mean for you...?

1) I haven't seen many cheap tires in years and I don't think Kuhmo are. $800 for a set of tires isn't really cheap for this type of vehicle, maybe on the cheaper end but still...

2) Get a good alignment and continue to do so every 20,000 miles or so.

3) Rotate / balance often...Every 5,000 miles maximum

4) Maintain record of your treadwear at each rotate / balance
This will be your evidence of what is occuring and even ammo to justify replacement by mfg if need be.

 

i have the 285/45/19 Hankooks well. Coming to the last few thousand the noise is too much now, cant wait to get rid of them now.
also the uneven wear is a contributor.

 

whats the noise like on the grabbers V10treg?

 

Their quiet... For an All Terrain tire, it's really impressive. Very similiar to the BFG AT's I used to have on my Jeep. I forget the speed rating, but I know it's safe at 180kmph. Which with a V10, you'll never know when you want to stomp on it on the highway!

 

Pulled the Khumos

Well, I finally broke down and pulled the brand new khumos off the truck and put on some real tires. Got Mich Lattitude Tour HPs. They are quiet and not crap like the others. Will try to get the others replaced under warranty (yeah, I know good luck) and sell on Ebay/Craig's list.

You do get what you pay for. I still think $200 each for the Khumos is not exactly cheap. The Mich tires cost $280 each.

 

I run the Toyo Proxy II, and I've seen a couple get lower prices than I paid, but not by much. I paid $275 a tire. You really do get what you pay for.

Good luck

Cya

 

I just bought these kumho's in 265/60/18 for 110 a piece.
Sofar I like them.
When they wer put on the truck drove pretty straight but I did an alignment and it was off. I would have had the issues you had without that alignment.
I will see how they wear. You have as it sounds flat spots on the tire. Usally because there is someting not correct on suspension?
Shocks or misalignment causes it usually

 

That diagnosis would only make sense if the Continentals I removed were having issues. They wore perfectly evenly. The Kuhmo's are of poor quality. The Michelins are perfect.

 

A little update om my side. I have put about 3000 miles on them now just like you did and no difference in tire noice that I have noticed.
Have an alignment done.

 

I have read posts were some people over-inflate to get better gas mileage...
I have also read posts were some people under-inflate to get better traction on paved streets...

I just wanted to clear something up about over and under inflating your tires: If you go higher than the maximum mfg recomendations (over-inflate), the tires will wear on the center. If you under-inflate them, the tires will wear on both outer edges. Think about it this way, when under-inflated, the center part bows inward causing the outer edges to take the full load.
From an ME's perspective: if you could really suceed in getting better gas mileage by over-inflating your tires, without trashing them, wouldn't every manufacture change their specs to over-inflate so they could raise their C.A.F.E. (Corporate Average Fuel Economy)???

 

I heard that tourists renting RV's were over inflating the tires of the RV trying to get better gasmileage. This was last year when fuel was high.
Very dangerous things happened then

 

I've played around with tyre pressures a lot on a lot of different cars and I've never seen a noticeable change in fuel consumption. Your driving style has a bigger influence. People who over inflate for better consumption subconsciously drive more economical because they want to believe it makes a difference.

Same goes for those "fuel saving" click-on magnet type gizmo's that was high fashion 10 years ago...

Tyre pressure has a HUGE influence on ride, handling, traction and temperature, and that's about it.

 

I bougth my T an it has 600 miles.
I feel that the tires are too hard ,the press is 36/45,Dunlop,205/60x 17,and really it feells too hard in the the street.
Do you recommend other press set?