Tire vibration at 45-50 M.P.H. with 285's

[justa6.0]

I have a 2003 GMC Sierra 2500HD SLT extended cab, short bed with the 6.0L/4L80E combo. I installed a set of 285/75/16 BFG All-Terrain K/O's and leveled the truck out by cranking up the torsion bars. I aligned the truck in specs and the tires have been dynamic balanced three different times. I am experiencing a vibration/hop/bounce/shake at 45-50 M.P.H., is any experiencing this? I searched the forum for other concerns related to mine and came up with nothing. I am starting to think that it may be the drive shaft? Let me know what you think...


Justin

[Trippin]

Mine too. 40-60 mph.

[Bullseye54]

I just went through that with the same tires.Re-balanced twice rotated tires around,still out.Ended up being a bad tire,replaced no more problem.They said they've had several bad KO's lately.

[sdaver]

same with goodyear ats 285s had two set before I swithed back to the 305s......bounce gone :D

[dmaxalliTech]

I would start, just to narrow it down, by swapping rims/tires with known good truck, just to eliminate possibilities... Have the tires RoadForce balanced if you havent had it done. Thats the most accurate way of doing it..

[BassinRVer]

I had the same wiggle between 40 and 55. I just good new tires the Goodyear MTR 315/75 and the wiggle is gone. I am sure my previous tires needed to be balanced.

[AlanL]

I have this wiggle with my 265 Revos on American Racing 16x8 rims.

I used to get it occasionally with the stock tires, but it wasn't nearly as pronounced as with the 265s. If I'm towing the bounce goes away (or is masked by the extra vibrations and such of the trailer).

Someone suggested that this is probably actually a driveline problem (rear wheel bearing or front ball joint) but I haven't had time in the last month or so (since I got the new tires) to check out the driveline.

Sometimes the bounce feels like its coming from the front, other times it feels like its coming from the back.

-Al

[Silver Bullet]

Discount Tire (not at all stores) has a special Hunter machine to balance tires...they call it Ride Matching (http://www.discounttire.com/dtc/brochure/info/featuresRideMatch***p) . I did this on my last set and it is awesome! I did not have to have anything rebalanced...this was a first! This machine puts a load on the tire and it tells 'em how to align the tire on the rim. In my case, I had one tire the was OK, 2 tires they repositioned on the same rim and 1 tire that the machine/computer came back with a message that said DO NOT MOUNT THIS TIRE ON THIS RIM!...they pulled it off and got another tire to mount.

I have also replaced my steering stabilizer...I believe this helps too. The stock steering stabilizer is just as good as the stock shocks...which is not very good IMHO.

[dmaxalliTech]

Originally posted by Silver Bullet:
Discount Tire (not at all stores) has a special Hunter machine to balance tires...they call it Ride Matching (http://www.discounttire.com/dtc/brochure/info/featuresRideMatch***p) . I did this on my last set and it is awesome! I did not have to have anything rebalanced...this was a first! This machine puts a load on the tire and it tells 'em how to align the tire on the rim. In my case, I had one tire the was OK, 2 tires they repositioned on the same rim and 1 tire that the machine/computer came back with a message that said DO NOT MOUNT THIS TIRE ON THIS RIM!...they pulled it off and got another tire to mount.

I have also replaced my steering stabilizer...I believe this helps too. The stock steering stabilizer is just as good as the stock shocks...which is not very good IMHO. We have the same system as that, if you have a bad tire or tire/rim combo, that will catch it.. its the best thing going IMHO

[JimWilson]

Originally posted by Silver Bullet:
I have also replaced my steering stabilizer...I believe this helps too. The stock steering stabilizer is just as good as the stock shocks...which is not very good IMHO. I've been wanting to do this myself. What did you get?

[justa6.0]

I am a mechanic at a GMC dealership which has a new Hunter tire balancer capable of road force balancing, I will try this next.

[Silver Bullet]

Jim,
I went with the Rancho...

http://www.monkey.net/steve/truck_mod22.htm

Check out this post ( Silver Bullet- Steering Stabilizer Question.. (http://forum.thedieselpage.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=004817) )...it has part numbers and some other pics.

I picked mine up at 4 Wheel Parts (http://www.4wheelparts.com/)

[ski]

A bit off topic

Bassin, were you running 34" Trxus M/Ts until recently ? if you dont mind, why the change ? I ask because I am looking at the 315 MTRs or the Trxus Mts myself.

[Clyde]

I have a 03 3500 crew cab d/a when I picked it up from the dealer I could not go over 65mph because it shook so bad GM said it was because of the way the truck was tied down during delivery!! Some answer he also said it would go away after 2000 miles when I told him I had over 2000 miles they he said it would take 5000 miles. Atleast the dealer didn't listen to what GM told them the dealer balanced all 6 tires and road force tested them they replace 5 out of the 6 tires, they will check the spare the next time the truck is in. I love the way customer service treats us coustomes GM should hire some people with basic knowledge, I guess they don't care.

[AlanL]

Clyde, I'm curious as to which dealer this was.

Send me mail (alegerlotz'at'wmc-bmwcca.org)

-Al

[JimWilson]

Steve;

Thanks for the links...