Whats wrong with these revo's?

[saphauler]

I had new tires put on last week.Went with bridgestone revo's 245/75/16E after reading the reviews on tirerack and from some members here.
They do look great but they sure dont seem to ride very well. They shake a little all the time and alot when cold.The steeltex were smooth as silk.
The shop has a hunter 9700 balancer,could this still be a balance problem? They said they would balance them again next week but the way they shake at low speeds im nervous.
Has anybody had similar problems and what did you do about it?---- thanks much

[Lone Eagle]

How much air in them? Some tires are a little softer in the sidewalls and shimmey a little until you get over 35 0r 40. Later! Lone Eagle

[saphauler]

The fronts are 55 and rears 60. Been playing with pressure ( 50-80 ) and no difference. I have 400 miles on em . If I can get them running smooth I think there gonna be nice tires.

[Professor]

Mine are as smooth (or smoother) as any tires I have owned. I suspect a balance problem or a defective tire.

[Had2HavDMAX]

Mine have been great , I would try balancing them.

[wild bore]

Saphauler, Mine have been great, I could feel the difference in ride quality and smoothness just driving out of the tire dealers lot.

These are upper end tires, if your tire guys cannot balance them correctly, I would try another place to balance them.

[HD-Nate]

Same here but I went to the 285/75 to fill the wheel well. Mine are a great improvement over the 245 Steel Techs.

I run 45 lbs in all 4, the truck takes bumps and potholes much better than the puney 245's.

I would agree that there must me a balance problem or an alignment problem that your "old" tire had worn into and you didnt notice.

Either way, your Firestone store where you bought them will (should) work with you until your happy.

[Searay90]

The tires might be "out of round"!! I have had the exact same problem with new tires before. The balance machine will be able to balance them at the set speed that it uses. But the tires will not ride well and have the problems you are having. Go back and have them put them on the machine and look at the bottom of the tire while it is spinning on the machine. (Stand off about 10 feet) You will be able to see if the tire is out of round or not. BTW 2 sets of high end goodyear eagles purchased from Discount Tire had this problem on our suburban. I finally told the store manager to get them off the truck and put on a set of michelins. Rode smooth as silk after that.

Let us know what you find.

[Turbo Al]

My vote goes for "out of round" as well.

[FirstDiesel]

The 9700 Hunter is designed to handle this and should have let the tech know if a tire was out of round.

Go back and ask them to have their best guy rebalance them

[saphauler]

Dropping it off tommorow for rebalance,I hope they can smooth em out.
I noticed they used lots of weight on first balance --- 2.75 oz. on two wheels, 2.5 oz. on one and 2 oz. on last! Bet you guys are right and there not round.

[saphauler]

Well it looks like bridgestone has only made 4 bad revo's and I ended up with all 4 :confused: .
They tried matching tires to rims and whatever else the balance machine told them and if anything its worse.
One wheel now has 15 - .5 oz. weights stuck inside rim, thats 7.5 oz of lead :eek: .
Needless to say there coming off.This is a big B-stone/F-stone dealer with a reputation for making things right which is whats got me.
Are there any other tires these guys make I should consider? Hate to go back to steeltex but they would be trading up at this point. Thanks S.H.

[hoot]

We just put a set of Revos on my Wifes '94 Full Size Blazer. No problems at all. They were't cheap tires. $141 each mounted and balanced.

[mowser]

I've got Revo's on my truck and they are a very smooth riding tire.
I recently had a problem with a tire dealer who I thought did a "good job". I bought a set of tires for the car and although it had a slight vibration in the steering wheel after, I passed it off as a problem with the roads which I hadn't noticed before. Then a little later I took my truck in to have them install my old Goodyear tires (which used to have give a smooth ride) on a new set of aluminum wheels. After going back to get them rebalanced a second time (still no satisfaction and to make sure it wasn't the aluminum wheels) I then took the truck to another tire dealership and (BINGO) no more vibration.........so I took my car in, had them balance the new tires on it, and pure silk (no vibration). So after all this, I sincerely recommend that you look for another tire dealer and spend a few bucks to have them rebalanced before you go looking for different tires. ;)

mowser

[Professor]

I agree with mowser. I highly suspect your dealer's balancer or operator. This is the 3rd set of Bridgesones I have owned without any problems. I usually run some of the best tires availible. Price is usually not the deciding factor. The Revos rank right with the best Michelins I have had. All of the Bridgestones I have had have been manufactured in Japan.

Are your 245's made in Japan?

[flarsen]

saphauler
i have the revos and have had good luck so far. i have about 12000 miles on them. some thoughts: 1-the hunter 9700 is only as good as the person operating it. i won't buy tires anywhere that does not have that machine, but i have found some are better at using it than others. 2-find out what the starting road force variation numbers were on the tires and what those same numbers where when they got them balanced. they may have a tire or two that is so far out of whack that they can't get it done. if a tire is bad and starts way out on the chart somewhere, i think there's only so much they can do with it, even with that machine. the place i get tires has told me they are sending more and more tires back to the factory because they can't get them properly "road forced" on the hunter machine. before the advent of that machine, we'd just get those tires and make do. they basically use the machine to do a good balance starting with an acceptable tire, but they refuse to try to work miracles with it. just today, i'm getting a set of bridgestone's on my car and the dealer told me he'd order 6 tires, run them all on the 9700 and sell me the best 4. that makes me feel o.k., but i think what he's really telling me is that he has found that 1 or 2 tires out of six aren't going to cut it and he's a big enough operator he can push the problem back on the distributor and make it stick.

[saphauler]

The tire shop screwed with my truck all day, they put new steeltex's on and were able to get it pretty smooth but not as good as it was originally. The tire force numbers were in the upper 20's on the revo's when balanced. could not get initial readings.
They tried 8 different revo's ( made in Japan ) and said it was getting worse. They want to just leave the steeltex on and call it a win. Funny I dont feel like a winner with 4 new steelcraps.

I think you guys are right and its time to bail on this deal and find a new tire source or installer. Michelin's are sounding better all the time. Thanks again for everyones input.

[AlanL]

What kind of shimmy/shake did you have with your revos?

Yesterday I got a set of 265/75 revos mounted on new American Racing Baja 16x8 wheels.

The trucks looks great and rides well for the most part. There is, however, a bit of vibration in the entire truck - especially between 45 and 55 mph. Its almost like a resonance. Applying throttle or brakes makes it a bit better. I suspect that this is mostly because it gets me out of that speed range.

I'm curious as to whether this is the type of symptom that the initial poster encountered.

It doesn't feel like the tires are out of balance to me, because I've felt that before and its been in mostly in the steering wheel.

I'm also curious as to whether anyone has had problems with the Baja wheels on their truck. The wheels do not appear to be hub centric like the factory ones,but that centering is accomplished with the tapered lug nuts.

I only have about 100 miles on the tires, so hopefully they'll wear in a bit and the vibration will go away. I can feel it on a variety of roads, however, so its not just the surface of the pavement that's doing it.

Thanks for any info,
-Al

[saphauler]

I finally got these revo's smoothed out. The last time I posted they had put new steeltex back on my truck. It still shook a little at 40-60 mph and wouldnt hold the road like before.
After spending an entire weekend checking every single thing I could think of I had found a bad inner tie rod end on the pass front and a loose wheel bearing on the drivers rear.(I payed 50 bucks for an alignment before getting the new tires and they somehow didnt notice the 1/4" of play on the front pass tire) --- by the way only 37000 miles, so much for heavy duty.
I noticed the rear wheel bearing being loose by jacking up the rear and checking tires for visual runout. The drivers side wheel had a noticeable wobble and the pass side was true.The bearing being loose was letting the axle have its way with the hub.
To make a long story short I fixed the tie rod end first and it didn't vibrate as much and drove better. Then tightened wheel bearing ( more to this than I feel like writing now ) and vibration was pretty much gone at any speed or road surface. Then went back to have revo's put back on and success at last. I think they fine tuned the wheel balance this time as well,theres only one small weight on each wheel.
The revo's now behave like what they are ,a quite aggressive A/T tire with decent road manners, very slight road rumble and awesome looks.
As some had posted the old tires had probably just become hard and didnt grip well masking the mechanical problems.
Alan L --- make sure to check your driveline out, dont just assume because of low mileage or recent work everythings tight (like I did).

[AlanL]

Thanks, I'll check everything over thoroughly. I still have the original wheels and tires that I can use if necessary to have the dealer fix things under warranty.

-Al