2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Vibration/Shaking at 65+ What's Going On?

[Tulsa618]

Since the first tire rotation with the 315/75 BFGs, I’ve been experiencing a terrible wobble/rumble/bumpiness/vibration starting at about 65 and progressively getting worse with speed. I’ve had the tires rebalanced, and that made no difference. Nothing appears to be loose beneath, but it’s not too easy to simulate a 7,000 lb truck rolling down the road when you’re just pulling and tugging on undercarriage in your driveway. Interestingly, it’s on the smoothest, most recently resurfaced roads that it’s the worse.



I had the same problem with the hold OEM Michelin tires that I rotated regularly, but I didn’t start experiencing that until I had about 60K on the truck (it’s at about 68. 5K now). Same thing – rebalanced and no improvement. So I just rotated again (since I knew the tires were being replaced soon anyway) and the problem all but disappeared. I hate to rotate the new ones again since I rotated them only a couple weeks ago – and I shouldn’t be experiencing this anyway.



Might I have a wheel that balances perfectly, but happens to be bent or otherwise “not plumb”? I did pop a curb pretty good last winter when it got away from me on some ice, but didn’t noticed any problem then (nor do I know which wheel it is). They’re the 16X8 alloys. What else might I look at? What other information could I provide? Thanks!

 

[Joe G.]

Jack up the truck so that the wheels just clear the floor. Turn each one and look for any funny business like wobble or out of round.

 

[Tardog]

Try jacking the truck up so all 4 wheels are in the air then run it up to 65 and see what happens. Also try it in 4x4 to see if it is in the front. It should help determine if it tire/wheel related or driveline (U joints)? Make sure the truck is on good stands so nothing like falling off and launching your truck at 65mph into your garage happens. If there is no vibes it might be a tire problem (belt) Good Luck. Cheers

 

[Tulsa618]

Thank you, Gentlemen. I'll give that a try once this rain stops.

 

[Dane]

Try this...

Get your tires balanced on one of these. The common balancers can't get the big tires right many times. My 305/70/16s ride like glass after a balance with this system.



http://www.hunter.com/pub/product/balancer/index.htm

 

[Tulsa618]

Well, I put ‘er on jacks in 4WD and had her run up to speed - or as near as possible with the wife behind the wheel . I saw nothing obvious. (My neighbor, though, watched this and told me I’d get terrible mileage that way, but the tread life would be incredible…) I changed out one tire (I’ve five of them on matching wheels) and I noticed maybe a marginal improvement. If I had more time, I'd have tried them one at a time through all of 'em.



I think I will try to track down someone with the Hunter 9700 and see if that fixes things. Any idea on finding a shop that has one? I’m thinking about calling the local Hunter sales rep and see if he could steer me to one of his customers.

 

[Joe G.]

Sometimes you have to rotate them by hand with the tire real close to the floor to see anything. If it's out of round a little bit it may hit the floor at one point and clear it at another. It doesn't take much wrong to rattle your fillings.