New Tires feel out of balance

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

TJ Hanson

New member
Joined
Sep 13, 2021
Posts
2
Location
Minnesota
I have a 99 27ft C class on a ford chassis, Brand new BFG Commercial LT 225-16 tires, new ball joints fresh alignment, caster correction. Unit runs smooth up to 60 mph, the unbalance feeling starts at 62-63 mph but will come and go a little less at times. When this happens it feels a little loose in the steering wheel.
I`ll have the tires rebalanced and have them check for other issues with the wheels. I`m also going to try removing the stainless wheel covers. Has anyone experienced this issue before and what was the solution. Thank you
 
Did the shop that did the alignment understand Fords proclevity with alignment issues?
 
Did any buddy check the wheel bearing on your unit. Because yours seem to be a straight forward balance we are talking a speed ballance machine right if you did you see a lot a weights on the wheels? I would wheel off ground and spend the wheel when close to ground watching if wheel is out of round.
 
An out of round or mis-mounted tire will balance perfectly but hammer the hell out of you going down the road. Typically though if it's smooth up to a certain speed before it has issues, it's a balance problem. I recall that some truck rims are lug and not hub centered, so verifying your wheels are being put on correctly would be my first check. Shot tie rod ends can also contribute to that. One technique I've used for nagging vibrations is to move the tires around, starting with front to back. If the symptoms change, it's the tires or wheels, if it remains it's in the steering or suspension. One particularly problematic balance problem I had on my pickup was a wonky brake disc.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Last edited:
An out of round or mis-mounted tire will balance perfectly but hammer the hell out of you going down the road. Typically though if it's smooth up to a certain speed before it has issues, it's a balance problem. I recall that some truck hubs are lug and not hub centered, so verifying your wheels are being put on correctly would be my first check. Shot tie rod ends can also contribute to that. One technique I've used for nagging vibrations is to move the tires around, starting with front to back. If the symptoms change, it's the tires or wheels, if it remains it's in the steering or suspension. One particularly problematic balance problem I had on my pickup was a wonky brake disc.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
As long as he has the stock lug nuts that match his stock wheels how can they be installed incorrectly to cause a vibration?
 
Did the RV do it before you had the new tires installed? Does it only do it between 62-63? I have heard Ford owners say that the pick up trucks can have a vibration at a certain speed that will not go away no matter what they do.
 
Are they?

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
Why would they not be? The only thing might be is if something got in between the wheel and the hub or they were not tightened properly and if that was the case it would more than likely cause more issues than what the OP is talking about.
 
Your premise is that everything is correct until proven incorrect, mine is the opposite. Decades of repair experience has taught me this premise of troubleshooting - assume nothing. Especially when someone else has touched it, or it has an unknown history and there's no way to know exactly what has happened. In a perfect world one can achieve a resolution through critical analysis and deduction. The world I live in people eff up stuff more often than not, and seemingly improbable mechanical and electrical issues and failures happen. Not saying this is conclusively the problem but if I were presented with this issue, it would be one of the possibilities I would verify before eliminating it. Contrasted to making an assumption and going down a few rabbit holes before circling back to find it.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Your premise is that everything is correct until proven incorrect, mine is the opposite. Decades of repair experience has taught me this premise of troubleshooting - assume nothing. Especially when someone else has touched it, or it has an unknown history and there's no way to know exactly what has happened. In a perfect world one can achieve a resolution through critical analysis and deduction. The world I live in people eff up stuff more often than not, and seemingly improbable mechanical and electrical issues and failures happen. Not saying this is conclusively the problem but if I were presented with this issue, it would be one of the possibilities I would verify before eliminating it. Contrasted to making an assumption and going down a few rabbit holes before circling back to find it.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
That is fine but please explain what that has to do with hub centric and lug centric wheels. I can see if someone has hub centric wheels and they replace them with lug centric wheels without the proper lug nuts it being a problem. Other than that I am not sure what hub and lug centric wheels would have anything to do with the problem.
 
Since it comes and goes I would lean more toward a mechanical issue. It might be the tires but an imbalance problem is usually pretty consistent.
 
It's possible to misalign lug centric wheels. There are alignment aids to facilitate that beyond just the correct lug nuts, there is some variability due to torque and pattern. I'm not saying that's the reason or the most likely cause of the problem, I just offered it as something to check.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
It's possible to misalign lug centric wheels. There are alignment aids to facilitate that beyond just the correct lug nuts, there is some variability due to torque and pattern. I'm not saying that's the reason or the most likely cause of the problem, I just offered it as something to check.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
And a very inexpensive thing to check as well. When I troubleshoot I check everything readily accessible before tearing into the item. This assures you will not miss anything. Slowly but surely the problem will reveal itself
Or throw money at it until the problem goes away.
 
It's possible to misalign lug centric wheels. There are alignment aids to facilitate that beyond just the correct lug nuts, there is some variability due to torque and pattern. I'm not saying that's the reason or the most likely cause of the problem, I just offered it as something to check.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
Again if it has alignment pins and they missed them it would be far worse than what they are describing it is. I just don't see this as being the problem. It appears that it only happens between 62-63 so outside retorquing the lug nuts to make sure everything is tight I would ride on them for a while to see if it goes away.
 
Thank you all for your thoughts and Ideas on this issue, that`s what makes sites like this so nice it makes you think out of the box. Just to confirm the unit drives and stops straight and with no shimmy, the shake comes in around 62-63mph and remains pretty consistent even up to 75mph as I was trying to drive through it but it had no noticeable change. I did notice that the front left tire has 1.75 oz weights on the outside and the inside almost in line with each other, that is concerning to me as the other tires have zero weights to only 3/4 oz. The wheels are hub centric and the alignment pins are in place. This weekend I will have the tires and wheels rebalanced rotate the left front and check for bent wheels, also the shocks will be inspected. I will update what I find. Thanks again for all you thoughts.
 
I would lean more to an out of round tire at that speed
I had a similar problem with a couple of sets of tires I purchased from Less Schwab. Last set was finally taken to someone who could true all the rubber on my truck. He also informed me that the life span would be grater due to the fact that is not bouncing or oscillating if you’re understanding what he was referring to.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
131,753
Posts
1,384,357
Members
137,524
Latest member
freetoroam
Back
Top Bottom