Wheel balancing and load E tires (1 Viewer)

[marf]

Hey guys, new guy although long time lurker here. I have a question I cannot find an answer to. What are the 10-ply tires that can be easily balanced? I get it, wheels get balanced not tires but you know what I mean.

Back in November I purchased a new set of Black Rhino 17” wheels with new 265/70/17 BFG KO2 tires with load rating E (figured E would be the toughest on trails and rocks). Once installed, my 2014 GX460 was certainly no longer riding like a Lexus but it was still OK, kinda harsh, more like a truck than SUV, a tiny bit of shaking but not much. Re-balancing few days later helped a bit. 5000 miles later I went for tire rotation and things are so bad that it feels like I’m driving POS car. During that week I went back twice to have them re-balanced. When driving between 62-72 things are bad: all seats are shaking, my hands are shaking, water bottle in my cup holder is jumping around. It’s no longer a pleasure to drive this car. Tech who took it for a test drive told me that it just feels like driving on 10-ply tires.

Are you experiencing this? Is my suspension messed up? Things were fine before tire rotation. Was 5K miles too late to rotate? If you have E tires on your GX and no issues with balancing/shaking I’d love to know what you have. I’m almost ready to buy new tires.

 

[whododat]

2015 GX460 here. I had a Dobinson lift, SPC UCA's and LT 275 65 18 Toyo AT3's installed on oem rims and have not had any vibration issues at all. Yes the vehicle rides harsher but I fully expected that. Try a different shop with Hunter balancer maybe. I just ordered Black Rhino rims so I hope I don't have any issues.

 

[bkfj40]

5k miles is not too long for rotation.

There are other sources of your issue - you could have a bad tire. It could have a belt separating, out of round, or other tire issue.

I run e-rated tires on my tundras and have 350k miles on the trucks. I run e rated on my 100 series, no issues.

What tire pressure are you running in your tires?

 

[giovanni]

I've had two sets of aftermarket wheels / tire combo that I had no issues with.

1st set: 20x9.5 Black Rhino Rotorua with Falken Wildpeak A/T3W 275/55r20 standard load
2nd set: 17x8.5 Alphaequipt Echos with Toyo Open Country ATIII 285/70r17 C load range

 

[marf]

5k miles is not too long for rotation.

There are other sources of your issue - you could have a bad tire. It could have a belt separating, out of round, or other tire issue.

I run e-rated tires on my tundras and have 350k miles on the trucks. I run e rated on my 100 series, no issues.

What tire pressure are you running in your tires?

Typically I'm at standard 35psi. When riding trails, sometimes I air down to 22 or so, never below 20. These are almost new tires so hopefully they are fine, but I suppose this could be manufacturing defect or something.

 

[marf]

2015 GX460 here. I had a Dobinson lift, SPC UCA's and LT 275 65 18 Toyo AT3's installed on oem rims and have not had any vibration issues at all. Yes the vehicle rides harsher but I fully expected that. Try a different shop with Hunter balancer maybe. I just ordered Black Rhino rims so I hope I don't have any issues.

Good point, I could try a different shop. These guys are really trying to help but it's just not happening. I'm also considering Dobinsons lift and SPC UCA. MRR kit is really tempting!

 

[marf]

Thanks for your responses, I will try a different shop to balance. I see two of you are running Toyo's. If I'm ready to throw the towel, I might try these. Extra expense sucks though. I would still like to stick to E tires due to my local rocky trails (Anza, DV, Joshua Tree). Do you guys recommend any other tire brands?

 

[Tex68w]

I am willing to bet that you have a bad tire. Load Range E tires will give you a firmer ride but it shouldn't be shaking and vibrating.

 

[Sand or Foam]

Have them rotate the tires back to where they were. A bad tire/imbalance up front will be more pronounced than in the rear. That should narrow things down. Also, any decent tech should know to try that if issues occur after rotation...look for a new shop?

 

[Gx460sd]

What psi do you air them to? I have e rated falkens and do 45-46 for freeways. The common vibration at 60-65 that a lot of people feel is not there. Also a few rotations helped to even out their wear as well.

 

[marf]

What psi do you air them to? I have e rated falkens and do 45-46 for freeways. The common vibration at 60-65 that a lot of people feel is not there. Also a few rotations helped to even out their wear as well.

45 for freeways? I've always had my tires at 32-36. Is it OK to run load E at 45? I'm just not used to anything above 35.

 

[whododat]

Same as others have said. I run my pressure at 37 front and 36 rear. Not sure what you have your tires set at. Also, I drive like an old man now so this vehicle has never seen above 70-75 mph with current setup. Asking about tires will get you a ton of different opinions. I had KO2's in the past on pick up trucks and they were horrendous in the rain. These AT3's have been stellar in the rain but it is a different type of vehicle. I am looking at Milestar Pagonias later this year as they get alot of good reviews. If you follow youtube, "Epic Family Road Trip" did a review on their vehicle setup, which included a review of the Pagonia's.

 

[Gx460sd]

45 for freeways? I've always had my tires at 32-36. Is it OK to run load E at 45? I'm just not used to anything above 35.

Yup, I get the best road feel and mpg at that psi. As mentioned everybody will have an opinion on this but that's been my personal experience. The falken E rated tires have a maximum of 80psi, if that is any indication

 

[marf]

OK, to summarize, I will try a different shop and have them check for tire failure, re-balance, possibly move front wheels to the back (the pre-rotation setup) and bump up tire pressure. If all fails, I'll have to eat it and buy new tires again.
Thanks for your input guys!

 

[jmanscotch]

Yeah, moving the worse balanced to the rear would improve things, but then goes your ability to rotate ever.

I'd be looking for a bad tire first: broken belt, out of round, etc. Bad tires can often balance fine but still cause actual on-road issues.

If that doesn't shine a line on the issue, it doesn't appear balancing again would do much, so I'd start looking at suspension issues. CABs, shocks, tie rod end links, rack and pinion bushings, etc.

 

[SouthTxGX]

My cooper st maxx’s have been great. They’re currently on 4Runner wheels, but will be ordering methods soon.

 

[mmaguy]

Have had Michelin LTX A/T2 and now have the Falken Wildpeaks A/T 3W, both in load range e (Lexus stock wheels) and no vibrations or anything negative except that you can feel the road slightly more (which I actually like most of the time) and hear the tire road noise slightly more than the stock tires, but they are also definitely more rugged and tough when encountering things that might cause a flat when either on or off road. Seems like they respond and perform best when I run them around 36-38 PSI, maybe 5-10 PSI higher if going on a longer highway drive or 10-15 PSI lower if going off road.
Hopefully you can find a shop familiar with the nuances of alignments, off road wheel balancing, suspension, etc. for 4x4s to help find the root cause of the issue and get it resolved for you.

 

[RockyRhodes]

I'm running 265/65/18 E-rated KO2s on the F-sport wheels at 40psi on the freeways and 20psi off-road. 20K miles in total, about 3000 miles off-road and never had a single issue with balancing...

 

[marf]

I went back to the shop and asked them check the tires for any issues. They dismounted everything and found that one of them was in fact out of round. The tire was replaced under the warranty and everything put back together. Ride is a lot better but there is still some vibration between 65-70. I called a couple of shops asking about Hunter road force balancer. Apparently these are very expensive and smaller shops typically don't have them but most Discount Tire shops do. Made an appt. for Thursday. Hopefully this finally does it!

 

[RockyRhodes]

I went back to the shop and asked them check the tires for any issues. They dismounted everything and found that one of them was in fact out of round. The tire was replaced under the warranty and everything put back together. Ride is a lot better but there is still some vibration between 65-70. I called a couple of shops asking about Hunter road force balancer. Apparently these are very expensive and smaller shops typically don't have them but most Discount Tire shops do. Made an appt. for Thursday. Hopefully this finally does it!

Glad to hear. Don’t forget about Costco for tires and balance/rotation service. I believe I was out the door for around $1300 for all 5 tires and install.