Tire Balance Frustration

[brianrride]

This is a post to vent.

I have fairly new KO2 AT's 285/75-16's...they (brand new Tire Discounters) nailed the second attempt balance about 7k miles ago when they were brand new, but they recently began shaking right at 70mph to about 78. No big deal on highways, but interstate sucks.

We are now on attempt # 5. Never do they rotate the tire on the rim, but each time I pick it up the weights are in a different location. Looks like each time they put it up on the machine they get a different reading. Road Forced last time and it's actually worse. Not that I care too much since we wheel this rig, but each time they work on it they scratch the crap outta the wheels. Very annoyed at this point and just wanted to vent, thanks for listening. If they get it right I'll let you know.

 

[camino70]

I've never had a shop NOT scratch my wheels when doing anything wheel/tire related. I don't get it...

 

[aging fleet]

Sucks, I've had this happen before with other cars. It usually ended with me paying a different shop to redo the balance. If it were me, I'd rotate the tires one side at a time to see if you can isolate the problem. Maybe 3 of the 4 are balanced correctly.

Good luck

 

[WarWagon]

Are you doing a static balance or are the weights on the outside of the rim?

 

[ibrahim83]

Are you doing a static balance or are the weights on the outside of the rim?

i'm guessing on the outside with the wheel damage he's reporting.

have them use the stick on weights.

Did they install the tires the correct way? http://www.tirebusiness.com/article...s-those-color-coded-sidewall-markings-serve-a

 

[WingNutLG]

Bookmarking for later comment...

 

[WarWagon]

Weights on the outside are the way to go for sure. But if you're doing that already then maybe have them static balance the wheels (stick on backside of wheel) to see if that works.

 

[brianrride]

I appreciate the feedback guys.

5th time is a seemingly a little better, need to hit the interstate to tell for sure. They spun the rear tires on the rim this time and each tire only needed about 1 1/2oz of weight vs the 3oz it had. I was advised that the left rear wheel has a slight lateral bend but prob not enough to notice.

They almost blamed the age/mileage of truck, but since that's not the issue we didn't go there.

 

[Julian Stead]

I am not saying to go out and buy some, but I fitted newish and refurbished oem alloys about a month ago and it solved my issues. I have got cooper at3 tires fitted that just seemed noisy as they droned. A full suspension alignment cured most of it and was satisfied but after changing the wheels they are almost silent. So now very happy. I suppose wheels can get out of shape due to age and cause issues.

 

[TXLX100]

What is the roadforce in each tire? My BFG KO's needed a lot of weight to balance.

 

[brianrride]

What is the roadforce in each tire? My BFG KO's needed a lot of weight to balance.

One of the rears was > 20lbs before they spun the tire. Supposedly, according to them, they are all < 10lbs now.

Must have something to do with the Toyota wheel design because I see a ton of KO2's around here on full size trucks and can't imagine they are all wobbling down the road.

 

[brianrride]

I am not saying to go out and buy some, but I fitted newish and refurbished oem alloys about a month ago and it solved my issues. I have got cooper at3 tires fitted that just seemed noisy as they droned. A full suspension alignment cured most of it and was satisfied but after changing the wheels they are almost silent. So now very happy. I suppose wheels can get out of shape due to age and cause issues.

Agree that new wheels could potentially resolve this, however, they were balanced prior to the purchase of KO2's and they were also balanced for a minute with the KO2's. I guess I could have bent a wheel, but I sure would expect to have hit something pretty hard to do so.

 

[WingNutLG]

I appreciate the feedback guys.

5th time is a seemingly a little better, need to hit the interstate to tell for sure. They spun the rear tires on the rim this time and each tire only needed about 1 1/2oz of weight vs the 3oz it had. I was advised that the left rear wheel has a slight lateral bend but prob not enough to notice.

They almost blamed the age/mileage of truck, but since that's not the issue we didn't go there.

I'm glad they spun the tire on the wheel. Due to the nature of any tire's construction, they are never 100% round or 100% balanced. You just have to have a splice somewhere. Usually the manufacturer marks the lightest spot on the tire to match up with the valve stem, technically cancelling each other out weight-wise. ibrahim83 posted a link to a great article above explaining this.

If it's still not 100%, I'd ask them to do a radial runout. The balancer will only gauge weight, whereas a radial runout gauge will measure the variance in the tire's (or wheel if you do it separately) "roundness". This has a big effect on what you feel. Let me know if you have any questions.

Hope you like the KO2's! My wife has them on her Tundra and loves them. I just don't like the price of 20" tires -_-'

 

[brianrride]

Drove it Wednesday about 100 miles of interstate. These tires are so out of balance its not even funny.

May be time to hit up the stealership and send Tire Discounters the bill - I just can't believe that after so many attempts its almost worse than when we started.