abc4yew

Just finished a 4300 mile week to go pick up the 38 foot trailer in Niagara Falls area along with a few side trips totaling 2000 miles. I picked up a bad vibration that I figured was caused by my fronts being scalloped due to me being a slack butt in putting off my tire rotation. Did the tire rotation yesterday and rebalanced all the tires. All required more weight. There was mud and debris packed between the duals and around the air valves that a winter of log moving had packed in. One spot on one rim required 16 oz of added weight. My rims now look like a storage area for wheel weights but the truck is back to smooth. I'm back to rotating the tires every 12k miles 20k km. I've spent hours pressure spraying dirt off these wheels but that stuff was only removed with a wire brush. ks

Nate-03 D

Yea mud & debris can throw the wheel out of balance quick. I see it all the time, a customer comes in complaning their vehicle drives like a lumberwagon and gnerally their wheels are caked w/ mud or something else, you'd be surprised but snow can cause this same problem. It drift's behind the wheels and cakes on there, throwing everything out of wack.


16oz's is quite a bit of weight, If that bothers you that much you have a few options to try and correct it. First off make sure who ever balanced them had the correct settings applied, second make sure the tire/wheel runs out ok, check for bent wheels or a bad tire, last but not least if all the options above are fine. Break the both beads on the tire and simply spin it 180* and rebalance it, it could of been reading a high spot on the tire.

abc4yew

Nate, Good point on the tire on rim rotate. I just know that the 5 big wheel weights in a row aren't putting the weight exactly where its needed. The truck is running so smooth right now though I'm not going to complain about anything. The next time I rotate I might rotate the tire on the rim. I think the original installer didn't line up the yellow sticker on the tire correctly on the rim. I have to take some of the blame as I know I flatspotted some tires in a panic stop where a heavy trailer pushed the truck atires a bit once the exhaust brake hithard. I'd rather flatspotted tires than airbags and front end damage. ks

Grit Dog

Snow will do it big time. Worst Iv'e found is driving in slush, especially in my 01 Dodge, it'll pack in the wheels and all of a sudden throw the truck into a death wobble.
Other is parking it after a good drive where the brakes/rims are a bit warm and it's snowing hard. Snow that hits the rim melts then freezes into a nice weight at the bottom (depends on rim design).