65mph and shaking

[JOHNFAK]

Ok - so you know I hate showing my "jr badge" ..... but 65 mph - start to get a shake in the truck front end. Can't feel in steering wheel.Only thing I notice at front end is the inside edge of the tread is definately wearing quicker. Can these 4x4 be balanced,aligned etc ?? Assuming balancing yes ...... alignment other ? Have newish shocks and springs - but they all look/ride ok.

[blkjack]

The tires can be balanced if that is what you are asking and also the alignment can be set. To me it does sound like balance problems but could be the dreaded death wobble. I had the same problem on a Jeep Grand Cherokee of mine and tried everything from new tires, balance, rotate, everything I could think of and finally in my case new shocks and steering stabilizer cured it.

[dually]

Put some gloves on and go under the truck.Try to twist the parts.If they have play or go side to side they may be bad.You could remove the stabilizer shock and try to compress it.If you can do that with ease it is shot.Jack up the truck and grab the front tire try to move it up and down and side to side.That would mean ball joints.Grab the front driveshaft ,can you move the u-jount? If you have play in it it is bad.

[LiveOak]

My truck does the same thing at these speeds. It is caused by crappy tire balance and I suspect tires not perfectly round. OEM size tires are not such a problem and can be easily rebalanced and if you suspect a tire or tires are out of round, you can take the truck to a good alignment/tire shop and have the tires "trued" read shaved back into a pretty much perfectly round profile on a tire truing machine. For larger/heavier tires, many times tire balance beads are the better solution. Most if not nearly all OTR trucks use tire balance beads. They are really simple and straight forward to use. Just throw in a package when the tire is mounted. After you drive around a short distance the package will break open and the beads will be released and each time you take off from a stop, the tire balance beads will rebalance the tire. Just a few precautions when using tire balance beads: Make sure the tire valve stem is at 12 o'clock when checking tire pressure. Blow some air into the tire BEFORE you gauge tire pressure to prevent clogging up the valve stem. Make sure you use absolutely DRY air or nitrogen when airing up the tires to prevent condensation and frozen beads. http://www.innovativebalancing.com/ http://www.counteractbalancing.com/ Here is a good application chart: http://www.counteractbalancing.com/counteract/templates/counteract/pdf/products_tire_chart.pdf

[JOHNFAK]

awesome - those beads look neat .......didn';t quite get the install - need to read a bit more - you break open the tire valve to get beads in (on existing installed tires) ........ but then I guess you need to reinstall a valve and reinflate ........ will read more yeah I need to get under and check for any movement in joints etc hard with a gravel driveway at rv park to lift safetly :P might go find a abandoned hard top/park on weekend . Suspecting its a balancing problem as can;t feel it pulling or moving at any mpg .........but dunno thx guys What kind of aligment can be done ? and cost on these HD 4x4 ?

[Mopar1973Man]

As far as I understand the 4WD can be adjusted for caster and toe... The only way I know to change camber is to buy offset upper ball joints...

[SASQCH]

John, You are supposed to drink the espresso not pour it into the trucks fuel tank. I think your truck has had so much it's shaking. I seem to remember years ago there were disks you could buy that had a steel tube around the circumference with the balancing media in the tube. They bolted on with the lug nuts, but I haven't seen them in years now. JC Whitney used to sell them. Anyone else remember them? If they are still manufactured they might be an option for John. If the front end components are good I would get an alignment done by a reputable shop. Here in AK for a 4WD it costs about $80.00. If that don't fix it then I would remove the tires and rims and thoroughly clean all the road dirt from the inside of the rims and have the tires rebalanced. Tire shops will not clean the crap out of the rims before balancing either new or re-balancing old tires. I have had tires balanced and then hit a chuckhole in the road that dislodges the dirt on one side of the rim and throw the tire out of balance. If that don't cure the shakes then I would consider a steering box brace. http://www.pscmotorsports.com/Dodge-Trucks/Steering-Stabilizer-Brackets/ Jim

[JOHNFAK]

John, You are supposed to drink the espresso not pour it into the trucks fuel tank. I think your truck has had so much it's shaking.

What - I don't have methanol yet - so figured thats the closest "home brew" I could get to match

I seem to remember years ago there were disks you could buy that had a steel tube around the circumference with the balancing media in the tube. They bolted on with the lug nuts, but I haven't seen them in years now. JC Whitney used to sell them. Anyone else remember them? If they are still manufactured they might be an option for John. If the front end components are good I would get an alignment done by a reputable shop. Here in AK for a 4WD it costs about $80.00. If that don't fix it then I would remove the tires and rims and thoroughly clean all the road dirt from the inside of the rims and have the tires rebalanced. Tire shops will not clean the crap out of the rims before balancing either new or re-balancing old tires. I have had tires balanced and then hit a chuckhole in the road that dislodges the dirt on one side of the rim and throw the tire out of balance. If that don't cure the shakes then I would consider a steering box brace. http://www.pscmotorsports.com/Dodge-Trucks/Steering-Stabilizer-Brackets/ Jim

Yeah gonna get under her on weekend and see if any play in anything. I am wondering if just a balance issue since it doesn't pull or shake in stearing. Thne those beads look kinda neat. Then maybe a alignment. Might ping you offline - thinking about running meth/water injection so I can run my juice on 3,4,5 and pick up some MPG towing. ciao

[SASQCH]

Yeah gonna get under her on weekend and see if any play in anything. I am wondering if just a balance issue since it doesn't pull or shake in stearing. Thne those beads look kinda neat. Then maybe a alignment. Might ping you offline - thinking about running meth/water injection so I can run my juice on 3,4,5 and pick up some MPG towing. ciao

I don't think I would use the beads. I'm just skeptical about having something sliding around on the inside of my tires. You know it's gotta be making dust and you have already been warned about the dust clogging the valve when checking tire pressure unless you add air first. Then there is the issue where, if you pick up a nail and go to get it fixed, will they fix it or not because of the beads inside the tire. You know the fix a flat liquid when put in a tire makes such a mess and tire shops generally won't fix any tires that have the liquid in them. As for water/meth injection, I have no knowledge or experience with it. I have been intrigued with the idea of propane injection, because I read it is a catalyst for diesel fuel and makes it burn at a much higher efficiency, and have wanted to research it further. Maybe I should start a thread on the subject.

[Mopar1973Man]

I don't think I would use the beads. I'm just skeptical about having something sliding around on the inside of my tires. You know it's gotta be making dust and you have already been warned about the dust clogging the valve when checking tire pressure unless you add air first. Then there is the issue where, if you pick up a nail and go to get it fixed, will they fix it or not because of the beads inside the tire. You know the fix a flat liquid when put in a tire makes such a mess and tire shops generally won't fix any tires that have the liquid in them.

The only time I seen a huge problem with keeping tire balanced is the larger tire like 265's and above. even my Cooper 265's have huge amount of lead on them just to keep them true. There is better than 1-2 oz on each rim. But my 235's I'm still running I've got 3 rims completely true without and lead! Also they are just cheap Big O AT's tires...

As for water/meth injection, I have no knowledge or experience with it. I have been intrigued with the idea of propane injection, because I read it is a catalyst for diesel fuel and makes it burn at a much higher efficiency, and have wanted to research it further. Maybe I should start a thread on the subject.

I would love to see your results and findings...

[JOHNFAK]

Yeah I am running 265's :POnly reason I thought balancing over "toe" etc as I don't feel it pull or anything in steering wheel. Well I *think* I just bought a WMI set 2nd hand. I was looking at the "group buy" here ..... but that was hard with the wife and $$ - so if I get it - I will need a hand hooking it up I am sure - so will do a complete writeup. And then link it to Jims .............:thumbup2:Looking forward to running my edge on levels 4,5 towing ............ see if I can hit 12-14 instead of 11-13... Just hope my tranny holds !!

[Mopar1973Man]

Just take the lead brick out of your boot and use common sense when throttling. Keep an eye on your trans temps and once again use common sense.

[JOHNFAK]

will PM you mike offline - so this thread doesn;t go too far off track :P pretty sure just bought it

[JOHNFAK]

Well found out wallyworld does lifetime balance and rotation for $30so went that route. Seems to have helped with the wobble up front, although I think I have an alignment issue also.Guys at walmart worked on blancing/rotation for 40 mins .......... so probably worth the $30 ----- since I can do every 10k miles Those beads still look neat.

[LiveOak]

I have the lifetime road hazard warranty with lifetime balance at Walmart on both truck's tires. The problem is that the guys working in the Walmart garage are not very experienced and in a number of cases, I had to point out to them that their tire balance machines were NOT bolted to the floor AND the calibration label date was expired. Large size Light Truck tires come with a blue dot on the tire sidewall. This blue is supposed to be aligned with the valve stem to minimize the amount of tire weights to balance the tire. I get the deer in the headlights look when I bring this point up to the Walmart folks. When I first purchased my tires from Walmart. It took about 4 attempts for them to acceptably balance my tires. I finally had to resort to printing out a tire mounting and balance recommended procedure put out by BF Goodrich and bring it to them. The tire balance machine in the configuration Walmart used will only balance the tire to about 60 -65 mph. The balance beads are the way to go in my opinion.