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Tires just don't feel balanced

4K views 14 replies 10 participants last post by  MudMagnetYJ 
#1 ·
I get the road noise but something just seems off. And it's gotten worse since I did the 5 title rotation for the first time this past weekend. It's felt throughout and feels like a balance or out of round issue. Steering wheel doesn't shake. Tires are new and did them at 2500 miles. They never felt balanced to begin with and now they are worse since introducing the new tire into the mix. I've already had them up to discount tire once to check balance, which was done before the first tire roatation. And DT said they all balance well.

Something just seems off and have no idea what action to take. I have AMP AT grabbers and they recommended rotating the tire 180.

I called a local Pickups Plus who does balancing and after market wheels. They said they offer a better balancing than just the machines DT uses. They thought it was a bit ridiculous to do the 5 tire rotation due to having the tires all having different wear patterns and now different mileage. Pickups plus charges $95 an hour but he didn't think it was balancing. But more the introduction of a new wheel.

Any recommendations or ideas would be great. Prior to installing the wheels the OEMs ran smooth with no balance issues. And has anyone experienced issues with the tires when doing 5 tire rotation.
 
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#2 ·
I just did a five tire rotation, and I was probably a bit late at doing it. But I had no issues. A five tire rotation is the standard method, you certainly aren't out there in left field doing one. If something is wrong after a five tire rotation that was not there before there may be something wrong with your spare. That is easy enough to test, swap the spare back out. But if you think something was wrong prior to the rotation you may have other issues.
A common preferred method of balancing larger off road tires is road force balancing, I would look for a shop that does that.
 
#3 ·
If you have mud tires, they do need to "wear in" when you rotate them, but not sure it would feel like an out of balance.

As someone said before me, rotate the spare back out and see if it improves. Also, if you are running over sized tires and you have not have them road force balanced, get it done. Also, you may want to take a look at your front suspension components...track bar, ball joints, etc. make sure everything is tight or it can cause your Jeep to feel "squirrelly".

Good luck.
 
#4 ·
I did some additional research after my post and the road force was mentioned. Gonna run that by Discount Tire and see if they have one. Also I reduced my tire pressure a bit. I added psi this weekend to 36 psi. Well it warmed up a bit and the tires were pushing 37-38 psi. Reducing some psi has helped. These tires fluctuate a lot under smal increments of temperature change. More so than any other tire I have ever had.
I'm also thinking a little break in period will help. Again I will look to the road force balance and go from there. I remember having aftermarket wheels and tires on my Ridgeline and having them balanced 3 times in a month or two until they finally cleaned up and felt smooth. I think a bit of break in helped with the Ridgeline wheels as well. And those were passenger all season tires. The sound i get is very similar to having one window cracked and the difference in pressure makes the whomp whomp sound. It's weird because some days it's minimal and then other days its worse. I'm familiar with the sound as my Ridgeline aftermarket wheels did the same thing until they cleaned up.
 
#10 ·
Ha ha. Yep those clips have been removed. That was the first thing I checked after I got my wheels installed initially. So they have been off since day 1. Thanks.

The tires felt a lot better today after removing a bit of psi. But still gonna have them road forced.
 
#7 ·
You should around 28-30 PSI. What vehicle did you drive before your JK?
 
#8 ·
Take it back to Discount and tell them you think the balance is not rigth, heck I've had mine back 3 times once, and the store manager came out, apologized very nicely and did the balance job himself, force road balance, for free, and then is when they realized there was something weird about the tire, they took the tire off the wheel, and remounted it, problem solved.
 
#12 ·
Yup. Road Force is the way to go, assuming the Tech using the machine is trained, patient and - uses the machine to its Full capacity.
The RF machine can use dumbed down programs OR the Full blown programs.
 
#13 ·
Did the RF balance and it definitely cleaned things up. Had two tires rotated on the rim. 180 and 60 degrees. All 4 had some weight removed. Still a tad off but better.

Noticed the rubber on all the tires has a slight out of round but was told that's normal until tires break in and get some wear on them.

Gonna get the fronts aligned since it appears the tires toe out a tad.
 
#14 ·
Going through this now myself. 18/10 rims and 33/12.5 Atturo XT Tires. I understand the aggressive tire would give me a little roughness but I felt like my kidneys were getting beat up. Road force showed one tire off by 24 ounces and defective. Called the company i purchased from and they are sending me a new tire after I sent them the screenshot of Roadforce machine. rotated that to spare and still feels like something is off. They had tire pressure at 40 psi also. started decreasing tire pressure to see if it will help. Might go back and have the balanced again.
 
#15 ·
This usually means a few things:
1. Out of balance tire. Try Road Force as you mentioned. Sand bag balancing is a last resort. Also, some aftermarket wheels are so messed up that they will just throw wheel weights, no matter what. Steel wheels balance the best.
2. Bent wheel.
3. Lug nut or stud issue.
4. Steering/suspension issue. Ball joint, tie rod, wheel bearing, etc.

Does the shop do full steering and suspension inspections? We do, but usually the inspector is a low level tech. Service technicians will inspect happily upon request.
 
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