Ride quality changed after new tires but it's not tires

[Raptor10X]

Ride quality changed after new tires but it's not tires

Would love some expert help on troubleshooting. Have a 2017 Crew cab w/ 25k mi. that has always had amazing ride quality, even when the tires were worn and needed replacement. I replaced the tires with the same load range and size BFG KO2's that were worn. I ran at 38 psi.

From the time the tires were replaced - When I drive it over 50 mph the ride quality is poor and feels like a tire is out of balance. Seems to vibrate/hop like I'm driving over bumps. This happens when at speed in neutral also. I have put about 500 miles on them now and still the same. I have lowered pressures to 36 with no apparent change in ride.

I took it back to have the new tires re-balanced where I bought them. Still had the problem so I took it back again to have them balanced for the 2nd time. Picked it up, same problem.

For the 3rd attempt I took it to another place for balancing the tire that has the road force machine also. They balanced the tires said road force was good, one of the tires was off 2.5 oz. After 3 different trips it is still not a great ride like it has always been.

Doesn't seem to be the tires but something is not right. There is nothing visible underneath that looks out of place like leaf springs that show movement out of place, etc.

I suspect it could be drive shaft, axle, loose suspension part, maybe even brake issue but it does not change when braking. Educated Ideas?

Next trip is the dealer.

 

[GCATX]

It's gotta be an out of round tire, flat spot, or tread separation. I would see if you can get the original seller to just get a replacement set. You may need to call BFG.

 

[CigarPundit]

What’s your tire pressure? Could they be overinflated?

Edit: sorry I didn’t see that you said 36. I run lower than that, but if that is what you were used to before and the ride is different now, that may not be it. Still, you might try 33-34 lbs and see if it makes a difference.

 

[FordTechOne]

It seems too coincidental to not be a tire related issue, especially at the speed that the vibration is occurring.

You mention that they checked Road Force; do you know what machine they used and what the Road Force readings were? Road Force is specific to Hunter Engineering; if the machine is not a Hunter, they aren't measuring Road Force.

 

[MTF]

BFG tires quality is not what it use to be, I had to return two tires to TireRack because they were out of round.
Even though they balanced, I could still feel a vibration.
When the tire was on the balancing machine did they check for roundness?

Here's a good check list to go though.
https://www.tirerack.com/images/tires/vibechart.pdf

 

[smurfslayer]

You’ve pre-concluded that it’s not the tires, but it’s the only change that you documented in the equation. Did you keep the old tires or toss them? If you got rid of them, you’re kind of out of luck for cheap troubleshooting.

Where did you procure the tires? How old are they?
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

Try rotating tires, one side at a time to try and narrow down if it is one side, or both sides. If you can narrow it down to one side

not to disagree with you but, i disagree with your diagnosis. If you were to page back to the early 2017 era on FRF, you’d appreciate quite a few people reporting new trucks with tire issues. there were in fact several posters who ended up warranty-ing their tires because they couldn’t get the trucks to ride well no matter how many times they were rebalanced.

Having had a car with suspension issues before, let me offer a few suggestions. Pick a shop with good equipment, and good street cred to troubleshoot this, because EVERYWHERE YOU GO the first thing they’re going to do is “rebalance tires” for 50-60 bucks.

next, change absolutely nothing else on the truck, no matter how insignificant. Mechanics always look to the last change as the cause, rather than the last relevant change.

here is some guidance: https://www.tirereview.com/diagnosing-vibration-issues/

I had a Ford Exploder that had a persistent vibration I discovered after a tire change. when I say ‘discovered’, I mean first noticed. There’s no way it wasn’t there before. After the tire change, the thing shook like mad. I knew it was related, went back to the tire shop, they test drove it and confirmed it shook like mad. pulled all 4, and identified one wheel which took more weights. put it on the balance machine and the tire visibly wobbled. they measured run out and found the wheel was not true horizontally. We moved it to the back, and the truck was noticeably smoother. I’m not really sure why the tire change seemed to make it worse and I don’t remember if i changed brand / type of tire, but that was rather simple to chase down. My old mustang with defective control arm bushings... that was much, much more frustrating.

you should get all the wheels measured for run out. Next, have the tires measured for this AND out of round. Even if they’re within spec, I’d take the worst one and have it replaced at a minimum. Back in ’17, KO2’s were somewhat notorious for being difficult to get to balance properly. this makes me exceedingly nervous about new tires.

 

[Raptor10X]

It seems too coincidental to not be a tire related issue, especially at the speed that the vibration is occurring.

You mention that they checked Road Force; do you know what machine they used and what the Road Force readings were? Road Force is specific to Hunter Engineering; if the machine is not a Hunter, they aren't measuring Road Force.

It was Discount tire. Don't know the machine specifics. I did get the readings they are: 15, 15, 14, 14 if that makes sense.

 

[Raptor10X]

You’ve pre-concluded that it’s not the tires, but it’s the only change that you documented in the equation. Did you keep the old tires or toss them? If you got rid of them, you’re kind of out of luck for cheap troubleshooting.

Where did you procure the tires? How old are they?
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

Try rotating tires, one side at a time to try and narrow down if it is one side, or both sides. If you can narrow it down to one side

not to disagree with you but, i disagree with your diagnosis. If you were to page back to the early 2017 era on FRF, you’d appreciate quite a few people reporting new trucks with tire issues. there were in fact several posters who ended up warranty-ing their tires because they couldn’t get the trucks to ride well no matter how many times they were rebalanced.

Having had a car with suspension issues before, let me offer a few suggestions. Pick a shop with good equipment, and good street cred to troubleshoot this, because EVERYWHERE YOU GO the first thing they’re going to do is “rebalance tires” for 50-60 bucks.

next, change absolutely nothing else on the truck, no matter how insignificant. Mechanics always look to the last change as the cause, rather than the last relevant change.

here is some guidance: https://www.tirereview.com/diagnosing-vibration-issues/

I had a Ford Exploder that had a persistent vibration I discovered after a tire change. when I say ‘discovered’, I mean first noticed. There’s no way it wasn’t there before. After the tire change, the thing shook like mad. I knew it was related, went back to the tire shop, they test drove it and confirmed it shook like mad. pulled all 4, and identified one wheel which took more weights. put it on the balance machine and the tire visibly wobbled. they measured run out and found the wheel was not true horizontally. We moved it to the back, and the truck was noticeably smoother. I’m not really sure why the tire change seemed to make it worse and I don’t remember if i changed brand / type of tire, but that was rather simple to chase down. My old mustang with defective control arm bushings... that was much, much more frustrating.

you should get all the wheels measured for run out. Next, have the tires measured for this AND out of round. Even if they’re within spec, I’d take the worst one and have it replaced at a minimum. Back in ’17, KO2’s were somewhat notorious for being difficult to get to balance properly. this makes me exceedingly nervous about new tires.

I am open to the possibility that it's the tires. But... The first set was a set of new Ridge Grapplers that had this issue. That is when I put the new KO2's back on to eliminate that possibility. (Sorry left that out) I Appreciate the help and advice. First shop was Big O that a friend of mine owns. The second was Discount tire. Thanks again!

 

[Raptor10X]

It's gotta be an out of round tire, flat spot, or tread separation. I would see if you can get the original seller to just get a replacement set. You may need to call BFG.

This is actually the second set. The first set was ridge grapplers. That is why I suspect something else.

 

[GCATX]

You can also do some research vibration magnitude or frequencies. There are phone apps you can use to measure these. Real mechanics will also have instruments to do this. Tire vibrations have different frequencies than driveshafts, and so on.