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F450 Owners...have you gone to the edge of the earth to balance your wheels?

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  #16  
Old 02-02-2017, 03:51 PM
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"just a 1/8" is a lot, especially on a tire that does not have much give in the first place. I've chased out of round issues before, the only way to resolve it is to shave the tread down or replace the tire.
 
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Old 02-02-2017, 05:41 PM
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The trick is to counter balance the tires not weight balance. You just have to find the high spot in the tires and rotate them to the opposite high spots. First jack up one of the rear dually. Block the front tires first, jack up an inch or so and find a 2 ft length of a 2x4. With the rear in the air, slide the 2x4 in from the front or back side. It doesn't matter. With the 2x4 just under the tire just a fraction of an inch, spin the tires till you can see the high spot or the tire rubs the 2x4. Do this for the inside and outside tires. After both high spots have been found, rotate the high spots to the opposite direction. Like the inside high spot to the top and outside tire to the ground. then bolt the wheels back on. This has worked on all 7 of our 450's and 550's
 
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Old 02-18-2017, 12:41 AM
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HELL YES! I had a weeks long ordeal when I replaced the tires on my 2015 350 dually. I did not want to replace all six at once so I tried just replacing the outer tires, big mistake. After replacing them the rear end would bounce all over the place even at 30 mph. So I wound up replacing all 4 on the rear, still the same issue. I did not want to go back with the stock bf's that came on the truck due to two failures on my last truck one of which took out the side of the truck bed including the exhuast pipe and mount. So after the continuing issue I replaced all six tires even though they were not all worn down. The dealer talked me into the new michelin ats's, (by the way I have the stock aluminum 17 inch wheels) Another mistake. they rode horrible on the truck, you could feel every bump on the road and they would bounce both on the front and the back. I had the work done at a ford dealer only because they have the proper weights for the rims that won't gouge them (I actually had that happen on my last truck), and they have a big balance machine. After two or three attempts at balancing them they discovered their balance machine could not do the job and needed to be replaced. so they sent the tires to a goodyear shop to be rebalanced, still no change. Now I can handle a little imperfection with the truck but this ride would beat the crap out of you all day long. So after a few weeks of bringing the truck back and forth I decided to replace the tires while they were still under the satisfaction warranty. I wound up going back with the same bf factory tires that I did not want, paying extra for more remounting and balancing, some restocking fee crap, and they still sent the tires to goodyear to be rebalanced. Now they ride o.k. in the city, but I drive on a stretch of highway every day, and occaisonally go up to 60 mph, and still get a vibration in the new tires but I just accept it. I took the wife to the hospital in houston last month and could not drive over 70 mph (some of the speed limits in texas are 75 to 80 mph) as the tires would vibrate so bad it felt unsafe. So now I have spent well over two thousand dollars and have 6 new tires that I did not want and still have issues with vibration and shake, when I only needed two tires to begin with. I wish I had a damn balance machine so I could just do it myself. Now the dealer has a new balance machine, but I am hesitant to have them rebalanced and wind up worse off than I am now. I will try to look for high spots on the rear tires as sinner suggested and see what happens. Now the front tires are worn unevenly due to a alignment issue, but I do not want to start another ordeal with that so I will probably just accept the tire wear for now. What a wonderful world we live in nowadays with the mechanics and customer service people not giving a shi about their jobs.
 
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Old 02-18-2017, 10:10 PM
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Its not the balance at all, you have to counter balance them. Find the high area of each rear tire and rotate them till the high spots are on opposite ends. Like the high spot on the inside dual on top, high spot on the outside dual on the ground. It has worked on all of the company's 450 and 550's.. Before I figured this out, I wanted to crash the rig and get it out of my misery. Remember, I have no lead weights on the wheels, never been on a balance machine at all. Each tire has the balance beads in them.

With the first shop in town, a huge tire company it is. I almost got into a fight with a 9 year company employee about the 19.5 tires. Spent days their waiting on them to figure something out. People just want your money in their pocket and wont give a crap..


bayou barataria Forget the balance machine.....
 
  #20  
Old 02-21-2017, 07:38 PM
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Originally Posted by mmm635
I have 4K miles on my 2015 KR and have had the rear end shake that starts at 65mph all the way up to 81mph (as fast as I can go). I have had two shops destroy 4 wheels in the process and purchased a set of Goodyear tires that suck and I not one of the shops cured the problem.

It all started with the dealership and told them to balance the rear tires. They decided to balance the fronts that were super smooth to begin with and ran into a problem. They gouged the wheel all the way around and then explained to me they did not have the proper cone size to balance the wheel. While he was standing there I glance over at three F450's with steel wheels that have the same hub and bolt diameter, thus using the same cone. I have a tire changing machine and a balancer at my shop, so I do this process all the time. The problem is my balance is not designed for truck wheels and the offset on dually wheels hits the side of the balancer, rendering it useless.

The dealer should be taking care of this since my truck is new and under warranty. Hell, they can't and refuse to buy the proper equipment to service a truck they sell. They suggested I take it to another shop that works on big rigs and have them do it, and I ended up paying out of pocket. So, I paid them to destroy my new wheel that the dealership replaced for me. Now I am fixing a problem that never existed and the front wheel will not balance out. So, I had shaking in the rear to begin with and now I have it in the front as well!

I called Ford and they basically said they cannot do anything about it other than drive to another dealership out of state - that was the Rep's solution. I asked her if it made sense to drive 250 miles to get my tires balanced made sense and she went silent, and then could not come up with anything more convenient for someone who purchased one of their products for over $70K The largest dealer in my state, or within 250 miles, is located here and they have the specialized diesel fleet service. Amazing the dealer refuses to buy the proper set of cones - honestly, that was a bunch of BS from the ticket writer. I proceeded to tell him I do this for a living and that the cone size is not the problem and he started fumbling with his words after that. They wanted nothing to do with my truck and were happy to hand me the new wheel and go somewhere else before they messed up more.

Pissed off...I immediately called Centramatic and ordered some tire balancers. It was clear to me that the bounce was still there and the tires still need to be torn down and balanced properly from the start.

I am old school. If you want something done right, then you have to do it yourself in order to save time, money, and headaches. So, I called my equipment guy and purchased a new balancer that can handle up to 22.5" wheels and very precise. I have been meaning to upgrade my machine anyway, so this just was the catalyst. Never had this issue with my srw f350 and the factory 20's - they are like any other wheel out there.

In addition to the machine, I ordered a set of cones made by Haweka (German) that is the most precise cone system for balancing - it better be for $5k! It cinches the wheels down using the lug holes just as if it were on a car. Additionally, it has a rear expandable cone that adjusts out any axis movement for the 4,5, and 6 lug adapters.

Anyway, I got my front wheels on the balancers and got rid of the shake. You should have seen the amount of weight in 4 locations on one of the wheels. The Good Year Big Rig shop tech put on over 35 oz. on a new wheel and tire - much to his dismay I asked him to turn the tire 180 and try it again. He did and still had the same result. Remember...I just purchased two Goodyear 647rss and two brand new Alcoa wheels in boxes. I will be taking off the rears in the next couple of days and try to correct the issue and post up the results. I also went back to the Stock Continentals as they had much better grip and feel than the Goodyear - the GY would make my truck wander on the steer application.

From what I have seen, the problem is the mounting of the wheel needs to be precise for the 19.5" like a car wheel, as opposed to the larger rig wheels which have less tolerance. But I seriously doubt allot of these shops calibrate their machines on a normal basis and clean all the mating surfaces religiously to have a true axis. Part of the adapter kit is specific to 8 and 10 lug Ford, Chevy, and Ram hubs with adjustable pins for varying hub diameters.

I would like to hear from you F450 owners, or even F350 Dually owners, since it seems these trucks are stricken with balancing issues. I did some reading on the forums but I did not read much in the last couple of years since they switched back to the 19.5".

Crazy as it sounds, I love my truck and at the point where I will do whatever it takes to make it ride smooth due to the incompetence I have dealt with. Here is a pic of my setup...






















Our local ok tire dealer (my next door neighbour at my shop) has a balancer that looks very similar to yours just a lot dirtier They balanced my toyo's m920's I went with 245's did a great job no shaking or vibrating at all also no wandering very happy
[QUOTE=mmm635;16075081]After balancing all 6 tires and wheels to 0, the truck still exhibited a violent shake between 70-80mph. Remember, I am also using centramatics so this was telling me that something is wrong with the tires themselves. On a side note...I have never had good luck with Continental tires on any vehicle throughout the years.

Same here on the continental tires no luck at all








 
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  #21  
Old 02-22-2017, 02:30 AM
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From what I hear from the tire and wheel experts, the 19.5 and the 22.5 the wheel has a 45* angle for the bead. The other normal wheels have a 90* bead. So the 19.5 will seat how ever they want to. So the tire is ovalized causing the shaky ride. 30 to 35 mph was the worst. 60 to 70 a sharper bounce occurred.
 
  #22  
Old 05-23-2018, 10:44 AM
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I had a new set of 6 Michelin XDS2 245/70R19.5 tires installed. The tire shop 'Road Force' Balanced each while matching the tire with the wheel and using weights.
No Bounce or vibration at any speed. Rides Smoooooth....
 
  #23  
Old 05-20-2020, 09:48 PM
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Having the same issue!

Hey! I made an account just to reply to this post. I’m having the same issue with not being able to balance my F350 wheels ANYWHERE!

What state are you from, and would it be possible if you can do my wheels? Of course I’d pay for your time and effort. Please email or call me

201-968-6118

harrisoneli@ymail.com
 
  #24  
Old 12-24-2020, 01:55 AM
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WOW,,,Glad i found this site. bought the 2018 F-450 limited and love it. it was like new with 16,000 miles on it. it did the f-450 death wobble on breaking down a steep grade with my beloved 2004 F-250 0n a flatbed trailer. No fun,, Ford took it and balanced the stock 19.5 china rims with the HSR's and stuck a bunch of the weights on them. They also lowered the psi's to 80/85. That helped alot with the Continental's,,,,,Just stuck on 6 XDS2's on and ther are nice ,,,lots more grip. Got them mounted and of course they had a ton of weights on them and pretty scratched up. When i recover from buying the truck and tires im thinking on going to steel or some blackedout new rims. some 19.5 rims Any thoughts? I have 2 F-250's ,,my 2004 flatbed with 340,000 miles on it and a 1985 f-250 cab and 1/2,, 460 high power 4 speed 4x4's I really like the look of the trucks in the thread,,, Thanks,,,
 
  #25  
Old 12-24-2020, 06:41 AM
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Copy the picture in post # 22 of the following thread. Take it to the tire shop with you.
Make sure the tire dummy knows and understands how to mount tires. It *might* be a huge help.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-thread-2.html
 
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