The question is, are the factory tires "off the shelf" or "special Ford Spec"

Why? I am having bouncing and terrible ride in an '08 F250 Super Duty after replacing factory Continental Contitrac Tr.

Michelin and Discount Tire have been great in helping me resolve these issues, that the Ford dealer (where I bought the new Michelins) was not very helpful with. Currently running second set of Michelins in 30 days. They now are going to replace them with what was on it originally (per my request). The Continental Contitrac TR LT275/70R18/E1 FRD 125S B (notice the FRD in this lettering. I am told that indicates it is oe for Ford or "Ford Exclusive"

In trying to confirm what FRD means, I read one article that indicates that it does indicate that it is oe on Ford, but off the shelf, may have an entirley different compound.

Is it possible to get Factory Spec tires from Ford?

I realize I might could search dealers who might have some they have removed form a new truck, but not likely.

To be more specific about the problem;
at 68k miles, bought 2 Michelin MS2 from Ford Dealer. Installed on front
No problems noticed.
At 70k miles, bought 2 more of the same, installed on front, rotated first two to the rear
Immediately noticed the bumping on the ride home.
Returned to the dealer, they test drove, rebalanced, told me that is all they could do. If I wasnt satisfied, they would get the diesel mechanic to look at it. That was the end of dealing with them in trying find the cause.
Drove 80 miles, my guts and my brain ached from the bounce
Asked a tire dealer to look into it
They came into the lobby after checking the first, reporting it was way out, rebalanced all, test drove, and no change. The technician said he could see my jaw bouncing during the test drive. Recommended I go back to the Ford dealer who I bought them from.
I contacted Michelin who lined me up with an Authorized dealer.
The too scoffed at "whoever balanced them" last, and stated they were way out.
They proceeded to rebalnce and road force balance. Two had to be turned on the wheel.
This made no difference.
They suggested replacing one then 2 of the tires that had to be turned on the rim'
I took the spare which is the original Continental, and rotated it all around the truck to try to identify which were bad.
At each location, the ride was better.
Indicating to me that this truck and those michelins, just dont work well together.
From all I have read, it makes sense that each truck has it own characteristics. Obviously, different tire brands, models and tread have different characteristics.
So I returned to Discount Tire, and talked with them about this.
Next they installed 4 new Michelins
Again, no difference.
At this point, I though I might be to sensitive to the problem, so I parked the truck for a week.
Drove 25 miles today, it seemed to be worse than ever.
Returned to Discount tire, and they order a set of the Continentals

I have researched and read through forums, with every angle I can think of.
half praise the Continental, Half condemn it, Half like Michelin, Half hate them, etc etc etc.

What was most interesting is the threads about the "bed hop" or bouncing.
Most of them report the bump between 35 and 45mph.

The bump I am getting is from 5 - 75mph.

Now folks! I am not a nut. I have never had tire issues in my 40 yrs of driving.
I worked 30 yrs troubleshooting, so I know how to go about looking for problems, and I know about the customer that seems difficult to please.
This truck rode better than most cars, and far better than most trucks.
Now, I cant drive 10 miles until I get so disgusted at this.

While I wait for the new tires, I am going to try to find an 08 250 on a lot, to get a realistic feel of how it drove before all of this.

If anyone has any insight to this issue, especially about factory tire compound VS off the shelf tires, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks

 

Maybe I missed it, is this a long bed? With plow option front end or not? I have had some of that seesawing motion on my truck, but it seems to be very much road related, even lane related. Whenever I get into concrete road surfaces that are used by heavy trucks it starts the seesaw. Tire pressure adjustment really helps, and I changed to Bilstein 5100 shocks, that helped even more.

You may be on the right track, but I think it's tire construction that's different, not compound. Let us know how it goes.

 

Is there a chance you bent a wheel (or the shop did)? Or you could try Centramatics or BB balancing, if it's a tire out of balance those will fix it.

Centramatic

 

More stats on your truck please.....

Conti's are junk. I had a recall sent about them for my 08 OEM tires.

You may have bought faultly tires. Get them "RoadBalanced" to get the real anwser.

Hunter GSP9700 Wheel vibration Control System solves wheel vibration and tire pull problems that balancers and aligners can't fix

EDIT......sounds like a bad or broken shock. If the shocks are OEM they need replacing anyways.

 

we got one them at the shop they are nice!

 

As the OP stated the Continental's are junk. Go to Tirerack.com and see the surveys. Miserable results. You could have a tire that is bad from the factory with a thrown belt. I had that problem in a brand new Michelin LTX on my old Ford Expedition. I only found th remedy after an accidental slice of the sidewall made me replace the tire and magically my bumpy ride vanished. Upon examination by the tire rep he said it was a bad tire with a bad belt.