Howdy folks…posting here as I am sort of at my wit’s end with an issue I have been having for some months now.

First, the truck is:

2014 Ford F-350 SRW
6.7 PowerStroke
118k miles
Almost new driveline
Almost new shocks all around
Brand new calipers, rotors and pads
New leafs not very long ago

A while back I had purchased a new set of rims, a used set of ford chrome clad 20’s that came off of a lariat at some point I imagine.

I put four BF Goodrich All Terrain tires on them. Had no issues for quite a while.

One day out of nowhere, really, the front wheels started to hop a bit. Saw a ton of people posting on BFG’s site about them not staying balanced, how the tires aren’t what they used to be - this that and the other. Fine if you don’t like BFG’s, that’s ok. Maybe I made a mistake…got another set from the tire place in case maybe this was the issue. Had them re-balanced. The tech told me one of my rims seemed to be a bit off as it was taking a lot of weight. We moved that rim to the rear after he balanced everything, and sure enough, the hop followed it. OK, problem solved I thought. Replace the rim, which I did yesterday. Everything seemed to be just fine. Drove about 90 miles round trip, barely had an issue except normal bumps. Was really excited for the on and off nightmare to finally be over.

Today, I took the truck on the exact same ride. The only difference being that it is slightly wet out. The thing started hopping like crazy in the rear! Mostly between 40 and 50 MPH. Below or above you could tell it was there, but barely. Almost lost my mind.

I guess the question is: where to look? What could have changed overnight? The tire pressure did not move. The wheels are tight, and properly torqued. None of the weights that were on either rear wheel moved or fell off. Just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. I am going to call a place nearby that can do road-force balancing, but until then, I was hoping I could pick someone’s brain.

 

Well you could jack up the rear end on jack stands and have someone place it into drive and watch for any rim movement, just be careful as this
could get dangerous fast.

Also I'd remove the tire and look at the rims mounting surface for any build up or un-even surface that you might of not noticed.

My truck empty has always had a more noticeable "worse" bouncy ish drive around 30-40mph but I've got 1 ton leafs in it.
I've also got BF's on it and have personally balanced alot of them at a dealership years back. Some of them took ALOT of weight to balance as it was either a combo of the rim being hit/bent the tire rubber balance combo.
Its just a big tire with alot of rubber that all needs to be balanced out.

 

Appreciate the suggestions…

I can understand the big tire part of things, I guess where it made me scratch my head is how absolutely nothing has changed. I will have to watch the rims either jacked up or on a machine (I agree, the jack stands can get dangerous fast) and see what’s going on. I’ll also give road force balancing a try because why not?

 

Good to hear you figured it out.

I remember struggling with the larger tires balancing them in the beginning as the older guys had learned all the tricks of the trade so to speak.
You sometimes ended up chasing yourself in circles forever with larger weights if you didn't learn to sorta off set the weights from each other. Otherwise the next time you spinned it your chasing
your last weight you just slapped on.

Sometimes I would have to stack "hidden" stick on weights behind a rim spoke on top of the inner and outer rim weights to get a good balance on a larger tire.

 

it came back - still just the rear and worse after a re balance so i’m thinking it is the wheels - third set of new BFGs. tomorrow it is getting road force balanced so hopefully this will solve it. if not it’s time to look somewhere else!

 

If you think it's still a wheel or tire problem, then put your spare tire on whichever corner you think is the problem, if it goes away then you know for sure it's either the rim or the tire. You hit pot holes and big bumps in the road, it's not hard to bend a rim or break a cord in a tire. The quality of parts and tires just isn't there any more.

 

i totally agree - i definitely have hit potholes as much as i pride myself on almost never doing so. the rims were also used. i figured the road force balance is 15 bucks a tire and it’ll at least show how bad each one is - i had a spare set of 18s but i gave the tires to my friends so only have the rims. so i was on that path for sure and appreciate the advice!

the spare is a good idea. i will start where the balance shows they’re the worst if it doesn’t already solve my problem. appreciate the input.

i am really hoping it’s a wheel and tire thing. i absolutely don’t want it to be an axle thing. the driveshaft is brand new from dana (who makes these through spicer for ford) and the balance on that has also been checked.

 

I've never had as many tire problems with any truck as with this super duty. My 2013 also has the chrome clad 20" wheels. It was the tires both times.

The first time was with brand new Cooper Discoverer AT3 tires. It bounced like a basket ball the second I hit 40 once I drove away with the new tires. Re-balanced, road force balanced, nothing improved it....all four of the tires were out of round from the factory and no amount of balancing was able to correct it. I got them to take the tires back and put another set of Michelin AT2s which were fine-ish but always developed a bit of a hop every 5,000 miles that was better once they were re-balanced. Eventually, the 40 mph hop started and found the same thing, one tire was out of round.

We found it both times by doing just what was suggested - putting the truck in drive while on a lift. You could see the hop in the tire. They broke the tires and wheels down and there was no visible hop in the wheel itself.

I've had Michelin Defender LTX tires on since 2016 now and have had zero hop or balance issues with them.

 

while this sucks to hear because it sounds like i have a very similar issue, but at least i know what to try if i can’t get the road force to solve it! for me, it has gotten better with rebalances but not completely rid of it, and it’s almost always noticeable - and less on some road surfaces that are clearly different, or new - and more on others

appreciate you sharing this, it was infuriating wasn’t it?! holy..

 

Just as an update on this:

road force balance nearly solved it. Rode almost hop free for over a week.

now the hop is back, but more intermittently.

About to lose my mind - i am thinking i just need new rims, or as a lot of reviews stated on the bf Goodrich website, many customers are stating that this specific size has given them constant out of balance issues.

 

It's possible I missed it, but are the bare 18"s the stock rims that came with the truck? If so, I'd pick up some used tires & mount them on that set to see what happens.
As for safety, I've only purchased one new set of tires in the past 20 or so years, all the rest have been used (about $100/four) with no issues. Given the frequency at which my tires get slashed I'd be in the poor house had I bought new.

Just be sure to bring your own stems & call ahead a) they virtually never swap out stems even if your old ones are leaking b)to record the call for the out the door price, sometimes they try to up it once you're there & you tell them to balance the things.

Completely possible that's just been my experience with scheisters but it had happened at every used dealer I've been to.

 

Thanks for the reply. They’re the 20 inch ford chrome clad rim for the 11-16 model year trucks

 

How bad of a bounce are we talking? Some trucks have a natural resonance that produces a slightly noticeable bounce or vibration at certain speeds. I know Chevys had it pretty bad for awhile and i think i remember some of the earlier SD's having the same issue. Both happened around the 40-50mph range.

I think I'd try finding a rim repair shop and see what it would cost to have the rims checked for true before going any further. I know I've heard of tire shops checking unmounted tires to see if they run true. I've also heard of shaving tires to true them up if they aren't out too bad, but that's usually for bigger tires, 38"+. I wouldn't be too happy if i had to rework a set of new, stockish sized, tires to make them run right. Another option is running tire beads to balance the tire vs wheel weights. The beads are dynamic and can change position as you drive to keep everything balanced.

 

appreciate the insight - it’s definitely pretty bad. better than before after a proper balance. the rims are apparently not in great shape round wise but the strange thing is that it was temporarily solved almost perfectly with a very small bounce rate.

i am running 275/65/20 so nothing crazy size wise

 

Just as a reference for you. I had a set of 'X' brand tires installed on factory rims shortly after I purchased my truck used with 70k on the clock. It had the OEM tires(new set) on it when purchased and rode great. Smooth, no hop or wobble. I wanted a more aggressive tire and a little taller in size so had 'X' brand installed. Truck rode great for a few thousand miles and then developed the "hop" in the rear. I had them balanced, tire/wheel matched and then road forced balanced, even had u joints and carrier bearing replaced. Nothing ever completely cured the issue. I just dealt with it until I had a new set of tires installed. Voila, hop is gone and even after 15k miles(hard towing miles) still smooth as silk. FWIW, I have never been a fan of the BFG AT tires. Used to Jeep alot and I had a couple sets. After a few miles they wore unevenly, gave steering wobble. I have had better luck with Nitto and Toyo tires. Toyos are what I have on my truck and Jeep presently. No issues at all. But that is just my experience.