Never a dull moment. I started getting ready for a big camping trip, 1,500 mile round trip about 2 weeks ago. I have been having a shimmy in the front end I have been trying to track down for a while and figured this would help. I have been needing to replace the tie rod ends anyway due to them wearing out. So I replace everything in the front end with MOOG parts. They used to be good but everybody now says they are trash I guess who knows. But it’s too late they are on. I replaced all the shocks with Bilstein 4600 series and get a fresh alignment. We are good to go. Get out on the road and the truck seems to be doing pretty good. Have a little shimmy but mostly on rough patches of road so I wasn’t too worried about it. Get about 3 hours from home and am driving through a busy city where everyone drives like they are insane. I see up ahead that there is the remnants of a semi tire retread a complete ring of tread in the road. I have a wall to my left, an 18 wheeler to my right and another 18 wheeler on my bumper. So I have the choice to hit it or hit it. So as you guessed it I hit it. Thankfully I didn’t hit the wall or the other 18 wheeler and it didn’t destroy my fenders or camper like I was expecting. I did lose my rear center cap in the deal. However after the impact I have a pretty good vibration going on up front around 70 mph. I pull over at a rest stop and don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Get to my destination and go get the front tires rebalanced, which they said was off. It does ride smoother at lower speeds however at around 70 the vibration is back and seems a little stronger then before.

Any other suggestions as to what to look at before the ride home? I thought about swapping the spare up to the front tire position to see if for some crazy reason the rim was bent but figured they would have said something to me if it was during balancing.

Thoughts? Sorry for the long story.

 

man what luck, i have chased lib issues but never out of town with a camper on.

wonder if a tire has internal damage that doesn't show up on balance? Using the spare might reveal something

can u check drive shaft for marks that might tell u if it got hit? speed where vibration at sounds more like tire/wheel issue though

 

You could try the spare. If it were me I'd rotate the fronts to the rear and see if it follows if it does then you know for sure it's one or both wheels. You may have to find a shop that can do road force balancing, taking the wheels well above the 70mph mark when they balance them.

 

Get an alignment.

 

I swapped in the spare and that actually made it worse. So I swapped it back. This is so frustrating considering the truck was just doing pretty good.

Ya I am gonna have to do that again. I just had it done before we left but I am sure it out now.