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Balancing Big Tires

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Old May 22, 2023 | 10:57 AM
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Balancing Big Tires

Well, not that they are the biggest out there, but Town Fair Tire went 0-2 trying to balance my 37x11.5R20 Ridge Grapplers. They added 8oz of beads per tire which reduced the vibration, but it's still there, and quite irritating. There isn't a lot of big-tire/offroad places around up here.

Those of you running the bigger tires... similar issues? I'm not sure if I should just take it to Ford and have them Road-Force Balance them, add 4-6oz more beads, or what. Was also debating trying to add Centramatics as well.
 
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Old May 22, 2023 | 11:06 AM
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This thread might be worth reading.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...on-2019-a.html
 
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Old May 22, 2023 | 11:15 AM
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Originally Posted by ToMang07
Well, not that they are the biggest out there, but Town Fair Tire went 0-2 trying to balance my 37x11.5R20 Ridge Grapplers. They added 8oz of beads per tire which reduced the vibration, but it's still there, and quite irritating. There isn't a lot of big-tire/offroad places around up here.

Those of you running the bigger tires... similar issues? I'm not sure if I should just take it to Ford and have them Road-Force Balance them, add 4-6oz more beads, or what. Was also debating trying to add Centramatics as well.
I'm in the same world as you right now. I have a winter set of 33x10.5 r17 Kenda Klever R/T I took all the wheel weights off when I put Centramatics on. I had a little vibration at ~73-75 mph on the highway so I got the Centramatics and it smoothed it all out completely. I took all the wheel weights off when I put Centramatics on because my largest wheel weight total was 4.75oz and I have heard the balancers can resolve up to 6 oz.
I have alsohave a set of 37x12.5r17 Delium terra raider AT. I mounted them at my buddy's shop and took pics of the Hunter machine as I went and marked/numbered the wheels so I would know what each tire needs for weight and where. I do need to add some stick on weights as some of the tires need 8-9 oz of weight. It isn't terrible and only comes noticeable on the highway. With that said I have taken multiple trips to my brother's in ME from CT and still haven't done anything yet. I'm not as bothered by little things though as much as some, so keep that in mind with my opinion. They are worth a shot for the money I think, and leave the balance beads in.
 
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Old May 22, 2023 | 11:36 AM
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Originally Posted by redford
This thread might be worth reading.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...on-2019-a.html
I bumped it already, lol, just trying to think outside the box. Biggest tires I had before this was 315/75R16s and didn't have this issue balancing them.
 
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Old May 23, 2023 | 12:28 PM
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I have 315/70/17 Ridge Grapplers on my Dually and cannot get rid of the vibration.
They have been on for 10k miles since the truck was brand new. I have had them balanced with weights, tried beads, removed beads, tried centramatics with no weights, balanced with weights again with centramatics. Still that vibration above 70mph. Passenger seat shakes if no one is sitting in it.
Cannot have them road force balanced because of my particular size tire on a dually wheel cannot be done by anyone in my area.
The vibration feels more like in the rear half of the truck. Never in the front end. Even when swapping/rotating tires around. I'm starting to wonder if its driveline related. Or maybe just a lightweight aluminum truck with load range E tires under the back end with zero give.
 
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Old May 23, 2023 | 01:10 PM
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I run beads in all my trucks, 35's are the biggest, the thing with beads is you should have X oz. of beads depending on tire weight.. I forget the X amount, but I think it's 1oz. per 10lbs... I could be wrong so don't take it for fact, I would look up the weight of your tire and then adjust accordingly. I'm thinking about swapping to them in my F550, as with the traditional weights they are terrible.
 
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Old May 23, 2023 | 01:14 PM
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Well, they (allegedly) have 8oz of beads in each tire already.
 
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Old May 23, 2023 | 01:14 PM
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I have had this problem with smaller tires in the past, 33's. Purchased from discount tire and re- balanced multiple times (not with beads), including road force balanced. It never completely went away, only changed the intensity or speed at which the vibration could be felt. I suspect in some cases it could be a bad tire. In my case Discount tire claimed they were all good.
 
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Old May 23, 2023 | 07:47 PM
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I don’t consider 37s to be “big” but I have some Kumho at52s in 37x12.5 mounted on weld off-road 20x10s and they did the standard metal weights to balance.

No vibration issues to speak of. If I ever did have an issue I’d probably run centramatics to try to fix it.

I feel like there shouldn’t be an issue to balance tires up to 37s.
 
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Old May 24, 2023 | 06:34 PM
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One thing I have found on stubborn balancing is just about all tires flat spot from sitting. High perf and low profile tires are by far worse, but you can try driving on the highway
for a long period. Get the tires nice and hot (and hopefully as "round" as they are going to be), then take all the wheels/tires off as soon as you get home,
and transport them to your favorite balancer place.

I have 11 vehicles and have had my own tire machine and hunter balancer for close to 25 years. I send back about 1 in 15-20 tires that either takes way too much weight
and/or is visibly out of round, seen right on the spin balancer. I bought a "cheaper" brand alum trailer that I needed 8 wheels and tires (chinese crap) to get 4 good one's,
so sometimes the absolute cheapest tire is not the way to go, just due to uniformity (or lack thereof) of the tires brand new.
 
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Old Jun 6, 2023 | 06:47 AM
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Well went to an "Truck" shop yesterday, they specialize in off road bro-dozers and they claimed to have the machines for big tires. 2 Attempts and they couldn't do it. So at this point I suspect I have one or more bad tires, and have contacted the original seller to replace them, which they agreed to do. So hopefully this will fix my issues.
 
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Old Jun 6, 2023 | 08:07 PM
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I have 38/13.5 Cooper STT Pro's and they are as smooth a silk going down the road. Have 10,000 miles on them so far, seem to be holding up well not sure how many miles I will get out of them.
 
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Old Jun 6, 2023 | 09:56 PM
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Originally Posted by ToMang07
Well, not that they are the biggest out there, but Town Fair Tire went 0-2 trying to balance my 37x11.5R20 Ridge Grapplers. They added 8oz of beads per tire which reduced the vibration, but it's still there, and quite irritating. There isn't a lot of big-tire/offroad places around up here.

Those of you running the bigger tires... similar issues? I'm not sure if I should just take it to Ford and have them Road-Force Balance them, add 4-6oz more beads, or what. Was also debating trying to add Centramatics as well.
Counteract recomends 12 or 14 oz for that size tire, other bead companies seem to be in the 6 to 8 range. I've used Counteract beads on 3 sets of tires now and never had a problem following their recommendations
 
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Old Jun 20, 2023 | 03:51 AM
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Well the replacement tires finally came in last week, so got the replacement set installed yesterday. Vibration is gone, smooth as silk now. Kinda mad I had to waste so much time and fuel on them, but glad they made it right. Gonna install Centramatics this weekend, too.
 
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Old Jun 20, 2023 | 08:47 AM
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Originally Posted by ToMang07
Well the replacement tires finally came in last week, so got the replacement set installed yesterday. Vibration is gone, smooth as silk now. Kinda mad I had to waste so much time and fuel on them, but glad they made it right. Gonna install Centramatics this weekend, too.

Glad to hear that. I had a set of mickey thompson mtz's on my 99. Ever since new they always had a vibration, but I just assumed "Oh they're mud terrains so they're never gonna be smooth"

I made it to about 3,000 miles on those tires and then had 2 of them blow out on the same trip within 20-30 miles of each other

I now have ridge grapplers and have no complaints
 
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