I asked my dealer to install band mounted TST TPMS sensors in the wheels of my new 2024 F450 and they ran into a problem. They say that the wheels require a different balancing weight that they don't have and have been unable to get. None of the local Ford dealers have them. They ending up sending the wheels to 4 Wheel Parts for balancing.
Did Ford change the manufacturer of the wheels for the F450 in 2024?
Has anyone else run into this problem?
My truck has been in the shop all week for this.

 

I have balance masters on all four wheels and a set on my DRV 5th wheel.

 

Following. Thinking of doing the same with the internal band TST sensors since my new 5th wheel came with them too. I ordered my 450 with the trailer TPMS, but with no great success stories using the Ford sensors on the 19.5 wheels going the TST route is an option.

 

My 2021 Luxe 5th wheel came with the TST sensors and I had them installed in the wheels of my 2020 F450. i needed add more repeaters to get all wheels to report OK. One in the lower passenger side of the rear truck window and another in the trailer in a service area under the bathroom (as far back as I could get one down low). The trailer came with one repeater in the generator compartment but that one didn't relay all of the wheels reliably.

I got the truck back last night and with the receiver display unit on the dash, I only got signals from 2 wheels on the way home. I am going to install a repeater this weekend in the same location as my old truck and see how that works.

I would still like to know why Ford dealers don't have the wheel balancing weights for the latest F450 wheels. My truck was built in late September. My understanding is that when they rotate the tires during a normal service, they dismount the tires from the wheels and move them to the new wheel, so they will need to be able to balance the wheels.

 

I just added Centramatics on my 450 right after I got it. Seems like the weights fall off the Alcoa's all the time and it's such a pain to get anyone to even touch these trucks for a balance attempt job.

 

Have you personally witnessed your Ford dealer do this? Dismount and remount 19.5 tires onto shuffled wheels and rebalance?

The three Ford truck dealers in my area do not do this.

It is only because you said "my understanding is" that I bring this point up. Your statement of "my understanding is..." tends to imply uncertainty and assumption about what your dealer does when rotating 19.5" F-450 tires.

In your shoes, I would mark each tire with a unique identifier, and mark each wheel with a unique identifier indexed to the identifier on the tire, and next time your vehicle is returned from a routine service where your understanding is that the tires were dismounted from their original wheels and remounted onto different wheels... see if your unique identifiers between tire and wheel have changed, or remain the same, despite being located in different positions on the truck.

My suspicions are that a dealer who claims to rotate tires on an F-450, will simply swap steer tire/wheel assemblies (unbroken down) side to side, and swap drive tire/wheel assembly pairs (unbroken down) from side to side. I've never seen a dealer dismount and remount tires from wheels to accomplish a 6 tire rotation with aluminum wheels that are single side polished. That is a significant amount of labor time and work for a standard routine service.

If a dealer claims to do this, I would verify their claim independently, via personal observation or secret markings on tires and wheels, before believing it.

That all being said, I wouldn't bother having tires rotated at all on an F-450.

If the front steer tires have the letter "D" anywhere in the tire model name, I would sell those tires immediately while they were still newish low mileage take offs, and buy a pair of Michelin Agilis® HD Z 19.5 steer tires (previously called "XZE") for the front axle, and leave the OEM stock drive tires in place.

Once the band style TPMS sensor is installed in the drop center well of each wheel, I wouldn't mess with the tires again. No need to rotate the tires at all. In fact, over the years, Ford has gone back and forth between recommending and not recommending tire rotations on a dually.

One thing is really important... all four tires on the drive axle need to be the same diameter, so that no single tire in a dually pairing ends up taking the brunt of the load that is supposed to be shared equally by the pairing. When dually pairs are broken up and intermixed with steer tires, there is more of a chance of a loaded radius mismatch between tires within a pairing, since steer tires typically wear out faster than drive tires.

Since drive tires don't track as well on the steer axle, there is a benefit to running drive tires on the drive axle, and steer tires on the steer axle, even when the truck is 4 wheel drive, since the truck is only operated in 4WD in loss of traction situations (for a typical RV'r pulling a 5th wheel, as opposed to an oil field service rig in Alaska). If 90% of the time, the truck is operated in 2WD, then it makes sense to have an optimally performing tire on the steer axle, which is a steer tire.

And, it doesn't make sense to then rotate that steer tire to the drive axle, or rotate a drive axle to the steer axle. Not only does the rear dually pairing of drive and steer tires together make for a mismatch in traction, it also potentially can lead to a blow out of the drive tire, if the drive tire is taller than the worn steer tire. Hence, no back to front tire rotation is recommended.

On Fords with coil front springs, solid front axles, and OEM tires with a "D" in the tire model name... accelerated front tire wear is often reported. Tire life can be extended with a TWO tire rotation, rotating the steer axle tires only, side to side, while leaving all the drive tires alone.

If one buys another aluminum wheel with the convex side polished, then a THREE tire rotation can be incorporated into a service routine, by rotating the steer axle tires with the spare tire... still leaving all the drive tires alone, untouched. No breaking down of tires off of the rims is needed with a 2 tire rotation, or a 3 tire rotation if incorporating the spare.

I run all steel wheels in my F-550, so in the past I have used a 3 tire rotation (steer axle only) with the spare. However, I also run Centramatic dynamic wheel balancers. By "dynamic", I mean that Centramatics continuously balance the entire rotating assembly (tire, wheel, brake rotor, hub), even when rocks embed themselves between tread blocks, and even when those same rocks later fly away out of the tread blocks.

As I began to observe that I was experiencing no uneven tire wear, not even on the steer axle, I haven't bothered rotating the steer axle for the last 5 or 6 years. I've never rotated the drive axle tires.

In your shoes, I'd get the drop center rim band style TPMS sensors installed at a true truck tire shop that possesses the proper Haweka (or tooling equivalent) centering pilot for Ford / Maxion 19.5" wheels for their spin balancer , have them road force balance your tire and wheel assemblies, install a set of Centramatic dynamic balancers, and call it done for life. Never rotate again. Based on your previous truck being a 2020, and your new truck being a 2024, even if you keep your new truck for twice as long as your previous truck, you will never have bother with tire rotation or waiting for Ford wheel weights.

 

My service rep who handles most of the Deisel service at my dealership told me this. I was surprised to hear that but he said that was to avoid having to reprogram the TPMS for new locations. He did say that they just rotated the front tires from side to side and the same for the rear ones kept in pairs. I had the Ford service contract on my 2020 and that included rotating tires for each normal service. I agree that rotation is probably not needed and I never did it on my old 2008 F250 which had very good tire wear. I haven't purchased a service contract for the new truck and rather than pay for 5 years of service in advance, I think that I will just pay as I go.

I will look at the model numbers for the tires that I got.