2024 F350 King Ranch
I purchased a new set of tires about a month ago. The tire dealer had issues getting the tires balanced. They balanced them on three occasions, and all three times they were way out of balance. I had questions, so I took my truck to another dealer to get it rebalanced. They found that on both driver's side rims, they were out of tolerance on run out and the tires will not balance properly. They show no signs of physical damage, they just will not balance.

What should I do? I have almost 40,000 miles on my truck, and I did buy an extended warranty for what it's worth. Everyone is pointing fingers.

Just another unsatisfied Ford customer…

 

It's always nice to end with, "just another unsatisfied Ford customer..." Life's too short, fix the wheel issue and sell that truck and get something you'll be happy with.

But, back on topic, 40k miles and it's just now an issue? Was it an issue with the previous tires? Something's fishy here. Did someone at the mounting shop damage both wheels on the driver's side? I find that hard to believe. It's gonna be a battle to get the dealer to replace the wheels, if somehow they are bent. Does anyone else drive your truck? Someone that may have hit something on the left side? If you're forced to buy new wheels, I'd look for some takeoffs - there are some GREAT deals to be had out there on takeoff wheels and tires. Wheels, not rims...

 

Yea the number of miles to date is a problem. Why did you wait almost 2 years to decide it was a problem?

 

It was not an issue until I changed tires.

 

Unfortunately hardly anyone knows how to or takes the time to balance tires correctly. I would be more inclined to believe there is an issue with the tires and or the installer.

 

Then it's likely not the rims, because the previous set of tires balanced and ran good.

There is a spec that, after a certain amount of weight, the installer is supposed to break the tire down, rotate it 90 degrees on the rim, remount and rebalance and see if it's better.

Sounds like you've got a tire installer that doesn't know how to install tires.

 

2 +2 still equals 4, if the problem started when the tires were replaced than the problem is most likely related to the tires. FWIW many tire places unless they deal with and have the equipment necessary to handle the larger wheels and hub sizes that trucks use have a lot of trouble mounting the tire/wheel assemblies on their balancer properly. If they don't mount them on the machine properly the balancing and/or road force balance that some places sell will not give you the correct indication. My experience has been that heavier wheels with high profile tires do not get damaged/bent easily like you would see with low profile tire/wheel assembly. Good luck

 

Look for a shop that can do a road force balance, Should take care of this problem.

 

I had a '99 Ram 2500 that I bought new. A couple of years into ownership, I began to notice a no load vibration between 35 an 45 mph. The tire shop balanced the tires a couple of times, before calling me to watch the tires in the spin balancer. Two of the wheels, which were chrome plated steel, showed a small amount of runout. I assumed that it was a result of something that I or my teenage son had managed to do, and decided to just live with it. With the next new tire purchase/install, the vibration disappeared...

 

What was the runout on actual bead mounting surface?
Here is a couple of my factory 18" base XLT rims

 

Might be a bent rim.

If youve been neglecting tire rotations every 10k, then they likely had to beat the wheels off with a sledge hammer and may have bent them.

If you have a SRW, get some lug centric wheels. Like a Method NV HD. If youre a DRW, im sure those guys will chime in.

 

What kind of tires are the new ones?

 

As previously suggested- road force balance is first order of action. This will identify wheel runout and tire runout. Discount Tire/Americas Tire have road have balancers if your dealer doesn’t.

 

Being that you have 40k miles on the truck and are only just now complaining about this, it doesn't seem like Ford is your issue... so I wouldn't say you are a unsatisfied Ford customer. From you're post, it sounds like you have tires that either just won't balance (ie., there have been multiple reports of the new K03 tires having a very difficult time, with many having to be replaced) and/or you have folks that lack the ability to balance a tire. Either way, it doesn't sound like it's Fords fault... unless maybe you are having the dealership mount the new tires? You may want to go back to whomever you bought these tires from and have them replace the (bad) tires. If anything, you could even have the tires swapped around on the wheels to see if they have the same issues. If the problem stays with the wheel, it's the wheel, if it follows the tire, it's the tire. Of course you could also request road force balancing, however, I would say that if it is a competent tech they should be able to get it balanced on a regular balancing machine. When I put new tires on my factory wheels I had a small mom and pop shop do it and they didn't have a road force balancer, but when I drove away, they were smooth as butter. The new tires were bigger and heavier tires than stock also...

Another thing you could try is a set of Centramatics. But again, which tires are you having issues with? Some are just know to be harder to get balanced.