I finally was able to correct the vibration problem I've had since I bought my truck almost two years ago. At first, I ignored the shaking and assumed it was just a natural characteristic of a 4WD. But then the vibration got worse and I could tell one of my front tires was defective. It looked like the belts had separated. Anyway, the truck came with (almost new) DUNLOP RADIAL ROVER RVS from the previous owner, so I took it to Goodyear to get it replaced. (That's a story in itself.) Even with the new tire, the vibration was still there-especially at about 65mph. So, I had them rebalanced again on a Hunter machine at another shop. No improvement. I swapped tires around and did everything. I even pulled my rear driveshaft and drove in 4HI-still shook.

I decided it must have been the tires. Anyway I was running steel wheels too, and I decided I wanted some alloys. I found some cheap on eBay, but I realized why the were cheap when they arrived. The clearcoat was not that good and they had some scratches, so I stripped and polished them. That took about two months.

Anyway, to shorten the story, I decided to go with Michelin LTX M/Ss. I got them on yesterday. Not only does the truck ride GREAT, it looks so much better. I did have 235/75R15s, but I upgraded to 30/9.50R15s. A little costly, but worth it. Sorry about the long post. I'm just happy its fixed. Dunlops are officially off my list.

 

I've run those tires for several vehicles and I think they are among the best. Congrats on the fix!

 

Nice job on the rims too !

 

Thanks fellas. I'm just glad the vibration stopped. Hopefully, I'll be able to get several miles out of the Michelins. It's the first set of Michelins I've ever owned. I was going to wait until I got back from vaction next month to get them, but right now Michelin is running a $50.00 rebate special if you purchase a complete set by August 7. Every little bit helps.

Yeah, I'm proud of the rims too. They turned out pretty good. I was worried they would be too shiny, but I am happy with them. However, I will never hand sand a set again. By the time I was done with the last one, my hands were toast. They're fine now though.

 

Could it have been the steel wheels and not the tires?

Glad you got your truck sorted out

 

I considered that too. In actuality it was probably a combination of both.

I still think most of the blame can be put on the tires though.

 

Its definentaly the tires. I have the Dunlop radial rovers and two of them are out of round after 10k miles. They were on the truck when I bought it used, and they looked almost new. No more Dunlops on my rig.

 

Yeah, I'm confident it was the tires. I would make a bet that the Dunlops could be taken off my old steel wheels and replaced with a decent set and there would be no shake. I did a little research and being out of round was pretty common for Dunlops. Now I know why people here kept referring to them as "Dunflops".

The sad thing is, the new tire I bought from Goodyear to replace the other one had the highest road force number when I had it rebalanced by another shop. It was a 44, which from reading threads here is so bad the tire shouldn't even be used. Either Goodyear knew about it and chose not to tell me, or they were too stupid realize that was bad. All the other road force numbers were about 30 on the others.

I went fishing and took about a two hour round trip yesterday, and I was simply amazed at how my truck rode and handled. It was worth every penny.