Power Wagon Registry

Yeah, now y'all have that song stuck in your heads! LOL!

But seriously, I now have a wobble in my fronted from about 50mph-60mph (or thereabouts) which is the main speed I travel at (most of the roads I drive on are 55mph) so, a bit annoying! It isn't severe but, it is noticeable!!!

At 12,500 miles or so, I installed my Carli suspension
About 100 miles later, I had my MTRKs (37") installed
About 2,400 miles later, I had the tires rotated, that's when the wobble started (and they became noisier than prior)

At first I figured that they probably cross rotated them so, two of my tires are now rotating the opposite of what they are used to. So, I figured the wobble (and newfound noise level) would go away automatically after they wore a little in their new positions. Well, it has been 300 miles and it is as noticeable as ever. (bear in mind, it is NOT death wobble, it is not near that bad, it's not scary, just kinda feels like a shopping cart)

So, what do y'all think?
Wait it out and see if the wobble and extra noise go away as the tires wear?
Get the tires rebalanced?
Check the fronted and see if there is a different culprit?

Out of balanced tire or tires, it's possible that one of your MTR's may have separated...when I lost one of mine it did this,but worse.

Im an MTR addict, dont care for the kevlars tho. There is a huge debate on pirate about how the MTR-K is a one sided tire. Cant remember which side, left or right but you have a weird situation going on. I'd make sure there isn't anything stuck to the inside of the rims, ie snow, mud, etc. How were they balanced, weights on inside and out, one or the other or the stick ons in center? Make sure none of the weights came off.

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Thanks for the responses y'all!!!

BigMike- I hope that's not the case! That'd suck! Sorry that happened to yours!

jeep_boy02- I don't think there is anything stuck in the wheels, the day I got the tires rotated was a nice day (no snow) and I had thoroughly washed the truck after the last wheeling trip (spent two hours under the truck with a hose, thoroughly cleaning off all the mud!), didn't see anything. The tires are balanced with weights inside and out. Can't say for certain that none have come off though, good point! Perhaps I should get them rebalanced after I get back from this weekend's road trip! (I would have it done before but, everybody is closed due to snow) I think I may agree with saying the MTRKs are a one sided tire- that they like to stay on whatever side they are initially put on!!! We'll see!

I will tell you I literally had the death wobble the day I bought my 2005 Power Wagon. Scared the crap outta my buddy and I on our way back from New Hampshire. Turned to find out the dealer I bought the truck from never balanced the tires... A good tire balance fixed my death wobble completely!!

Hi

Two things cause the Death Wobble (Dodge, Ford, anyone with Spring front ends)
A - Out of Balance tires - This needs to be checked at all Oil Changes if possible

B - Track Arm Bushings - If these get worn, or slide out, you will have this Wobble.

So, went and got the tires balanced, it got worse. They sent me to another place that is more experienced with large off road tires, it got worse yet. ((and at the second place, the idiots put white lithium grease on my lug nuts, zipped them on with an impact going clockwise (not proper pattern at all) and torqued them to who knows what with a torque wrench that has been sitting set for who knows how long, and filled one front tire to 48psi and one to 41psi. WTF?!?! I had to fill my tires evenly (letting some out of the one that was past where I wanted, adding to the other (wanted both at 45)), spray my lug studs and nuts with brake clean to get the grease off and retorque with proper pattern and torque) Stupid that I had to do all that that they should have done right to begin with!!!) Now the truck in pretty well undriveable in about the 60-65 range. It's okay sometimes but, hit the wrong undulation in the road and it sets it off bad enough that you can't hardly steer.

ANYWAYS, I'll be taking it to a reputable 4x4 shop (previous were tire places) this coming week and get the wobble figured out if it is a suspension issue. He feels VERY confident that he will get it squared away, he builds a LOT of coiled rigs. Will probably try yet another tire shop for a third attempt at balancing the tires too. If that doesn't work, the other reputable 4x4 shop in my area (but further away) is a dealer for Dynabeads so, I'll give them a try.

I'll post up what gets figured out.

Some tires are WAYYYYYYY out of balance. Sometimes the bigger the tire, the bigger the issue can be. Some mfg's let them go out anyways. Many will be used "off-road only, so it is not much of an issue. Not sure what their method of thinking is but this would be unacceptable to me if i had a tire co. I had one of my Cooper STT's in size 285/70/17 that needed zero weight & had another that needed 3 or 4 oz's !! I questioned this. The above is about the response i got. My tires have been great so far. 8 years ago when i got them, they said if i get a wobble to bring them back for a re balance. He said that it is common to have to do this for big off-road tires. Tire shops blame the wheel. Wheel shops blame the tire. Only way to know for SURE is to have the wheel put on & spun with no tire on it. Most won't do it for free or at all because then it may PROVE it is THEIR product & not the others that is the issue. Good luck & keep us posted please.

Can't believe I never updated this, DOH!!!!!

Wobble was 100% tires. I have had a heck of a time with them,finally got 2 balanced okay-ish and they have been living on the front axle since.

That was okay up until recently, when.... I got EQUAL tire balance powder put in them last weekend (wanted to try dynamic balancing) it did NOT work for me! I put the bad tires on the front right after getting the powder put in, figuring "oh yeah, this is gonna work, everything is gonna be right!!!" NOPE!!!- truck felt like a dryer with a brick thrown in it! So, put the bad ones on the back again and now it is okay-ish, not as "good" (not as un-bad? LOL!) as the previous static balance but generally smooth except around 55-60mph where it gets the shakes. (maybe these tires are just too bad for it to compensate for? I got the right amount for their size) I think I will get this stuff removed and try Dynabeads and if they don't work, I will be getting different tires, this has been a real PITA! I'm not even 100% sure I have the patience to try another thing, we'll see. I will be talking with the tire place saturday. I'm getting rather sick of throwing money at tires that I can't even rotate! The place I bought them from has done like 5 balance attempts for free but, the place they recommended that totally f-ed it up (as described above) was like $70 and the EQUAL tire balance powder was like $40 for the bags and $20 to get put in. So, I'm out like $130 right now with no improvement. Debating as to whether I even want to try Dynabeads, kinda sick of throwing money into these tires! I'm driving about 700 miles a week right now, and it is really LAME on unbalanced tires that shake me down the road!

I had this similar thing when I upsized my King Ranch tires one size on the Aluminum 22" wheels. The drive train seemed to experience harmonic oscillation at 52, 66, 70mph. I took the tires off, weighed them all, and the there was about a 2.8lbs variance between the four. I put them on a tire balancer, drove them at 50 and 100 RPM (input drive) and used a strobe to isolate their frequency response, and found a difference of about +-10 RPM at speed, which I believe accounted for the wobble. I stripped off the weights and took the tires to a semi truck mx shop---problem fixed.

Oh, and I checked the concentricity of the Al rims---one was pretty misshapen (took it on a mining trail it wasn't suited to go on and bashed it pretty good), changed the rims and that really helped.

adeluca73 wrote:I had this similar thing when I upsized my King Ranch tires one size on the Aluminum 22" wheels. The drive train seemed to experience harmonic oscillation at 52, 66, 70mph. I took the tires off, weighed them all, and the there was about a 2.8lbs variance between the four. I put them on a tire balancer, drove them at 50 and 100 RPM (input drive) and used a strobe to isolate their frequency response, and found a difference of about +-10 RPM at speed, which I believe accounted for the wobble. I stripped off the weights and took the tires to a semi truck mx shop---problem fixed.

That's your first problem ... 22" rims!

;-P

Lol


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I think the rims are okay, I seem to remember the tire shop checking to see if they were true. I wish there was a place around here that would really check their lateral runout, like actually with a dial indicator to really test it. I don't know of one though.

SheepdogOutdoorsman wrote:

adeluca73 wrote:I had this similar thing when I upsized my King Ranch tires one size on the Aluminum 22" wheels. The drive train seemed to experience harmonic oscillation at 52, 66, 70mph. I took the tires off, weighed them all, and the there was about a 2.8lbs variance between the four. I put them on a tire balancer, drove them at 50 and 100 RPM (input drive) and used a strobe to isolate their frequency response, and found a difference of about +-10 RPM at speed, which I believe accounted for the wobble. I stripped off the weights and took the tires to a semi truck mx shop---problem fixed.

That's your first problem ... 22" rims!

;-P

Yep--but Ford like to "bro" out their King Ranch trucks--it sure was pretty with the tires and the 4" lift. Just not great off road since it weighed 10K lbs. It's in the back left of this pic.

adeluca73 wrote:

SheepdogOutdoorsman wrote:

adeluca73 wrote:I had this similar thing when I upsized my King Ranch tires one size on the Aluminum 22" wheels. The drive train seemed to experience harmonic oscillation at 52, 66, 70mph. I took the tires off, weighed them all, and the there was about a 2.8lbs variance between the four. I put them on a tire balancer, drove them at 50 and 100 RPM (input drive) and used a strobe to isolate their frequency response, and found a difference of about +-10 RPM at speed, which I believe accounted for the wobble. I stripped off the weights and took the tires to a semi truck mx shop---problem fixed.

That's your first problem ... 22" rims!

;-P

Yep--but Ford like to "bro" out their King Ranch trucks--it sure was pretty with the tires and the 4" lift. Just not great off road since it weighed 10K lbs. It's in the back left of this pic.

Hence why PW's don't come with a diesel option ... among other reasons ...

Well, wish me luck, I'll be going to the tire place AGAIN today. I think I am just going to tell them they need to give me a full value credit on these toward a set of Nitto Trails.

Good luck.

Yeah--that would be really fantastic if they give you all new tires after driving on them!!!

So, after some talking, we are going to try one last ditch effort to balance them, using Dynabeads. If (when? (J/K, LOL!)) they don't work, we will be talking about what steps need to be taken. They come in on friday so,I'll be getting them installed then, we'll see what happens.

Good luck


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As I am lookin at installing these EXACT tires on my truck next month I am very curious as to how this turns out.

The Dynabeads made a HUGE difference, I cannot overstate the difference they made!!!!! Night and day between with them and anything previous! That being said, I still don't feel the truck is 100% driveable. I appear to have gotten a bad set of MTRKs. 3 aren't really too awful bad (though one of the three will be getting replaced no matter what, it chunked badly and the split is into the carcass bad enough that you can see the steel belts) but, two are pretty much terrible. Even with the Dynabeads, they will still shake the truck at certain speeds. (though nowhere near as bad as previous, it just mildly shakes now, it used to be bad enough to be undriveable at certain speeds) Right now, it looks like I will be changing to different tires, my wife is scared of my truck with these tires, DOH!!!

So, here's what I am contemplating, let me know what y'all think:
Hankook dynapro MT 37x12.50R17 on stock wheels
Nitto Trail Grappler 37x12.50R17 on stock wheels
or,
Nitto Trail Grappler in 40x13.50R17 on a set of Method Double Standards

I would be looking at other options but, I think it has to be something Discount Tire carries as that's where my MTRKs came from originally. IDK how willing they will be to branch out from normally stocked tires??? Thus far they have been really great to deal with though, I have shopped with them for several years, SEVERAL sets of tires!

I hear nothing but good things about the Hankook MT. Just seems to perform well in every comparison test, though I don't personally know anyone who has run a set.

Discount Tire sells Pro Comp, so the MT2 might be worth a look. I hear they can be loud, but I'm not sure if that is a major concern.

I don't think it's an option through Discount, but I'm interested in seeing someone with the DC Fun Country (the brand new design). Looks like a commercial traction tire like the Goodyear Duratrac and Cooper ST Maxx, and they have the 37x12.50R17 size.

Link: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... mpare1=yes

I'm kinda reluctant to go with Dick Cepek tires, I had a set of their mud terrains and they wore quickly and very unevenly! Those were the mud terrains though so, maybe these more all terrain oriented tires may wear better? I ended up opting for some Nitto Trail Grapplers, should be here in a couple weeks. I hope they will be the new design! (37x12.50R17)