have you had a shop doa "Road Force" balance yet? The dealer will pay for it.

what it does is balance the tires right on the truck and it uses a very sensitive computer and it will know if that bump is from a tire or a bad shock for instance. The computer will even let the tech know if the tire needs to be rotated 180 degrees on the rim.

good luck.

I have the BFG Long Trails on my truck and they are great. smooth as glass and they are very good in the messy stuff.

 

Yes, I had them checked at the Dealer with the Road Force Balance machine. I did a lot of research on the net about that balancer. Even as sophisticated as it is, it can't detect every defect.

Last time at the dealer, the tire guy drove the truck and said that he could also feel what I was talking about. At my request, he took the spare tire off the rim and remounted it on the rim for the front left.

The vibration changed and feels like it's coming from the right side, now. I had already had the spare on the front right, but the vibs were still there. I'm suspecting that I actually have two bad tires.

One other thing I find strange with this truck is that you can't take your eyes off the road for a second, otherwise it will be near the other lane. Hard to explain, but with all my other vehicles, this is not a concern. Maybe I'm not used to the way a Ford drives, I don't know. I did relay that info to the dealer.

As I type this, I'm wondering more and more if there may just be a front end problem, something loose, that's causing the problem.

As you all can probably tell, this has me very confused and frustrated. And with my work schedule, it makes it difficult to be able to take the truck back and leave it with them for a day.

BTW, went by the dealer today, but the service dept. was closed for the holiday. Don't blame them, though, for wanting their people to be able to enjoy the holiday. I'm going there bright and early on Saturday and see if we can't get something done. Another day off wasted at the dealership.

 

Your tires should be 265x70x17,not 275x60x17. Are you sure about the size? I have the Michelin LTX MS in 265x70x 17 and they are excellent. This is my second set and they are smooth and quite and provide very good traction. Do you have any Discount Tire stores in your area? They will take the other tires in on trade.

 

when my truck was new it had a similar problem as yours and no matter what the dealers did (3) they couldn't get rid of the vibration and they wouldn't replace my tires. So I decided I would live with it. At the last dealer I went to they found that my Idler arm was bad. That helped a lot and apperently it is very common. I bought my set of Long Trails and it has been smooth as glass ever since!

It is your alignment that causes your truck to wander. Your dealer needs to adjust the front end 1-2 degrees off of 0 and that should do it.

good luck and I hope you get it straight!

 

In your post you said that you have friends with the same type of truck. Why not switch front tires with them and see if they get your problem and you get their smooth ride? That might eliminate the tires as the problem.

 

Thanks for the tips, guys. To answer a couple questions: Yes, the tire size is 275/60R17. I've not heard of Discount Tire in the Atlanta, Ga, area, but I'll check and keep that in mind.

The friend with the identical truck (except he has the 5.4L) is a work friend. I'll ask and see what he says. In the meantime, I'll have the dealer check the idler arm and have the alignment checked. Do you remember what exactly was bad on the idler?

You said "one or two degrees from zero", can you elaborate on that adjustment? Do you mean the toe in/out? If so, which way?

Once again, thanks for the help. Maybe with this new info, the dealer can figure out what's wrong.

Merry X-Mas.

 

Left the truck at my long time tire dealer near work for them to check out the front end. Told them about the idler arm defect that another member here mentioned.

Anyway, they checked it all out and all the parts were good. Here are the alignment numbers he found.


Left Right
Camber -0.4 -0.8
Caster 7.4 7.5
Toe .22 .22

Total Toe .44

I don't know what the specs are supposed to be, but the alignment guy said that the Camber is Low. Of course, to correct this, the new bolts have to be installed.

Are these numbers out enough that I should really press it with the Dealer?

Thanks.

 

Some good tire reviews here: http://www.1010tires.com/tirereviews.asp

The reviews on the Michelin Cross terrian are all good. Did you have the front end alignment checked?

I have had experiences with dealers where they say it was taken care of, but you can see they never toucked it.

 

I am not an expert on alignments but i do know that these trucks tend to wander on the highway because their stock alignment numbers on the IFS keep the tires very straight, in reality they should be out just a few degrees like this \ / i don't which that is toe, camber, or caster. i learned this from a ford front end tech.

good luck

 

if you dial in toe-out, your truck will tend to wander around. most vehicles have a modest amount of toe-in. toe-out give you faster steering response and is sometimes used by people who autocross. (certainly not in a F150). negative camber means the tops of the tires are closer to the center of the vehicle than the bottoms. again, slight negative camber is usually a good thing because it improves handling. too much negative camber will obviously give you some tire wear problems. the insides of the tires will wear out before the outsides. again, negative camber is used by racers because it keeps the surface of the tire flatter on the pavement as the vehicle leans in sharp cornering. i'm not sure of the effects of caster. any front-end mechanics out there?

 

in order for you to pursue the lemon law, the pickup has to be out of service for 40 business days. or in the shop more than 3 or 4 times for the same problem. make sure all your visits are documented, i tried this on my ranger that was in the shop for a big proble, but they couldnt figure out what the problem was. I hope this helps.

 

i forgot to say that i just decided to trade it off for this 01 F-150..i downgraded a year, but im totally satisfied.

 

Well, after the dealer did everything from putting a camber kit in, doing a Road Force Balance 4 times, they finally fixed the problem. Finally, they replaced the damn tire!! Somthing I've been trying to get them to do all along.

Would you believe they went through 6 new tires to find one that would come out good on the Road Force Balancer?

Well, now my truck tires don't go tramping down the road.

In all of this, would you believe they also gave me a rental car on two different occassions? They spent more on these than it would have cost for the tire in the first place.

Also, two tire shops refused to replace it under warranty. When these tires wear out, I'm switching brands, that's for sure.

 

Glad to hear it!

I went through all the same stuff as you except I eventually gave up and figured it was the tire. When I bought my BFG Long Trails I thought to myself if the truck still shakes I will take it back in. Well new tires on and no more vibration! That was 15k ago.