Just bought my first Ford product, 2003 Screw Lariat with the 4.6L with tow package. It has the BFG P275/60R17 Long Trail T/A tires. I'm experiencing a nuisance bumping, even on brand new, smooth roads. Had it into the Dealer and they did the typical 'Balance & Runout' checks and found nothing.

I don't think it's my imagination. I DO realize that a truck, with the stiff suspension, is going to 'bump' when you hit bumps, but this is just a constant bumping that I can feel coming from the front tires.

The Dealer says it's normal, but I've rode in some friends identical trucks and they don't do it.

To avoid the hassle of having to keep taking the truck in and having to make alternate transportation plans, I'm thinking of just replacing the tires myself. I know, I shouldn't have to, but just having a smooth riding truck ASAP is my goal.

Anyway, which tire brand, etc, do you guys recommend for the best ride? I don't haul heavy stuff, but I do tow a trailer once a month or so.

Or, if you guys are having good luck with these type tires, maybe I could just buy two for the front.

FWIW, the truck doesn't 'pull' left or right.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Dave DeWinter

 

Sup Thumpernator...
I have some 285/75/18 Toyo Proxes on my SCrew.
Extremely smooth ride. Great handling. Can take a good load.
You don't say anything about 4x4, as mine IS. Still, had it out on some mountain gravel roads...handled flawlessly.

They also have a Toyo Proxes AT tire. almost went w/ a few weeks ago. but decided on the same proxes.

Hope this helps...
Check out gallery for looks...

Late

 

Try adjusting the tire pressure between 30 and 35psi, to find a speet spot, and/or vary the tire pressure between front and rear tires. These experiments are alot cheaper than switching tires or getting new shocks.

 

You might check the tire pressure as sagittarius suggested. I love my dealer, but they have a tendency to WAY overdo the pressure whenever I take it in. I have found as much as 55 pounds in all four tires. Wal Mart does this too for some reason, maybe to make up for lack of maintenance by some owners?? Anywho, I would check the pressure and set it to what it says on the door label first, this has given me a real decent ride. It does cut down on the handling a little, so I may bump it up a few pounds to correct it. Good luck!,,,,98

 

Sticker says to inflate to 30/front and 32/rear, which is what I have in them.

Since that is for GW, I think I'll try lowering the rear to 30 and see how that does.

Anyone see anything wrong with lowering the front a pound or two?

Of course, if I plan to load some significant weight in the bed, I'll raise the PSI back up to 32.

BTW, thanks everyone for the warm welcome to this great group.

 

my truck used to ride like crap until I put long trails on it. now it rides great. my sticker says 35/35 front/rear I also changed out my heavy duty shocks for rancho 9000's

those tires should have a separate warranty and you should be able to take them to a tire dealer (Not a car dealer) and have them replaced.

your truck is very new and the suspension is very tight and you have the heavy duty shocks with the tow package that make it ride rough.

put the spare on the passanger side front and see if that fixes it if not move it to the drivers side if not it is not your tires.

ask the dealer to let you test drive a similar new truck to see if it does the same thing.

 

My Long Trails do just great! I specifically bought them because I have loved them on every truck I have owned. I am running the same size as you as well. Sorry to hear you are having problems with them, but it sounds like you can not 100% pin point that they are the problem. Let us know what you find out though!

-Brian

 

Thanks for the ideas, guys. I've been wanting to swap the spare with the front right, but with all the rain we've had, I haven't had a chance to do it.

I'm taking the truck to a tire dealer who I've been dealing with for the last 20 years or so. I'm sure they'll either honor the warranty and swap it out, or, at least swap the spare around. Damn rain and work keep getting in the way of doing it myself.

I'll let ya'll know what happens.

 

I'm a happy camper, now. Took the Screw to my long time tire shop and they swaped the spare with the right front. No difference, still felt 'something' that shouldn't be there. Could have sworn it was from the right front, but ya know how sound and vibration travels.

Anyway, took it back and decided to have THEM recheck the balance.

They swaped the tires back and checked the balance. The fronts were balanced ok. The rear, however, were way out of balance. And this is after the Dealer had already checked the balance on two occassions.

Well, now it rides like it should ride, and I'm a happy first time Ford owner.

 

Sweet! Glad you found the problem!! I had my truck acting up with the old tires and shocks. I had bought the wheels and tires used, and ran them for a year without balancing or rotating. It started to ride badly, follow grooves in the road, shimmy over 60mph, bottom out on the slightest bumps, etc.. etc... I replaced the shocks, and it got a little better. It still followed grooves and shimmied bad though. Finally I got off my butt and had the tires balanced and rotated, and bam, instant new truck. A couple of weeks later I got new tires, and all was cured. I can't believe I let it get as bad as I did. You never really notice it yourself when you drive it every day, it sneaks up on you.,,,,98

 

Great news!

I would bet big bucks that your dealer never even tried to re-balnce the rear tires!

I don't know about your dealer but my old dealer used tire jockeys to put tires on even after a mechanic would do a brake job they would have a jockey put the tires back on. One time after I got my rear rotors turned the jockey put the rims and lugs on but never tightend them! My center caps kept my wheels from falling off at 80mph! I was cruising along a jersey wall with the wondow open and i could here a loud clicking from the rear of the truck.

I pulled over and saw my center caps were ****eyed so I tried to push them on all the way, couldn't so I took them off and 2 sheared of studs fell on the ground! I tightened what I could and drove it to the closest dealer, they wouldn't touch it said it was the other dealers fault and they needed to fix it!! (And this dealer was blue oval certified)

I got it to my dealer and they acted like it was no big deal, I asked for the owner of the dealer and when I met him I cussed him out! I told him that if my kids were in the truck and something happened...

sorry for the long rant, I am so sick of poor management.

check you lug nuts! And hopefully your rotors won't warp in the next month because of improper lug tightening.

 

Unfortunately that's everywhere. The guy who put my tires on tried to get away with just snugging them with an impact wrench. I let him get two of the center caps on before I confronted him. "You going to torque those?" I asked, not in a mean or spiteful tone. He kind of ****ed his head to one side, and headed for the torque wrench. He didn't say a word in protest, which was a good thing,,,,98

 

I think I'll take the Invoice from my tire guy to the Dealer and see what they have to say about it. Should be interesting.

On another note, I know it's not much, but I did start a photo gallery a few minutes ago. Hell, it's all stock (so far), so it's not much to look at. Mainly just trying to see how the Gallery works.

https://www.f150online.com/galleries....cfm?gnum=2041

 

Well, Guys, I spoke too soon. I thought my problem had gone away, but it hasn't.

I've had the spare tire on both the front left and right. This is a little hard for me to explain, so bear with me. The vibration I'm feeling feels like it switches sides (front) when I go with the spare on either of the front positions.

What are the odds that my truck just happened to get a batch of bad tires? I've read where others with the same tires are really happy with them.

I've not had any luck in getting any tire dealer to change the tires out. They say that if they can't 'see' anything wrong, and they balance, that they can't replace them.

I'm almost tempted to just go out and buy a new set of Michelins and trashing these BFGs. It's frustrating to have spent over 30k for a truck that isn't perfect.

I'm going back to the Dealer tomorrow to talk with the owner. Maybe he'll do something. I'm also going to test drive a like truck with the same tires, as someone else suggested. Just haven't had the time off from work to be able to really pursue this as aggressively as I would like to do.

Bad part about that is that the tires on these new trucks have not broken in yet. According to the Tire Rack, they say it takes around 500 miles to get them broken in. I've got 1800 miles on the truck now. And very few of those miles have been enjoyable.

Sorry for the long rant, but I've been pulling my hair out, what's left of it, trying to figure this out.

Anyway, if I can get the Dealer to swap out the tires for Michelins, which ones would you guys recommend for 100% highway driving, carrying very little weight in the bed?

 

I just did some checking around and the only Michelins I could find in the 275/60's were Cross Terrains, and they're pretty high dollar tires. Good luck!!,,,,98