Out of Round METHOD Wheels.

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

Pacific Wheel

Supporting Vendor
Supporting Vendor
Joined
May 19, 2016
Posts
2,972
Reaction score
2,431
Location
Reno, NV
It could be the tires. We’ve never had good luck with Mickey’s or Goodyears. Back when we sold tires we actually had to stop shipping Goodyear and Mickeys due to ride complaints. We were losing our as* on shipping back and forth.
 

smurfslayer

Be vewwy, vewwy quiet. We’re hunting sasquatch77
Joined
Dec 16, 2016
Posts
17,573
Reaction score
27,071
Ordered 20” method wheels (305s) and am running 37/12.5 MTs. When my tire guy went to balance them after installing a front lift, he told me that three out of the four wheels are out of round. I was noticing vibration at highway speeds prior to this, and thought it was just a balance issue. But he is saying that Three of the four wheels are not perfectly round.

Suspension vibration, oscillating steering wheel, or both are absolutely miserable to troubleshoot. I highlighted the variables in your problem via different colors above.

You have:
wheels
tires
front lift
prior occurring vibration

Because you have multiple variables, stacked on top of a pre-existing condition, resolving this problem will be akin to shooting in the dark without a light.

The only way to properly diagnose this is to eliminate the variables 1 x 1 until you resolve the problem. You now have a worse vibration. My suggestion would be to find a local FRF with a known good set of wheels / tires and swap them for a test drive on your truck. If the vibration goes away, you can eliminate the lift as a potential contributor. If the vibration continues, however, then you have something else wrong.

The vibration before all the work needs clarification. Did you have the vibration before the lift? Before the tires? Before the wheels? or did you change multiple things at one time?

The most likely cause of the vibration would be the tires and balance. Were they road force balanced? When you look at the wheels on the Raptor from the factory, you will find often pound of weights and sometimes more in order to get that ‘perfectly smooth’ ride. I’ve never seen a tire shop use that much weight even with R/F balancing and if I’m honest, nothing has compared to factory balancing to me. Certainly not my stealership service dept. Discount tire got me very close and it’s smoothed out almost entirely but it’s not factory. I have to really try to discern it, but there’s an ever so slight vibe present and I do mean ever so slight. More than 99% of the time, you don’t even know it’s there, but as delivered from the factory, the ride was 100% smooth, all the time, every time, regardless of road condition.

Since you have differing opinions on the wheels, you will likely need the runout measured. No two wheels are identical or perfect, but if they’re within the manufacturer’s spec, you won’t notice or appreciate any of that difference. If your wheels pass the runout measurements (plural), then you can safely move on to something else as the culprit.

Lastly, NEVER modify on top of an existing problem or situations like this are the result.
 

Rockfire

Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2022
Posts
5
Reaction score
3
Location
Idaho Springs, CO
Took to discount. They removed tires like you mentioned and apparently didn’t find anything wrong. Rebalanced and mounted. On way home my truck vibrating worse than it did before when another shop installed.
I like Discount tire and all, but the guys they have working there do not know much. They hire anyone out of high school. I’ve fought and won many cases with discount, you have to talk to the manager then his manager, all the way into corporate. You can even start a claim with them.
 

New recaros

FRF Addict
Joined
May 23, 2019
Posts
2,899
Reaction score
4,581
Location
Colorado
I like Discount tire and all, but the guys they have working there do not know much. They hire anyone out of high school. I’ve fought and won many cases with discount, you have to talk to the manager then his manager, all the way into corporate. You can even start a claim with them.
They scratched all four rims when installing snow tires. No hassle at all, they gave me a choice of new stock or aftermarket wheels. I screwed up and got stock wheels. But, they were great to work with. They have gotten all my business since.
 

scpete24

Full Access Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2022
Posts
156
Reaction score
123
Location
SoCal
Sucks you’re having to deal with this but first mistake is going with a 20” wheel with 37’s. Main reason for 37” is more rubber less wheel. I doubt 3 of 4 are out of round that seems excessive especially for methods…
 

Nibbl3s

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2017
Posts
240
Reaction score
143
Mickey Thompson Baja Boss AT 37/12.5
I will never buy another day of Mickey Thomson. Had the atz and the would never balance right

A thing I noticed with my ridge grapplers is that they had to break in for a nice ride
 

Nibbl3s

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2017
Posts
240
Reaction score
143
In other words you finally got used to how ****** they rode. :p
No. It was a road trip. They drove in the beginning like absolute shit. About 200 miles in there was a noticeable difference and they have been fine since. I was so close to returning them too
 
Top