A question for the experienced. With the purchase of the JK, I decided to go with a steel wheel, Cragar Soft 8's 16x8. Along with the wheels, I went with the Goodyear MTR's. The tires came into the shop well before the wheels, so the tire shop installed them on my stock 16" rims. No problems, felt great and didn't notice much difference than the stock tires on the road, and they were great off-road.

Here is my problem. As soon as the wheels came in, they mounted the tires onto the wheels and I immediately noticed a wobbling or shimmy at about 45mph. With the doors off, I can hear that it is uneven. I mentioned this to the tire shop and they said that the tire needed to settle. I gave it time, took it back and had them rebalance and rotate the tires. They said they even noticed some cupping on the tires (after only 2000 miles). Wobbling is still there. In addition, I noticed my MPG go down with the new wheels (not tires, as I had them mounted on my stock rims with no problems).

Any experience or help would be appreciated. I want to know if I have a leg to stand on with the tire shop. Or if there may be similar experiences with the Cragar Soft 8's not being balanced. Thanks.

 

Cupping can be caused by an unbalanced tire condition, faulty wheel bearings, loose parts, fatigued springs or weak shock absorbers. Check the condition of the shock by forcefully bouncing the front end of the car several times and releasing it on the down stroke. Failure of the vehicle to settle after two strokes suggests worn shocks or struts.

Not sure why your mpg would go down, if you are running the proper air pressure.

 

I take it that you are not running any form of a lift kit? Did they dynamically balance the tire and wheel combination? Where they apply tire weights to the inner and outer flanges of the rim? Initially, my 4x4 shop only statically balanced my tires and rims. Where they applied weights only to the inner flange of the rim (for looks). My Jeep had the shakes so bad my teeth were rattling between 40 and 45 mph. I took it back and had them dynamically balance the tires. It cured my problem and I am running Rock Crawlers steel rims.

Let us know what you find out?

Here is a link from Discount tire on the subject.

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/inf...yKJzrthm2bKT19

 

A 32" tire should be easily balanced. What shop did you take it to in Tucson? PM me the information if you not comfortable placing it in the thread?

 

I'll vote on balance. The stories some folks'll tell you to get out of work. Houses settle, vehicles'll shake the stones from your kidneys and ruin your tires if they aren't balanced correctly.

Be firm with those guys.

 

Thanks for the responses. Here are answers to your questions:

- No lift.
- I believe they did dynamically balance the tires. There are weights on the inside as well as the outside.
- reputable tire shop - Discount Tire
- Should not be any wear on the shocks, springs or struts...Jeep had 450 miles on it when I had them installed.

I am leaning toward one of the rims not being balanced correctly. I have been told there are more possible flaws with a steel rim as opposed to a machined aluminum. If necessary, I will see if they can determine which wheel is out of round or balance and have them send it back. As for the tires, if they are cupped to the point that they won't wear even, I will have them replace them as well.

Thanks again for the responses. Any more input would be appreciated.

 

I had a bent american racing steel wheel a few years ago. It drove me crazy for about a month before I sent it back and got a replacement. I had a death wobble at about 55mph with it. New wheel and it went away. I tried every thing (rebalance, wheel bearing, steering stabilizer, alignment, bushings, different tire, shocks) before the auto parts store I got it from admitted it might be a bad wheel from the start.

 

My tire shop uses the flat stick on patches of weights on the inside flat radius of the rim. No weights on either lip. Nice and clean. I told them to be extra careful with the balancing, so they ran them twice and wrote FRONT on the inside of to of the tires for me. They said those two matched the best. No problems. The particular brand of tire I was running (on my son's Jeep)I heard was hard to balance too.

 

you know, i have Cragar Soft 8's 17x8, with 33's, and i had the same tires on other rig with stock aluminum wheels, and not problems at all... but on the JK with the steelies, mad vibration at about 40 to 50 mph, everything before or after that is fine. but during that, especially around 45, death rattle! i've had my front end aligned a bunch of times and tires balanced a bunch... so how can a tire shop decide which wheel is bad? do they have to unmount the tires first?

 

My wobble begins at about 45-50 and is so bad that the manual stick starts shaking back and forth. The more I read, the more I am convinced it is a bad wheel. Will be going back to the shop on Monday.