vibes at 80+ mph, are my expectations off? Tire balance question

[jjstahl3]

I was getting vibration at 65 in my land cruiser thought it was the tires - had them rebalanced no change - thought it was the front drive shaft had that rebalanced no change pulled the rear shaft and the vibration was gone - had the rear shaft fixed new u joints new slip yolk etc and smooth as butter now - I would pull a drive shaft and see if thats the source

 

[off-roader]

Are all the weights still there on the wheels? I've found the new ones fall off easily.

Just a WAG, but alternatively it could be you need a dynamic balance. Supposed to address potential imbalances with things in your drive train. A shop near me does it this way for 2WD vehicles by putting them on a device that spins the tire while on the axle.

 

[mapper]

Going to go a bit against the grain and actually suggest selling the truck. While it is perfectly capable of 80mph+ it's really not a vehicle best suited to the job as you already know. Plus "pretty much useless to me as I have a nice commuter car for the in town stuff, and two other good travel vehicles". From that I am assuming the Montero is a 4th vehicle. That's too many in my opinion. 1 commuter and 1 4wd/fun rig is plenty enough work/money pit. I would sell the Montero and your other least favorite.

Yep, but I can't seem to quit while I'm ahead. In front sway bar link hell right now. Weren't even bad but it was one simple thing I decided to replace because it usually is easy. Now I've got the whole front end disassembled. Had to cut the upper link off and lower link inner sleeve just isn't coming off...at all. got it cut all the way down to the sleeve, torch time tomorrow.

 

[PirateMcGee]

Well after that.......

just try to keep in mind the sunk cost fallacy

 

[mapper]

Lower link sleeve successfully removed! Still waiting on all parts to arrive and getting things cleaned up. By the time this "brake" job is done the Montero will have new pads, rotors, guide pins, guide pin boots, sway bar links & bushings, shocks and CV boots. This based on decisions I made "while I was in there". Guide pins were an awful, awful sticky mess...I hate when those get neglected.

Pirate you speak true words and I totally agree. Glad you are following along. It is absurd for me to have 4 cars at the moment and I'm the first to admit it. Generally speaking I like to keep life pretty simple and I'm just working out what works best for me at this point in life...I'm much more "planted" than ever before. Big Leopold fan too, btw. Keep that "green fire" alive. I get out to hike for an hour or two every day, partially why my other projects move slow. Got to get out though.

I'm definitely getting rid of 1 to 2 cars. That much I knew from the beginning. I'm trying the Montero out as a way to downsize from my Astro, and gain some capability. However, GF and I have 3 dogs between us and our trips, especially with mt. bikes, get cramped quickly. Comes down to a decision of sleeping inside or out. Outside is great...except in winter...or in Oregon, where I used to live. Utah exploring changes things a little. Montero was a whim purchase, bought it for next to nothing knowing it would need love and I'd really like to get the thing running and rolling proper before making any firm decisions about which works best.

IF the montero gets sold someone will be getting a very well sorted truck that should provide many happy miles...and honestly, that's how I like to sell them...better than I found them.

 

[PirateMcGee]

Pirate you speak true words and I totally agree. Glad you are following along. It is absurd for me to have 4 cars at the moment and I'm the first to admit it. Generally speaking I like to keep life pretty simple and I'm just working out what works best for me at this point in life...I'm much more "planted" than ever before. Big Leopold fan too, btw. Keep that "green fire" alive. I get out to hike for an hour or two every day, partially why my other projects move slow. Got to get out though.

I'm definitely getting rid of 1 to 2 cars. That much I knew from the beginning. I'm trying the Montero out as a way to downsize from my Astro, and gain some capability. However, GF and I have 3 dogs between us and our trips, especially with mt. bikes, get cramped quickly. Comes down to a decision of sleeping inside or out. Outside is great...except in winter...or in Oregon, where I used to live. Utah exploring changes things a little. Montero was a whim purchase, bought it for next to nothing knowing it would need love and I'd really like to get the thing running and rolling proper before making any firm decisions about which works best.

IF the montero gets sold someone will be getting a very well sorted truck that should provide many happy miles...and honestly, that's how I like to sell them...better than I found them.

I know how it goes, at one time I had 3 cars and it was crazy how much time I had to spend wrenching and money on parts. I would much rather be out hiking than working on a car. Much better now with just 1 car, a tiny trail motorcycle, and a bicycle. I know what you mean about the dogs + GF + bikes. We have two dogs, two mountain bikes and too much gear haha. Quickly adds up and makes for a cramped space.

I would suggest getting or making a camp kitchen (I have the REI Pack N Prep which is awesome but discontinued so find something similar) and getting a few compression duffel bags for clothing, tent, sleeping stuff. Helped immensely with being cramped. I would also suggest getting a BIG tent. It makes a huge difference in comfort and the fun level when you can set up a queen sized sleeping area and still have tons of room to move around, change, play games, eat etc. We got a this tent: http://www.rei.com/product/779625/big-agnes-flying-diamond-6-tent and now have fun regardless of the weather (I used to live in OR).

 

[jeep-N-montero]

Lower link sleeve successfully removed! Still waiting on all parts to arrive and getting things cleaned up. By the time this "brake" job is done the Montero will have new pads, rotors, guide pins, guide pin boots, sway bar links & bushings, shocks and CV boots. This based on decisions I made "while I was in there". Guide pins were an awful, awful sticky mess...I hate when those get neglected.

Pirate you speak true words and I totally agree. Glad you are following along. It is absurd for me to have 4 cars at the moment and I'm the first to admit it. Generally speaking I like to keep life pretty simple and I'm just working out what works best for me at this point in life...I'm much more "planted" than ever before. Big Leopold fan too, btw. Keep that "green fire" alive. I get out to hike for an hour or two every day, partially why my other projects move slow. Got to get out though.

I'm definitely getting rid of 1 to 2 cars. That much I knew from the beginning. I'm trying the Montero out as a way to downsize from my Astro, and gain some capability. However, GF and I have 3 dogs between us and our trips, especially with mt. bikes, get cramped quickly. Comes down to a decision of sleeping inside or out. Outside is great...except in winter...or in Oregon, where I used to live. Utah exploring changes things a little. Montero was a whim purchase, bought it for next to nothing knowing it would need love and I'd really like to get the thing running and rolling proper before making any firm decisions about which works best.

IF the montero gets sold someone will be getting a very well sorted truck that should provide many happy miles...and honestly, that's how I like to sell them...better than I found them.

I know the feeling, we own 5 cars with 4 of them being modified.

 

[mapper]

The vibration issue is SOLVED! :wings:

It was a bad tire, the one that previously had a ton of weights on it and I had suspected might be bad.

Despite the fact that I bought the set of tires USED from another guy, Discount attempted to warranty the full set through Hankook. The tires were still very new and "ride complaints" on Hankook tires are warranted for the first 2/32nds. These tires have 17/32nds new. Mine were at 14/32 up front and 13/32 in the rear. The tire I suspected[ to be bad was one of the rears. Discount tried to make things right. Hankook was about to "good will" warranty the tires BUT then copped out on account of 31x10.5x15 not being the "correct application" for the Montero. Frankly pretty lame in my opinion, as that is basically a tire size that exists almost entirely as an upgrade. But whatever.

In the end Hankook gave "good will" 50% of the value of the tires. I decided to buy two new rear tires. It cost me $200 to get the pair installed, which obviously isn't terrible. Especially considering my ride is now SMOOTH all the way up to 90 MPH. Not that I want to drive the thing regularly at 90 but now those trips down south on I-15 or west on I-80 I can drive the posted speed limit (80) if I want.

So, to answer the question(s) I posed at the beginning of the thread:

Is a Gen2/2.5 Montero capable of high speeds without significant vibration? YES.
Is a 31x10.5x15 LT tire capable of higher speeds? YES. Although this was basically answered already.
:bowdown:

Finally, while Discount ultimately stepped up to the plate for me it was VERY frustrating that they weren't able to identify the tire as bad through attempts to "road force" balance it. On my last 2 return trips I specifically said asked them to "Please check and make sure there isn't a bad tire, remember I bought these used and one could definitely be bad". They, multiple times, assured me it wasn't a bad tire. Well....it was. :elkgrin:

 

[Clem]

Glad you solved the riddle...:clapsmile

And thanks for following your post to the end (sometimes posts just end without resolution and it can be frustrating when trying to find answers to questions).

Clem

 

[Jay Ayala]

I wonder what kind of defect the tire had that could have caused this???


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[PirateMcGee]

Great now that it's sorted I'm happy to take it off your hands haha

 

[mapper]

I wonder what kind of defect the tire had that could have caused this???

I think bdog nailed it when he said something along the lines of "you can balance an egg shaped tire but that doesn't mean it will ride well". bdog also suggested I check runout on the tires by jacking it up just until the tires are leaving the ground and rotating them to see how evenly they scrape the ground.

I did a post on this in my "build" thread and I'll copy it here so you can see what I found. Essentially one of my rear tires did not seem to be as perfectly round as the other three.

 

[mapper]

At the suggestion of a fellow member I checked the runout on all 4 tires when I put the car on stands for the brake work. One tire definitely was dragging irregularly for about 90 degrees of rotation. This is the same tire the shop has some difficulty balancing, so it may be the cause, or another player in my high speed vibration issue. I took some pics to, hopefully, help illustrate:

This is how the "suspect" tire touched the ground for most of it's rotation. Note the scrape marks from the ground.
View attachment 223070
And this is a shot of the larger area that scraped the ground for about 90 degrees of rotation. The other 3 tires did not have irregular spots like this
View attachment 223071

As to what exactly caused the tire to be this way...I have no idea.

The guy I bought them from was "upgrading" to 33x10.5x15 BFGs on his 60 series Land Cruiser. I suspect part of the reason he was upgrading, despite having such new tires, was that he was having the same issue.

 

[mapper]

Great now that it's sorted I'm happy to take it off your hands haha

I've done a few more things to the truck this last weekend to clean it up. Plasti dip on front bumper corners (just wanted to try it out in black), and much needed washing and quick hand polish of the paint. Haven't had time to post up pics yet, but it is looking very nice. Next on the list is to really clean-up the interior and get a good platform in back. It will be a nice ride for someone when I get around to selling. Will probably hang on to it at least to next spring. At the moment my GF is driving it, and loving it! She broke her shoulder biking last week and can't, as safely, drive her manual transmission. Now I can get more serious about selling the Volvo as she was driving that.

Well, crap. I can't say all that without adding a quick phone pic. Check my build thread later for more.
View attachment 225947

edit: to see if it fixes attachment. No dice, see next post.

 

[Clem]

Well, crap. I can't say all that without adding a quick phone pic. Check my build thread later for more.
View attachment 225947

Attachment is not working...Looking forward to seeing the old girl all cleaned up.

Clem