Getting upset with KO2’s

So I’ve had the new BF Goodrich KO2’s on the 4runner for about 6 months now, was coming back home yesterday from some desert cruising and dammit the shaking was the worse it’s been, to the point I’m feeling it in the steering wheel now.

I’m going ASAP to the shop now for the 4th Time to have them balanced, checked again. Last week I emailed BF Goodrich and still haven’t gotten a response. It’s been a problem since they went on the truck.

The only thing I haven’t done is had the road force balanced, Pep boys doesn’t have that machine.

I’m looking at different tires now, a 31 or 33 10X50 for more clearance and hopefully a Better balancing tire. I’m just getting upset that $800 in tires and I can’t get this issue resolved.

Anything I’m missing on what could be wrong ? Prior to these my 4Runner never had a single issue with stock tires and tracked straight as an arrow.

 

I have problems with weights coming off the wheels occasionally.

I might suggest a different tire shop. I had my Toyos installed at an off-road shop and they were fine. After losing weights, I had them rebalanced at Discount tire, and they wobbled. I took them back to the original place and it's perfect again. It seems that the kids at the tire places have trouble with big tires.

 

I agree this could be the issue. Up in chi town, I used the same shop after finding issues at my closest one. It was worth the extra 15 mi trip to use a shop that had experience mounting larger tires.

 

Discount road force balances, I’ve never had an issue with mine. I would not buy tires from a shop that does not road force balance their tires.

 

Thanks guys. I’m taking it to the same Mexican shop I did last time, may sound funny and I was a little worried, this stems from Pep boys just not getting it. The dude was already a few beers into the morning but dammit all to hell he did a good job ! It WAS the best job so far, it still had a very slight shake but was completely liveable. I think maybe I lost a wheel weight we shall see.

So I’m going to try him again, hit the freeway and if it isn’t completely gone then I’m going over to Discount Tire.

I’m not a big fan of Discount, they screwed my wife over and did another job for me a few years ago that turned into a fight over a tire that was bad in the end, they didn’t want to admit it. I’ll never understand why it had to get to so shitty.

But they do have the road force machine. I really think I may have a bad KO2 here and it frustrates me nobody wants to really deal with it.

 

What pressure are you guys running ? Pep boys sent me off the lot at 50psi ! Way over pressured, my door sticker says 26-27psi cold, which is to low for these. I’ve been running exactly with the digital pressure gauge 32psi

these are LT235/75R15/104/101S

 

Sometimes a belt can let go on heavy tires and not be visible to external inspection. It would certainly make a tire hard to balance if that happened. You don’t see that happening much on smooth roads, but back in the day on rough far northern roads in Canada, it was fairly common. If the tire had a defect it could happen as well.

 

If you have aftermarket rims and they are not hub centric, that could be your issue. A few years ago I bought steel rims and winter tires from a Big Box tire store. The balance lasted only a few days at the most. So after three weeks of back and forth, I wanted a new set of tires. That’s when they discovered they had installed the tires on lug centric rims. After they installed them on hub centric rims, the balance problem went away.

 

It was the rims, bought all new from 4 wheel parts, they never mentioned anything about centric deal justthemechanic. I’m going to research that after this post. Had a new guy at the shop, he jacked up the 4Runner and removed all the lug nuts then we pulled the tires and wheeled them into the shop.

He puts the first one on the machine and starts the balance process, I’m standing out at the curb having a smoke. He comes out and says something wrong with this wheel, it won’t balance, has it marked with chalk between the area. My Spanish isn’t super fluent, we agree ok it will be the spare.

He puts the second on the machine, a few minutes later, same fricking thing......I’m like are you kidding ??? He says no Hefe ! I’m like OK we’re 2 outa 5 are bad ? He smiles yesssss this one no good.

I made the quick decision, put them back on the truck, let me go get my factory rims.

I come home, load up the factory rims, go back and he starts the process of switching all the tires to my original factory rims (really glad I kept them). 20 minutes later, he never says a word while balancing them. Comes out and I’m like are we good ? Yessss hefe no problem these are good.

$120 later, I tell him I’m hitting the freeway and will be back if there’s an issue.

Nope, truck is back to normal, no shaking and tracks true. Fricking bummer I’m out $360 on rims and labor to put my old ones back on.

I don’t know but I’m disappointed with 4 wheel parts, I can’t return these and with they’re experience I think they’d have know if there was going to be an issue.

So just quickly, what does the centric mean ? Does the face of the rim where it connects to the hub have to be perfectly flat ?

Sorry for the long post, just telling it like it is.

 

so here she is, I already miss my black rims.

 

I had a little of the shake at 60, with the Bridgestones that came with the truck on the stock ORP Wheels. Since I switched to the TRD Pro wheels and Toyo AT3s in the stock size, the truck rides smooth as glass. No shaking whatsoever. I had all the work done at my local DT.

 

Nice ! good looking 4Runner.

I’m a bit gun shy at the immediate moment but I like the black rims look on mine. I’ll keep those in mind because no doubt I’ll be shopping to replace the rims at least.

 

So glad everything worked out OP!!

Yesterday I ordered the KO2s, wheels, and new shocks - too many variables for my liking that something will go wrong making it difficult to pinpoint the root cause

Seen this now I'm going to hold on replacing the rims and keep the factory ones

 

As soon as you mentioned 4 wheel parts, I knew there'd be trouble. I hate that store.

 

Snicker Fritz, I’ve been in and out this morning but for all intensive purposes the rims fit the truck, Hubs perfect, the center hole was perfect fitting both the front and rear hubs. But I did notice there was a slightly raised circle/radius on the inside-around the circle of the outside of the lug nut pattern. So maybe that’s what it was.

I never noticed that till just now and it makes sense that the hub to rim fit it’s Slightly elevated off the hub.......I’m always learning and talking here is helping realize what was wrong.

It was weird, I had that epiphany moment while we were loading these on a kids truck that bought the 5 rims, I explained the deal with my truck and he swears they will fit his Chevy, gave them to him for a $100 bucks. As I was holding one rim waiting to pass it up to him on the bed of the truck, I saw that slight raised edge...still I think 4WP guy should have known, I can’t be the only one...who knows but lessened learned.

I guess I’ll start shopping around, much more educated now so Thanks everyone for chiming in.

Also the KO2 sidewall says Maximum Cold Air Pressure 50psi, says the same thing on the website. That’s where I’m at right now, it makes for a pretty stiff ride. I was running them at 32psi exactly and the ride was much nicer.

What are you guys running yours at ?

 

And I did save a few pictures,

so those lines around the bolt pattern, which transfers to raised areas on the inside are what kept the rim from being flat and true to the hub ?

 

They should be at 32. It seems some tire shops love to put maximum air pressure in for some reason.

 

What load range are the BFG's?

With SL rated tires, 32 PSI, or whatever is printed in the door jamb.

LT tires require higher pressure. Here is a calculator for running tires that are a different size and/or load range than OEM:

 

I believe the main reason for a tire store to inflate to the manufacturer’s maximum cold psi, is primarily to seat the bead within the first few miles after installation.
And a basic, cover our ass, of sorts.

 

I have to go out and look in the morning, Thanks for posting that calculator. It won’t do my factory size and I may bogie over to Lowe’s in the morning for some chalk and try that method. I’m thinking somewhere between 30-35 would be optimal.

 

i have a steering wheel shake again as well...i have stock rims. got my tires rotated a couple months ago, but it didnt start then i dont think. yesterday it got way worse. i will check to see if the mavis tire has a road force balance machine...i think they do.

 

Well good luck to you, I really should change the title to, idiot buys wrong rims ! The KO2’s are fine. This was my fault for not doing my due diligence before buying those rims. And for not knowing that that a spacer may have been needed.

So it’s more of a learning curve for me, I guess I don’t understand after all the going back and forth for almost 6 months people in the business of wheels and tires never caught my mistake.

 

So all is well now?

 

I think the oem wheels look pretty classy.

 

Here is a link that explains Hub and Lug Centric Rims and what to look for when buying aftermarket rims. The video does a great job.

https://m.roadkillcustoms.com/hub-centric-vs-lug-centric-wheels/

Snickel Fritz called it, the rims were a set of hub spacers away from working.

 

Yes all is good, no shaking, pulling issues of any kind with the factory stock rims. I agree the stock rims do look nice but it’s just not me. I called four wheel parts yesterday, told the guy on the phone about the issues since they’ve been on the truck. He says yeah they probably shouldn’t have sold me those and he says nothing calls for a spacer.

He tells me I should have bought an aluminum type rims, and that if I did, they would take the steel rims back and give me some sort of credit towards the proper rim. Well that’s great I sold them already...LOL.

So I’m going to look around at a replacement just much more aware of what I’m doing now, again I want to thank everyone that chimed in here. If you’ve got a second Gen 4Runner, be really careful buying steel wheels for your rig.

Thanks JTM for the link, going to read that after this post.

I forgot to mention I dropped the tire pressure down to 35psi using my digital tire gauge and the ride is really nice now, everything feels right