Brand New T4R - Brand New Toyo ATIII Not Balancing? **UPDATE/FIXED**

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Predatorsniper2005

New member
Hello Forum Experts,

I took delivery of my 22 ORP a few weeks ago and immediately order some Toyo ATIII's from Discount Tire. First time I drove the truck with the new tires the balance was off. I brought it back and they rebalanced everything. Then when I had time to drive it on the highway, there is a bit of steering wheel shake at like 58-62mph, above and below speeds its smooth. So I took it back to Discount tire and they ordered me (2) brand new tires. Installed those today on the front, same issue, just at a different speed range (54-57mph). The only thing the Manager at Discount Tire suggests is choosing a different set of All Terrains... Thoughts?

Note: My brand new ORP has 400 miles on it currently, it came with TRD Black Pro wheels from the factory.

Thanks, Mike
 
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Predatorsniper2005 said:
Hello Forum Experts,

I took delivery of my 22 ORP a few weeks ago and immediately order some Toyo ATIII's from Discount Tire. First time I drove the truck with the new tires the balance was off. I brought it back and they rebalanced everything. Then when I had time to drive it on the highway, there is a bit of steering wheel shake at like 58-62mph, above and below speeds its smooth. So I took it back to Discount tire and they ordered me (2) brand new tires. Installed those today on the front, same issue, just at a different speed range (54-57mph). The only thing the Manager at Discount Tire suggests is choosing a different set of All Terrains... Thoughts?

Note: My brand new ORP has 400 miles on it currently, it came with TRD Black Pro wheels from the factory.

Thanks, Mike
Click to expand...


I'd get ahold of Toyo and see what they say. And maybe consider a different tire. Even if someone can balance the tires this time it'll be a challenge every time you rotate them. Do you really want that issue for the life of the tire? I had this issue with some Nittos and it was a huge pain
 
Ask the manager if there's anyone that knows how to use a road-force balancer to it's full capability.

Make sure the machine is calibrated, tell them to turn off the 'Smart Weight' feature, check the wheels for excessive run-out, and match mount the tires if necessary. If that still doesn't do it, consider other tires.

I would suggest avoiding Falken tires, as they frequently have uniformity issues.
 
02SE said:
Ask the manager if there's anyone that knows how to use a road-force balancer to it's full capability.

Make sure the machine is calibrated, tell them to turn off the 'Smart Weight' feature, check the wheels for excessive run-out, and match mount the tires if necessary. If that still doesn't do it, consider other tires.

I would suggest avoiding Falken tires, as they frequently have uniformity issues.
Click to expand...

Road force & Also make sure they are using the correct adapter for Toyota hub centric wheels!!!!!!
 
comtn4x4 said:
I'd get ahold of Toyo and see what they say. And maybe consider a different tire. Even if someone can balance the tires this time it'll be a challenge every time you rotate them. Do you really want that issue for the life of the tire? I had this issue with some Nittos and it was a huge pain
Click to expand...

I did call Toyo directly, they feel that Discount Tire has done all the right things. The Road Force was reading 10, whatever that means. The Manager was saying that they needed to be below a 30 number, so 10 was good...
 
Bring 'em back - go Cooper

Don't bother trying to get this particular set of tires to behave. Toyo and the shop should take them back! I've had problems with 2 sets of Nokia's - first they replaced 'em, then gave me a refund. I brought the tires to our local Toyota dealer (they are skilled) and found they were way out of spec - even Road Force balancing couldn't be done. Nokia offered a refund and I got some Cooper AT3s - smooth as silk the first time and every time after.

Don't waste your time and brainpower on this one!

And a "below 30" as a Road Force number is a very low bar - 10 is good but 20 would be not!
 
Predatorsniper2005 said:
OP, that was done, also it was done on 2 different machines. The Road Force balancing was showing the new tires are in spec.
Click to expand...

Just because it was on a road-force balancer, doesn't mean it was done competently.

Lots of shops have the machines. Few have the ability or are willing to take the time to utilize the machines to the fullest extent.
 
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I put on Toyo AT3 at discount tire (America's tire locally) and they balanced no problem first time around. Only thing is mine are E load. It seems to me a larger proportion of people with the balancing issue on the AT3s are with the SL load (I could be wrong). Wonder if their SL manufacturing is less consistent on this model.
 
I just put Toyo ATIIIs on, 255/80/17 Load E. No issues whatsoever. 2018 TRP Prem, ToyTec lift, Warn front winch bumper and winch. (hundred plus lbs) and JBA UCAs. At 4deg castor they track straight.
The pdf that was posted answered a question for me. Was wondering what yellow dot was on my new tires and now I know!
EDIT: Had them installed at Discount Tire.
 
I had similar issues with Toyo atII years ago. Tires were square. Went through 9 tires IIRC and the last two Toyos we got in we're 16+ ounces out of balance. They could zero on the balancer but they would never run smooth on the road. Same wheels balanced well with other tires. And we put the Toyo tires on other wheels and they were still way out of balance.

End of the story is discount tire sent them all back and swapped me out for Cooper at3s and they balanced great.
 
Went through the exact same issue with the exact same vehicles and tires, it's not the tires, make sure your installer uses hub centric plates on wheel balancer to balance tires and wheels correctly. Also look at the sidewall of the ToYo OC AT3's, tires like to run at a higher PSI, I run mine at 38 psi, also the longer you run these on your 4R the better they will get balance wise. Rotate every 3/5K mi will be beneficial as well.
 
bzizzi said:
Went through the exact same issue with the exact same vehicles and tires, it's not the tires, make sure your installer uses hub centric plates on wheel balancer to balance tires and wheels correctly. Also look at the sidewall of the ToYo OC AT3's, tires like to run at a higher PSI, I run mine at 38 psi, also the longer you run these on your 4R the better they will get balance wise. Rotate every 3/5K mi will be beneficial as well.
Click to expand...

It COULD be the tires. It could also be the person performing the balance job. Or the machine out-of-calibration, or simply set up wrong. There's a chance it could also be the wheels, or the vehicle itself.

The problem being the wheels or vehicle are less likely.
 
Some tires and wheels just don't play well with each other...

I've had "good" brands balance like crap on "good" Toyota wheels and I have had shit tires on shit wheels balance great. It always seems like a crap shoot...

That said, we do a lot of lifts and wheel/tire packages, sometimes you get one that take a large amount of weight and there's not much you can do about it. You can do a 180° flip and rim/tire matching, but that can only get you so far.

Road Force is a nice feature and I think there might even be specifications buried in the FSM somewhere (though one Toyota FTS told me they like to see 16lbs or under for Toyota vehicles). The Hunter machine we use now was gifted to us by the Mercedes dealership we own next door {I want to say it's some branded Elite series machine?), it's a nice machine and their backspacing cones are so nice it's almost not needed to use the finger adapter on truck wheels (seriously we've played around with both on the new balancer it makes very little difference if you mount the tire properly compared to the older machines where it was basically always needed, it only gets pulled out on real problem wheels or weird warranty stuff). The default settings on the balancer for road force are roughly as follows: 20lbs for P-Rated "Passenger Car" tires, 30lbs for "Truck/SUV", and 40lbs for "LT Tires". Anything under about 10lbs is not worth chasing further, in some cases where it's a bit excessive you can use the rim matching feature to try and turn the tire on the wheel for the best possible outcome; but it can only do so much, for example I recently converted my 35's from balance beads to sticky weights and one of my tires just wouldn't get a better number than about 31lbs ("yellow" but still within specification for LT tires), that specific tire hit a log a long time ago, so it doesn't surprise me if it's a lil wonky (though it balanced fine and I haven't had issues with it).

So it could just be that these AT3's are a finicky beast to balance? I know the 1st gen KO2's and Duratracs have always been a pain in the ass to get balanced right, just the nature of those tires.

There's a lot of variables when it comes to balancing a tire/wheel combination and I think a lot of people some times put too high of an expectation on heavier AT tires sometimes. That being said, it does seem a bit weird that they can't seem to at least get them within an acceptable range, an odd question and it shouldn't really affect balance, but it doesn't hurt to verify... your alignment is decent right? (mainly curious about toe-in; it's possible if the alignment was "just" out enough it could cause minor scrubbing/hopping that could feel like an imbalance). Are these P-Rated factory sized tires? What tire pressure you running these at?
 
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I’ve got 5000 miles on my SL rated AT III tires and no problems in the least with balancing. I say take it to a shop that specializes with balancing and let them have a crack at it. If they say all is good, maybe there is something else at play
 
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