Cooper ST Maxx owners...

[robbymartin]

I have a set of these tires (285/70r17) on Method NV wheels with less than 4000 miles on them and I can't get them to balance out. The vehicle shakes moderately at low speeds and turns into a heavy vibration/shudder at higher speeds but nothing even remotely close to a death wobble, just an annoyingly bad ride . I've had them in the shop where I bought them from at least a half-dozen times to reblance and realign my vehicle and each time I drive out of there the problem is unresolved or more pronounced. They have tested my wheels to make sure they are not bad and have found no issues. The store has decided to put me into a brand new set to see if this resolves the issue. Have any of you other owners of this brand and make of tire or any other tire experience this or a similar issue?
The vehicle has a 3-inch lift with Toytec Springs and Light Racing UCA's so there is plenty of room for an alignment adjustment. Anyone have any ideas

 

[High_Country]

I have those tires in 255/80 on stock trail wheels and have never had an issue. The tires have been great for me and are wearing well.
The only idea I have is to try another shop one time to eliminate that as a variable. Can the shop tell you if its ONE tire or all the tires?

 

[Geezer81]

I have 265's on stock suspension and FJ Steelies.

All good in the hood.

 

[KidVermicious]

255/80s on my F150 and they've been great, nice and smooth. Hopefully the new tires fix it, but are you sure you're not looking at a bad wheel bearing or suspension bushings?

 

[Lightenup_bro]

I have a set of these tires (285/70r17) on Method NV wheels with less than 4000 miles on them ....

Did you run any tires on the Method wheels before these? Any issues? If you did the swap at the same time it could be a bad wheel.

 

[wfo9]

Below is a quote from another thread.... but I think it explains your issue.

The centerbore of the Method wheels is machined to 108mm. The FJ (and most Toyota trucks) have a hub diameter of 106mm. This 2mm difference may not seem like much, but can cause vibration issues if the wheel is not perfectly centered on the mounting surface. Hubcentric rings are typically used to bridge this gap, however the wheels won't accept rings if you use the included push through center cap.

 

[Storm Runner]

I have a set of 255/80's on my truck and I did have a bad tire in the first set. Kept having steering wheel vibration and it only went away after a rotation. Once they replaced the tire it's been smooth sailing and no other issues. It sounds like wfo9 is on to something tho. You could try putting those tires back on your stock wheels and see if the problem goes away.

 

[BigredTEX]

I've got them in 285/70 and they are smooth as glass. Got them at Discount Tires and they have balanced them four times in the 30k miles they have been on. The last time, about a month ago, they had to do it twice, but now, with all the miles and chunked tread from off-roaring, they are the smoothest they have ever been.

If the new set doesn't solve your problem I would start looking at the wheels. These are heavy tires but they can be balanced.

 

[robbymartin]

255/80s on my F150 and they've been great, nice and smooth. Hopefully the new tires fix it, but are you sure you're not looking at a bad wheel bearing or suspension bushings?

I'm wondering if the bushing are bad now but they were brand new at the same time as the tires. The tire shop said they checked for a bad wheel and things were good. Hopefully I won't have to replace bushings now.

 

[robbymartin]

Did you run any tires on the Method wheels before these? Any issues? If you did the swap at the same time it could be a bad wheel.

The wheels were new out of the box on the new tires.

 

[Lightenup_bro]

The wheels were new out of the box on the new tires.

You still have the old wheels? To see if it's the tires you can put the tires on them and ride around.

 

[robbymartin]

You still have the old wheels? To see if it's the tires you can put the tires on them and ride around.

I see where you're going with this but it's not so convenient to switch out tires when I have to go to the tire shop to do all this. The tire shop is a pain in the ass

 

[adkfinn]

Below is a quote from another thread.... but I think it explains your issue.

This. Without hub spacers you won't get them exactly centered and they will spin up fine on the balancer, but you will get vibrations on the truck. Spend $30, get hub centric spacers, enjoy smooth sailing.
The Dick Cepek wheels I run came without spacers, I could not get rid of the vibrations from 45-60mph. I put the correct hub centric spacers on and voila, nice and smooth. :reddance:

 

[jrm]

Ok, you might have a tire out of round

the same as the OE 5 spokes that came on my 00'. Lug centric wheels are balanced using the 6 lug holes as the center of the wheel while hub centric uses the hub hole to center the wheel. If you buy a hub centric wheel youll need lug centric spacers in order to balance it. If you buy lug centric wheels your fine.

 

[robbymartin]

the same as the OE 5 spokes that came on my 00'. Lug centric wheels are balanced using the 6 lug holes as the center of the wheel while hub centric uses the hub hole to center the wheel. If you buy a hub centric wheel youll need lug centric spacers in order to balance it. If you buy lug centric wheels your fine.

I have hub centric spacers and lug centric wheels.

 

[gm350reratliff]

Can you try the tires/wheels without the wheel spacers? If it still shakes without the spacers, I would try to source the mentioned hub-centric spacers to properly center the wheel on the hub (these are completely different than the spacers in your sig). If that doesn't work, try swapping wheels.

 

[RoverGS]

i'm running 275/70/17's on stock wheels. Excellent ride, no vibrations at all.

 

[robbymartin]

Update:

So I bought hub-centric spacers as "gm350reratliff" suggested and the tire shop ordered a new set of tires and the problem was solved. I'm not sure if the problem was due to the tires or lack of hub spacers but at this point I don't care because the ride is nice now.

My wheel spacers were hub-centric so that was fine but the wheel weren't. I bought the Gorilla 108-106.1 hub spacers which is what I needed for my wheel bore. Thanks "gm350reratliff" for that suggestion.

I love my 4runner once again.

 

[gm350reratliff]

So I bought hub-centric spacers as "gm350reratliff" suggested and the tire shop ordered a new set of tires and the problem was solved. I'm not sure if the problem was due to the tires or lack of hub spacers but at this point I don't care because the ride is nice now.

My wheel spacers were hub-centric so that was fine but the wheel weren't. I bought the Gorilla 108-106.1 hub spacers which is what I needed for my wheel bore. Thanks "gm350reratliff" for that suggestion.

I love my 4runner once again.

Good to hear you got it figured out. A tire vibration can be super frustrating!

 

[WallyT4R]

Not anywhere related to your issue or your vehicle but I just had a similar issue with my son's 2005 Camry with 168,000 miles on it. Car went through 3 sets of new firestone tires...each time they caused alignment issues...went to a different tire and all is well...seems some tires don't agree with some cars..reggers: