Need help with new Duratracs

E

ejalkh

New member
Hey Everyone,
Just got some 265/70R17 Load E tires on my 2012 TE and I don't understand if I have set something up wrong or if the tire guys did.
My problem being is that at anything over 60 mph they feel very unstable, and pull hard over every single uneven surface on the road. What I am asking is, anything I can do to help reduce this?
Tire pressures I have tried so far 44psi (cold) and 40psi (cold).
40 at the moment feels a little better.
Thanks for any help.
 
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Have the exact same tire / size and had the same issue, I think, since "unstable" is a subjective term.

In my case they are not balanced correctly. I took mine back to the GY dealer for rebalance and its all good now. They did the original balance too. Make sure they balance all 4. They only wanted to do the front two but I insisted of all so I would not have a issue after tire rotation.

This should be your first step, assuming you are aligned correctly.
 
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Thanks a lot for the info, I thought though that I would have a shaky steering wheel if they weren't balanced correctly. Though I am not a expert.
I will do as you prescribed... back to this worthless tire shop.
Thanks again.
 
if balancing is the issue, and you're not fond of the shop, have them balanced elsewhere. I've always had best luck with road force balancing
 
Hmmm... I think your pressure is in the sweet spot, I ran my 265 E Duras at 42 and loved them. They do need a few hundred miles to break in, and I remember they were slightly squirmish on the highway the first few days.

If you check the balance is OK and there is still an issue, you might have a bad tire. I moved up to 275 Goodyear MT/Rs recently. I could tell instantly the truck pulled to the right at all speeds. Discount recommended I roll them for 2 weeks and it did not go away. They confirmed they were all balanced properly and then rotated only the right side of the truck. Pull went away immediately. They ordered a replacement from GY and swapped out the right rear. It was determined to be defective. Rare but it happens. I'm so glad we tracked it down because I would have otherwise always had an issue when that tire was up front.
 
Which is why I added the caveat of defining "unstable" ;)

These tires are famous for being hard for some to balance. Where did you buy and who installed them? With most reputable places, as soon as you mention feeling "unsafe" should work diligently to find and fix the issue.
 
Jesse1983 said:
if balancing is the issue, and you're not fond of the shop, have them balanced elsewhere. I've always had best luck with road force balancing
Click to expand...

^^^^ THIS (both on the shop and the Road Force Balance): I've been very happy with my local Discount Tire. And make sure you ask for the local guru at the store; not the kid that is doing it for the first time. (although the guru may be a kid like at my store; but he's very professional about it.)

Okki
 
Thanks again guys for the info..
I had them installed at a local tire shop that has been in business here for over 30 years. They always have done me right in the past and nearly everyone in the area use them.
I don't know if this information is helpful but I noticed the machine they were using utilized to balance them was a Hunter... Does that help?
Thanks again
 
ejalkh said:
back to this worthless tire shop.
Click to expand...

ejalkh said:
I had them installed at a local tire shop that has been in business here for over 30 years. They always have done me right in the past and nearly everyone in the area use them.
Click to expand...

pretty contradictory. if they are a good shop, go back and tell them the problem and they will fix it. if they are worthless take your truck somewhere else.
 
As requested, here she is sitting with 190 miles. I will post some better pics later.
eFUgm.jpg
 
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Well I had the tire shop look at it and he stated everything looked fine.
They said they would drop the pressure down to 35 to see if that would help any.
He also noted that sometimes with that aggressive of a tread on a vehicle it will tend to have a little road walk at higher speeds, but he said that it wouldn't always happen that way. He said he could put the same set of tires on 4 different other vehicles and it may not have any signs of road walk, but then on mine might still have some.
He also noted that it may improve after driving on them for a couple of weeks.
What do you guys think?
 
ejalkh said:
Well I had the tire shop look at it and he stated everything looked fine.
They said they would drop the pressure down to 35 to see if that would help any.
He also noted that sometimes with that aggressive of a tread on a vehicle it will tend to have a little road walk at higher speeds, but he said that it wouldn't always happen that way. He said he could put the same set of tires on 4 different other vehicles and it may not have any signs of road walk, but then on mine might still have some.
He also noted that it may improve after driving on them for a couple of weeks.
What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

My first thought is 35psi is too low for the E rated 265/70/17 DuraTrac. Many of us have or had that tire and run it at 42-44psi with very positive results.

Did you read my earlier reply about checking for a defective tire?
 
I have ran them at 40-44psi and still the same results on either. Also, I did note your reply about a possible defective tire.. though this tire shop does not seem to think so. I think I may drive to the nearest Discount tire and have them check it out.
Am I crazy though for thinking road walk is not normal??
The tire shop owner thinks that this is just going to happen with some setups... no matter what they do....
Doesn't sound good to me... I think im gonna go somewhere else soon
 
ejalkh said:
Well I had the tire shop look at it and he stated everything looked fine.
They said they would drop the pressure down to 35 to see if that would help any.
He also noted that sometimes with that aggressive of a tread on a vehicle it will tend to have a little road walk at higher speeds, but he said that it wouldn't always happen that way. He said he could put the same set of tires on 4 different other vehicles and it may not have any signs of road walk, but then on mine might still have some.
He also noted that it may improve after driving on them for a couple of weeks.
What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I'd say 35psi is a minimum safe pressure for the tires. Make sure that you don't go any lower than 34 on highway.

I have C load and I run mine at 37 psi and I don't have any road walks at any speed. Didn't have it aslo when I tried to run tires at 44psi for few hundred kilometers. I don't know what can cause road walk, logically speaking it's either something with the truck like an alignement for instance or with the tires. Maybe you should escalate it to Goodyear and see what they say.
 
I have the exact same tires and truck. Never had that issue until I had a little dried caked on mud inside a wheel ( out of balance) cleaned the mud, then had them rebalanced after about 2000 miles. Ran great after the mud was cleaned out. The rebalance was just because it was time and it is free.
 
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Reata,
Thanks for the input, and I wish it was that simple. I haven't even made it an inch offroad yet, the puppy still has 240 miles on her. This is driving me nuts and with no help from the shop that installed the tires... I'm lost. I think I'm going to take it to a really good alignment shop and see what he has to say. I know of an ole guy that knows his stuff and see if maybe this will adjust it accordingly...
Scanny,
I'm also going to do as you suggested and contact GY to see what input they can give... someone has to know something. Out of all the users on this forum that run these tires with the exact same truck, I doubt they could feel this way normally. On a bumpy road it is near impossible to stay running at 70. I live in a rural area so bumpy is almost everywhere lol.
 
When you went back would they even put them back on the balancer for you? If you can get them to do that and show you that they are balanced, then I think you may have an issue with the tires. Was there any issue with the factory tires before you swapped to the DT's?
 
The stock tires definitely did not feel this way. Also, I wasn't able to see if they actually put them back on the balancer or not.. had to drop it off. I am actually just going to take it to another capable shop and get their opinion on the matter... if they think it is the tires I will go back to the original shop and force them to deal with the issue.
 
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