F350 Dually Vibration Part II

MCTalley

Well-known member
I was going to reply to Rex's (rxbristol) thread, but it is marked SOLVED and closed.

Too Long, Didn't Read (TLDR) Summary: Our dually rear-end vibration issues were solved by having the wheels and tires trued.

Full story:

I had weighed in on that thread that our F350 dually had a vibration at highway speeds. At the time, we still owned our 4x2 2013 F-350. Since then, we've changed trucks to our current 2016 F-350 4x4. I chatted with Rex at the West Texas rally earlier this year and compared notes. Here's what we've been through on ours:

At around 35,000 miles, I was getting an increasing vibration through the steering wheel that was both an up-and-down type vibration and a side-to-side vibration. At around 40,000 miles after noticing that the driver's side front tire was cupped, we took it into the Ford dealer in Alabama where we were staying. They advised that the driver's side front tire was bad (original equipment tire) and needed to be replaced.

We took the truck to a tire dealer in Alabama that we used to have do all our tire and wheel work and they put on six new Michelins, balanced them and gave the truck a front-end alignment.

With the new tires on, the front end up-and-down vibration was gone. The steering wheel no longer shimmied from side-to-side, but the rear-end had a fairly bad side-to-side vibration particularly at speeds between 65-75 and most pronounced with the trailer on the truck. You could see the back end of the truck vibrating side to side via the rear-view mirror, so it was obviously something in the rear end.

In February, we took the truck to the Ford dealer in Davenport, Florida near our new RV lot and told them to keep it until they figured out the vibration issue. $67 and two days later, they returned the truck and declared the problem solved. They re-balanced the rear half of the driveshaft. Three days later we were on the road west to the West Texas and Louisiana rallies. Vibration was still there, and seemingly got worse as the month progressed.

Back in Florida last week, we made another appointment at the same Ford dealer here in Florida. They kept it for a few hours and recommended we take it to one of the local tire shops and have the wheels/tires trued. We dropped the truck off yesterday morning at one of the recommended shops and picked it up later in the afternoon with my wallet $192 lighter ($30 per wheel x 6, plus tax). The mechanic there explained that every wheel was matched with a particular position and rotation on each hub and should be returned to those specific positions if anything is removed to be worked on.

Initial impressions on the drive back home are that the truck is riding much, much smoother. We're loading up and heading out again this Friday. I'll update the thread to give my impressions with the trailer in tow. Crossing our fingers.
 

dbbls59

Well-known member
I wonder if balance beads in the tires would have helped. I have them in my trailer tires and am very satisfied with them.
 

Bones

Well-known member
None of that make any sense to me unless I am missing something. The wheels shouldn't have anything to do with how the axle is performing.
 

MCTalley

Well-known member
None of that make any sense to me unless I am missing something. The wheels shouldn't have anything to do with how the axle is performing.

Here's an excellent article on tire truing. Most tires are not perfectly round. Most wheels are not perfectly round. Put a not-round tire on a not-round wheel in the wrong orientation and you'll forever have a vibration even though the assembly spin-balances just fine off of the vehicle.

Throw four of those on the same axle, which itself has slight variations in disc brake roundness and balance, axle shafts, hubs, etc. and you can end up with a really nasty vibration (as I did) that does not go away with spin balancing tires off of the vehicle. I'm not even sure tire beads would help if the tires are out of round, but they may have.
 

HornedToad

Well-known member
So we are not talking about the infamous Ford front end death wobble, that is so bad in a highway curve at speed going over a overpass bump you have to pull off on the shoulder and slow down to regain control???

$600 bucks will fix that... trust me, I know!!!


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Bones

Well-known member
Here's an excellent article on tire truing. Most tires are not perfectly round. Most wheels are not perfectly round. Put a not-round tire on a not-round wheel in the wrong orientation and you'll forever have a vibration even though the assembly spin-balances just fine off of the vehicle.

Throw four of those on the same axle, which itself has slight variations in disc brake roundness and balance, axle shafts, hubs, etc. and you can end up with a really nasty vibration (as I did) that does not go away with spin balancing tires off of the vehicle. I'm not even sure tire beads would help if the tires are out of round, but they may have.

Thanks that makes a lot more sense. So when your tires are replaced you will be back to square one.

- - - Updated - - -

I am also guessing you could find out if your tires are out of round simply by jacking up the rear end placing jack stand and use a dial gauge by rotating the assembly yourself.
 

MCTalley

Well-known member
So we are not talking about the infamous Ford front end death wobble, that is so bad in a highway curve at speed going over a overpass bump you have to pull off on the shoulder and slow down to regain control??

$600 bucks will fix that... trust me, I know!!!

Correct. Though that's what I thought might be happening with the old tires at first, before I noticed the cupping on the tread.

Thanks that makes a lot more sense. So when your tires are replaced you will be back to square one.

I am also guessing you could find out if your tires are out of round simply by jacking up the rear end placing jack stand and use a dial gauge by rotating the assembly yourself.

Yes, and yes. Next time I buy tires, I might make sure to have them mounted and balanced by a shop that does tire truing, though, to save paying twice for balancing.
 

avvidclif

Well-known member
Years ago I bought new set of tires and wheels and they were out of round. I had them trued and then found out the fancy mag wheels I bought were the problem. Never had a set trued since then. You might check the wheels for being true. They have been known to be out of round, even factory.
 

MCTalley

Well-known member
Years ago I bought new set of tires and wheels and they were out of round. I had them trued and then found out the fancy mag wheels I bought were the problem. Never had a set trued since then. You might check the wheels for being true. They have been known to be out of round, even factory.

The factory tires didn't vibrate nearly as much as these new ones (aside from the one that went bad in the front), so I'm thinking I just got an out-of-round set of tires this time around. They are Michelin Defenders (new replacement for the tried and true M/S-2's).
 

avvidclif

Well-known member
Still have the same rims though. Put a dial indicator on them and see what it shows...... The odds of 2 sets of tires, different make, being out of round are pretty high....

I'm running the same Michelins, no problems.
 

MCTalley

Well-known member
Still have the same rims though. Put a dial indicator on them and see what it shows...... The odds of 2 sets of tires, different make, being out of round are pretty high....

I'm running the same Michelins, no problems.

Might do that next tire go-around, or if truing these tires didn't help much (we'll find that part out tomorrow). Supposedly on trip two to the Ford dealer they checked wheels (and other rotating parts) for roundness.
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
We had issues last time we had our tires rotated. Immediately had a vibration at 55+. Took it back, thought it was fixed, but not. Tried another Discount Tire, and at first, no joy. Then a manager stepped in and solved it. I can't recall what he said but it was all about how they centered the tire, I thing it was lug centric instead of hub centric.


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Here's an excellent article on tire truing. Most tires are not perfectly round. Most wheels are not perfectly round. Put a not-round tire on a not-round wheel in the wrong orientation and you'll forever have a vibration even though the assembly spin-balances just fine off of the vehicle.

Throw four of those on the same axle, which itself has slight variations in disc brake roundness and balance, axle shafts, hubs, etc. and you can end up with a really nasty vibration (as I did) that does not go away with spin balancing tires off of the vehicle. I'm not even sure tire beads would help if the tires are out of round, but they may have.





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BigGuy82

Well-known member
I wonder if balance beads in the tires would have helped. I have them in my trailer tires and am very satisfied with them.

Would not use balance beads with TPMS. if you want to do centrifugal balancing, I suggest Centramatics. Use them on my truck and motorcycle and they perform flawlessly. Also popular with big rig truckers.


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