Enjoytheride

Each year during the state inspection I have the tires balanced and rotated on all my vehicle. . I know the rotating should be done more often but I'm busy! Anyway. . . I detailed the ride and decided to take the time and rotate the (4 x 35s) tires myself with no balancing. Now I have a very slight shimmy between 40 and 50 mph. On top of that a major death wobble when going over certain bumps. Should the tires always be balanced when rotated? Would a tire being out of balance cause death wobble when going over bumps or are other issues in play?

I had a previous issue but was corrected with a new track bar bushing and synergy drag link. . .

KCCO JK

Should the tires? Absolutely. As the tire wears down, the balance is lost, so it is optimal to do it each time, to maximize tire life, and prevent any shimmy or DW. And adding to that, yes, if your tires are out of balance, it can lead to death wobble, especially if anything else in your suspension isn't 100% in spec.

red09

You had a shimmy, not DW. DW you feel as though your front end is just coming apart and is normally attributed to a linkage component failing in some manner. Try having them re-balanced first then let us know how it went. We had a guy have this and he balanced, all was well.

AngryRedBird

Same here.. but was more prevalent when hitting those bumps at the right speed while traveling through WV.. having the tires checked did indicate that 3 out of 5 tires were not balanced from the get go. Yet there is a slight shimmy every now and then upon hitting a bump or dip.. This will be attended to when we start the lift. But clearly, after 3 tire shops have said, "there's nothing wrong" we still feel there is. Again we won't know for sure until we start the reconstruction of the coil spacers.. and Red is keeping an eye on things.

Enjoytheride

The tires will be balanced on Wednesday and will keep you posted of the results.

Rtwill78

The idea that DW can't come from out of balance tires is plainly incorrect. I've experienced it more than once and the cause turned out to be the tires being out of balance. I'm talking, shaking so violently that I seriously thought it might be coming apart.

Others told me at the time, that it couldn't be tires so I started replacing components, track bar, tie rod and ends, ball joints, steering stabilizers, and checked torque over and over. I still had the DW from 40-50 mph and it immediately and totally disappeared when I replaced the tires.

Just trying to correct a bit of misinformation.


Thank you,

RT

AngryRedBird

Hear Hear Rtwill78 Upon swapping the tires with another jeeper. I realize that it was my mistake for not having the swapped tires checked for balance.. I often wonder if for one year driving around and taking trips.. these unbalanced tires cause any sort of damage to the suspension.. yet three shops have said they did not find any issue.. It's boiled down to if and when we advance more on the installation of the coil spacers.. at that time a more indepth search with a new face.. may prove to locate where the issue is.. I would suspect that tires or even the rims could be slightly out or round.. which maybe just one of the issues.. Once we do a bit more searching.. I should have a better idea and understanding into what really happen on that road north west of West Virginia..

Rtwill78

I'm in the middle of a John Adams biography and this made me feel patriotic in a Continental Congress sort of way.

JustJeepinWithYa

This...... Furthermore. If it shakes..... Out of balance u til ldeemed otherwise. One tip a jeep owner should always live by. It has saved me a lot of aggravation and cost. Check balance - move on. If not rotated often tires will come out of balance as they wear down but won't be noticed until a rotation.

AngryRedBird

I can't say that I'm very patriotic, thou we do want the jeep wrapped in the American Flag.. and I have been getting bored with using terms like: "agreed" or "^^ This"