Pulsing Vibration @ Highway Speeds After New Tires Installed - Thoughts?
 

So last Friday I took the wife's Jeep to Discount Tire and had a new set of BFG KM2s installed (35x12.5x17). After the tires were installed there is a noticeable pulsing vibration that seems to resonate from the front to the back of the Jeep. It's not a violent vibration but a very subtle almost sine wave type of vibration. It lasts for about a second, stops for a second, and repeats. The tires were installed on a 2014 JKUR X Package (13,000 miles +/-) with NO LIFT and a completely stock drive train. We have a set of Fuel wheels that were installed at least a month ago and never noticed the issue while using the stock tires.

My first thought is that the installers didn't get one of the tires balanced just right. A close but no cigar situation. So the first thing I'll try is having them re-balance the tires and see what happens.

The question I pose for the group is what else should I consider? What potential pre-existing conditions might have existed that the larger tires would amplify?

Not trying to sound like an ass, but have you driven with mud terrains over all terrain or street tires before? Could be your not used to the feeling they give( which will feel like a slight vibration) compared to street tires, especially when coming to a stop.

Did you make sure when you had the wheels installed that they removed the retaining clips from your wheel studs? If your wheels are lug centric these could cause you problems.

While I won't discount that possibility entirely the stock tires were BFG KMs and we moved to KM2s. The tread pattern is different but they are both an aggressive design. So it's not like we went from street tires to mud terrains. Again...your suggestion is plausible but I don't believe that to be case.

This lug centric vs hub centric is new to me. I'll have to research this. The wheels themselves were installed over a month ago and ran with the stock KMs until Friday with no vibrations noticed. I should also add that I know the guy balancing the tires was fighting one of them pretty hard to get it to balance. That said I'm not experiencing the typical wheel hop that you normally see with an out of balance tire.

Sounds exactly like my Jeep. Vibration plus a hum that pulses. I only notice it at freeway speeds. Enough vibration that it makes my butt tingle after a while!

Mine started at 8k miles. Since then, I have done a front and rear axle swap, transfer case swap, complete suspension swap, new front drive shaft, bumpers, armor, etc. Also swapped wheels and tires. Guess what? No change at all. Oh, I also lined the rear of my Jeep with Dynomat, which did nothing. Doing the front this weekend so my balls don't fall off driving on the freeway. I've had skids on and off, heat shields on and off... You name it, it's been on or off at some point.

I'm curious, do you have a manual trans? Mine started making noise around the same time and I'm wondering if that is it.

This should answer your questions about the retainer clips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apJiCmyMPnM&sns=em

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have the same issues with my 35" km2's but only at speeds over 60mph. The km2's in that size just don't balance for sh!t. Iv had other mud terrains on my jeep with no vibrations. I'm selling my km'2's now with only 5k miles on them and going up to a 37" Nitto, MTR-K, or STT. Haven't decided yet. Good luck

Ours is an automatic.

Thanks for the video. Very informative. I'll have to double check.

Not what I wanted to hear.

Yeah, but now you're running 35's. There's a little more rubber on the ground.