Has anyone had problems getting a good balance with 17" steel Soft 8 wheels?

My JK came stock with the 17" alloy Rubi wheels and street tires. I immediately put BFG M/T KM 255/75R17 tires on the OEM wheels (the same set up that the Rubi comes with). I had no issues with balance and the JK rode smooth.

I have since bought some 17" steel Soft 8 wheels with 4.5" back spacing and put them on with the M/T tires I took off the OEM Rubi wheels. From day one, there was a slight balance problem. After 5,000 miles, I rotated the tires and the shimmy and wobble has gotten worse. I've had the wheels balanced three times by two different shops, and road force balanced twice by the same shop... all in all, the tires have been balanced five times in the last 5,000 miles. So far the tires are wearing normal, and I've worn 5/32" tread in 15,000 miles. Still the shimmy and wobble continues and seems to be getting worse.

Any ideas?

I'm at at the point where the nation wide tire store chain where I bought both the tires and wheels, will give me credit and find me some new alloy wheels to replace the steel ones. If I get the new wheels, I'm also thinking about going with some alloy 16" rims and KM2 33x10.50 tires while I'm at it.

There appears to be no off road damage to the suspension and the problem started as soon as the new wheels were installed.

So, back to my original question... has anyone had balancing issues running steel 17" Soft 8 wheels??

Thanks for any inputs on your experience running steel 17" wheels on the JK.

 

Sometimes it takes a couple times for the wheel to get balanced perfectly, specially with big tires it amplifies any off balance. I'd take it back to your shop and try n get em to rebalance them.

 

You said it got worse after you rotated them.......did you follow the proper seating procedure, star tightening pattern and torque them to spec (with a torque check after the first 100 or so miles)? Not saying its not out of balance, but rotating it shouldn't have made it worse, in and of itself.

 

Planman is right, there is a bad wheel there somewhere, but they are definitely cheap enough so try to find which one and replace it.

 

I'm running cragar soft 8s in 17x8 and I've noticed the 'out-of-balance' wobble on my in the speed range of 48-52 mph...either side of that it goes away.

They were PERFECT for 6000mi until I got them rotated and that's when this wobble started. Luckily, I'm coming due for another rotation here next oil change so I'm gonna have them rebalance everything.

 

I had the same problem with my Cragar Soft 8's in a 16x8. I had Goodyear MTR's mounted on the stock rims and she rode smooth. As soon as I put on the Cragar's, I had the out of balance wobble. 15,000 miles and numerous trips to the tire shop and it never went away. I don't agree with the "just get a new wheel because they are cheap" philosophy. My money is too valuable to me. I shouldn't have to fight a new product to get it to perform the way it should to begin with. My .02.

 

You are certainly right about that one!
Like everything else, with wheels you get what you pay for.

 

It's a vehicle wheel, no matter if it's $60 or $160, it shouldn't wobble. There can be something wrong with a wheel no matter what the price is. If it were just because they are cheap, then there are a helluve alot of vehicles straight off the lot that would be wobbling as soon as you bought it.

 

I put soft 8's 17x8 on mine with used 35" tires and it took about 3 onuces but i have no wobble or shimmy in my steering wheel maybe a little at 70mph i have about 2800 miles on them so far I will be rotating them next them I change my oil. I work at a garage on the weekend so I was able to balance myself.

 

Exactly the speed range I'm having problems with.

Sounds exactly like the problem I'm having. The shop is going to give a generous allowance on another set of wheels. I'm thinking about going to American Eagle Alloy Series 186.


Thanks everyone else for taking time to post and your suggestions... but some of you guys need to go back and read my original post, I've already done everything that was suggested, other than replacing one wheel at a time, which I'm not going to do. And yes, I agree, as with everything else in life... you get what you pay for. Things are called cheap for a reason, and it's not because you're getting the best product.

The manager at the Discount Tire Store is being pretty helpful in solving my issue with the Soft 8's, and is giving me a big turn in allowance on another set of wheels. Now the problem is deciding if I should stay with the 17" wheels or spend the extra $$$ on a complete new wheel and tire package and going with 16" wheels to get a little more sidewall.