BigBlueDodge

So I take my truck to get tires rotated / balanced today, because I've been noticing abnormal wear pattern on my BFG 315/75/17. These tires are great, but are the absolute worse to get balanced. Here is a picture of the wear pattern. You can see where the dark blotches that I've circled that don't match the normal tread wear (which is the light coloring on the tires. I live in a new neighborhood with tons of dust from houses getting built).



Anyway, I take it to the tire place to get things rebalanced and rotated. After my truck is pulled into the bay, they come get me and show me this



It appears that the rim bead is splitting? This tire was previously on the front of the truck for the last 5000 miles. I hadn't noticed it there before. I do know that this particular wheel is a bi-atch to balance as witnessed by this




I don't feel that comfortable having that much weight on there. Do you think that contributed to the splitting ?

The truck is going to the dealer Monday morning to have my wheel replaced. I'm pretty sure this is a warranty'able item. I'm just hoping they don't try and blame it on the BFG 315/70/17 I have one there

Geico266

Looks like normal tire wear to me. The rim? Can't say.

MikeyB

The tire bulge is causing the chrome wheel skin to split. Others have reported the same issue with the 315's on the chrome clad wheels.

MikeyB

gsbrockman

How often have the tires been rotated ?
How often and at what air pressure have the tires been set at ?
Given the contact patch, they're a tad over-inflated.
I'd suspect some damage could have been done to the wheel during installation of the tires; the rim-guard feature of the BFG's coupled with an experienced tire installer and / or inadequate equipment may have contributed to the problem with the one wheel.
One thing's for sure....there's no way a tire/wheel assembly would have left my shop with that combination of incorrect and excessive amount of wheel weights. If the tires were not balanced with a road-force balancer, alot of vibration could be expected given the overall diameter of that tire.
Hopefully the dealer will treat you right and get you up & going again soon.
Greg

BigBlueDodge

Maynard, tires are rotated every 3000-4000 miles. I bought free rotation/balances so I get them rotated every time I change my oil The tires are kept at 45 psi, front and back. Once I tried to level the contact patch by lowering the air pressure, but once I hit 30psi and it still wasn't perfectly flat I gave up. I don't feel that comfortable driving with under 30psi air pressure.

The tires have roughtly 25K miles on them right now.

I'm suspecting that I got a new guy who balanced them today. Once they took it back, and put it on the lift, it took close to 2 hours for them to simply rotate and balance the wheels. I was there almost 3 hours. Add to that, when I was leaving and got on the freeway one of the balancing weights flew off and hit the inside of my wheel well. I wasn't too happy with that. I am going back and having them re-balanced after I take this to the dealer and hopefully get a new wheel.

I realize that the BFG are a bit oversized for the 8" wheels we got, but I got a really great deal on them ($400 for a set of H2 take offs). Once these are gone, if I can't find another set of H2's for cheap, I will be downsizing to a 285/295/305 sized tire.

runamuk

Baaad tire store!!! if it takes more than 1 oz to balance the tire then I make them break the bead and rotate the tire 180 degrees on the rim then re bead it.

If this is not done then those brand new tires will not make it on my truck. Ever!

1oz or the tires are out of round and I do not care if they work or not! Old school trick from many years ago Remember it and use it well!!

Rick

RickCJ

What brand of tire takes less than 1 oz??

AaronT

No way tires will last with air pressure that low, they will fail as told to me by a tire manager when I had some seperation.

bubba33

one ounce of weights is too much for that big of a tire? I use to to change truck and farm and passanger tires for a living.I would tell you to go some where else and get your tires.That is totaly not realistic to expect to have less then a ounce on those size tires.

hammerjammer

I've noticed that most of the people who post problems with tires ignore the size and inflation charts posted on the drivers door,

gatf4

Maybe 1 out of 100 tires would take less than 1 ounce of weight. Your rule of thumb may good on a 14" or 15" tire but not on a rim and tire assembly that weighs over 60 lbs No amount of rotating the tire on the wheel or road force balancing will keep most tires that heavy under 1 ounce per side of the wheel. I do agree that it looks like some newbie balanced that tire and that rotating the tire on the wheel would probably help.

On closer inspection of the picture it does look like the tire is cuasing the crome cover on the wheel to push out. I'd bet the dealer just laughs about your warranty on the wheel. but you may be able to fix the ring after the tire gets replaced. Good luck!

runamuk

Virtually any Dick Cepek tire will require no more than one ounce to balance. That is their claim to fame.

Judging from the responses i suppose that you guys do not balance both sides of the tire ether?

Just a question: When have you seen a brand new vehicle with more than a 1 oz wheel weight no matter the tire size?

Rick

k6jr

The tire problem is caused by running 12.4" wide tires on an 8" rim. In doing so you cause the edge of the tread of the tire to roll over instead of being flat with the road surface. The spec for the tire is at least an 8.5" wide rim and wider is even better. That is why mine are on 10" wide wheels with no issues with wear or balance.

Regards; Jim

Stingerpup

Only problem is, those door postings don't often include optional tire and wheel combinations. Granted, in this case, this tire/wheel combination isn't a factory option, but that isn't my point.

My SO's Dakota's door jam has the base model tires and rims listed on it. But the truck has the factory upgraded tires and rims for a 4x4 Sport.

Don't take offense to this, but generalization is as much a problem as the problems themselves.

2500CTD

On that 1oz of weight thing. A while back I used to work at Super Shops, and had a coulpe pretty nice cars come in there. Some would slip me some extra $$ to keep the visual weight low. So I would spin the tire around on the rim like said. On the higher dollar rims and tires, I could get some balanced with no weight. Pain in the ...... but I got asked for when they came back in for new tires. It is very possible but they gotta be good quality to begin with. On that rim splitting, is it the rim? or the chrome plating? Never seen that before