Custom wheels on F150's

[Kitzy]

That's what I was afraid of.  I was looking for that but couldn't find it.  Thanks.

[Old Dogg™]

That's what I was afraid of.  I was looking for that but couldn't find it.  Thanks.

What are you afraid of?  You going over 112 mph in your truck?

[Kitzy]

It happens.  Not daily but I've run it wide open on occasion.  I honestly don't know how fast I'm going once over 100 since the speedo stops there but I know I can slowly pull on my buddy's Mazda 6 which is limited to 118.  I've seen what happens to tires that have been subjected to prolonged speeds higher than their rating.  Granted it was a trailer tire but it wasn't pretty.

[leedriver]

Did some measuring tonight. Factory hub size is 87mm, and the bores on my Eagle's are 108mm. I'm ordering a set of hub rings now to see if it remedies the problem - definitely don't see how it could hurt. I'm thinking I'm probably due for an alignment too - its been a while.

[Old Dogg™]

Thats a pretty big 20mm gap.  Are all 4 wheels the same? 
Did you align when you changed the wheels at first?

[Mike2301]

guys the "r" means rim size. Speed rating would be a number beside that for instance "88T". It sounds more like to me you have a bad tire. If you have a bad tire, the rings aren't going to do anything. Rotate them and see if it goes away. If the steering wheel doesn't shimmy anymore, but you can feel it in the seat you've got a bad tire.

[leedriver]

Thats a pretty big 20mm gap.  Are all 4 wheels the same? 
Did you align when you changed the wheels at first?

Yeah I was surprised how much the difference was. I ordered a set of rings last night so we'll find out shortly. I had it aligned when I first got these wheels, but that's been a couple years ago. As for the vibration I just feel it in the steering wheel. I had the fronts off last night to measure and put them back on with an impact and drove it again, might have been a little better than putting them on by hand.

[Mike2301]

^ Did you just skip my post? 

Did you have the wheels on previously?

[leedriver]

Sorry Mike, didn't know there was a question there. But yes, this will be the third summer I've had the wheels. It has always been a problem every time I put them on. And they are mounted in different spots on the truck every time since they aren't marked. I figure I'll take one thing out of the equation at a time, starting with mounting them hub-centric. Then, I want to get it aligned to be safe. If I do both of those and still have the steering wheel shimmy that really only leaves a bad tire/rim I guess....

[Mike2301]

Thanks.. I do this everyday lol.

Sounds like the hub rings may fix it if you always have the shimmy. An alignment won't do anything for a steering wheel shimmy. fyi.

Do you know how their balancing them? Take a picture if you can of where they have the wheel weights and i'll let you know.

[leedriver]

Funny you ask about the balancing... They were originally static balanced with stick on weights just on a plane through the center of the wheel. Since I've always had the problem I thought that might have been what was doing it. I took them last weekend to another shop to get re-balanced and now they have stick on weights right behind the spokes, and on the opposite outer edge of the wheel - all on the barrel of the wheel of course. And this all has to be wheel related and not something on the truck itself since my factory 18's drive fine.

[Too Stroked]

Sounds like you have the same pickle many of us with "oversized" wheels have. We like the way the wheels look, but don't want to screw it up with weights on the "face" side of the wheel. That means a true dynamic balance job is pretty much out of the question. Then again, that's probably exactly what we need.

My wheels have stick on weights in various places behind the spokes. (We tried conventional clip on weights for the inner most ones, but they got thrown off on the way home from the second balancing.) Although I've never been able to get them perfectly balanced, they've finally gotten them to an "acceptable" level. Now that we've achieved that, it's time for new tires. I can't wait!

[Old Dogg™]

My weights have always been near center of the wheel, behind the spokes also.  Clip on the lip weights would never fit anyway but my wheels are hub centric and I have never had  balance problems. 

[Mike2301]

If the weights are spread out all over the rims that's your problem right there. There should only be two groups of weights.. one on the inside and one on the outside. with those weights clustered together. If you have stray weights around the rims that's your problem. I'll draw a diagram if you can't understand what i'm saying, later. Girl friend time 

[leedriver]

Mine are in two groups, a group right behind the spokes, and another group on the far outer edge.