Holy Jesus, this has been a pain in the a$$. But my truck no longer shakes, and runs smooth as the day I bought it from 0-65+ MPH

The problem? A bent rear rim. The local tire shop called me and asked me to stop by, and when I did they threw the rim on the spin balancer and it had visible runout. They mounted my tire on the fullsize spare and the required weight dropped from almost 4 ounces to 1 ounce. I took it for a spin, and no more vibes.

The Dodge dealer had told me the tires were bad and could not be fixed. Rediculous. I'm going to have a little chat with the service manger tomorow, and ask that my $100 balance fee be credited towards a new steelie ($133) to replace the bent one.

They misdiagnosed the problem, obviously didn't fix it, and tried to get me to solve it with the tire shop. Not very happy with them, but I'm thrilled that my truck drives right again.

 

That's great that it's all been figured out and fixed. hopefully the dealer will work with you to credit for the new rim.

I know I've have vibration issues ever since I got my new tires, the truck rides great till I have a rim off and then I have to get it rebalanced or the truck has a vibration and we still don't know why it does this everytime We take a rim off the truck to check the brakes or somthing else.
but a rebalance and it ride true again. it's the weirdest thing. mabye I have a bent rim, but then the tire shop would have caught that for sure. especially with the amount of time I've been in there to figure this out.

 

Dealers will try anything to deny responsibility, incredible. Glad to hear that you figured it out!

 

I'm glad you were able to solve it. That would have drove me nuts, lol.

 

good to hear its over

 

I wish I had someone look at the wheels long ago! I must have hit something just right, I am pretty conscious of whacking potholes or climbing over obstacles too fast.

The dealer is on my sh*t list right now. They have a machine that costs 10X a normal spin balancer, and somehow missed something I could see with my naked eye. So, either they don't know how to use their equipment (always possible), or chose to ignore it in favor of an option that would get me out of their hair. It doesn't cost $100 to spin each tire before doing the full road-force, and perform a visual (or even measured!) inspection.

A guy at work suggested I have the tire shop swap rims, and do a little "sting" on the dealer. If an educated Dakota owner, with the help of an honest tire shop, can diagnose and fix a problem, what leg can the dealer stand on?

The tire shop mounted and dismounted 2 tires, balanced, and test drove my truck, total cost, $0.00. Needless to say, they have earned my business for many tires to come. When I presented the dealer's printout, the tire shop was willing to issue me another set of 265/70 R16's to the tune of about $550. They stuck by their product and turned out to be right. They didn't treat me like a know-nothing, (*ahem* Dodge Dealer), and did a good job of helping me fix my truck.

Lessons learned -

Appreciate the experience of local shops, at least the ones that have been doing community business for years and years. Almost everyone I talked to at work had bought tires from the local place.

Educate yourself before doing battle with a dealer service center. They were very friendly, until I dropped the hint that they may have missed something. Their attitude immediately changed to "your word vs. ours". Damn.

The simplest solution is often right...4 tires with bad belts? How likely is that, compared to *one* bent rim.

Good luck to all those who still have vibrating trucks! Have those rims checked, it might cost you nothing more than a handshake from a decent tire shop!

 

I had a vibration issue linked to the TSB. It drove me insane for months. I know how you feel. Welcome to sanity.

 

throw some d's on it.