Back story: Had leveling kit and alignment done-everything was great-week later put on some bigger tires and im running into issues. I didn’t go stupid big-there is no rubbing and still lots of room in the well. My problem now that the tires are on is that my truck goes all over the place when I get up to 70+. It’s like driving on slime, scary breaking and im all over the road. The steering wheel does not shake or any of that, it is really confusing the crap out of me. They are the nitto trails so they have beefy tread-but my old diesel had huge mudders on it and I never had a problem at 110+. I lowered the psi a bit and that doesn’t seem to help, vie even taken it to a couple shops and they say it’s not the tires. I took the tires back to have them re-balanced anyway. One of the guys at a shop told me i need a stabilizer but I tried to explain that it’s a gas truck and there is no place to put a stabilizer on it. any help on this?

 

air pressure, alignment, brake rotors. there's a few things to take into consideration when lookin into your problem. as stupid as it may sound, the bigger you go with tires, the more accurate you'll have to be with everything (and the more difficult it is to get accurate). i did my alignment 8 times (no machine mind you) and it's still just BARELY off, but the faster i go, the more noticable it gets. and the same applies to stopping. if your alignment isn't just right, your truck will fight itself in pulling different directions.

also keep in mind that a lot of alignment shops have no idea how to align anything other than "stock" setups.

 

This only happens when you brake? If so, your rotors are probably warped.

 

if it didnt happen until you changed tires... its gotta be the tires being out of alignment or wrong air pressure- wont have nothing to do with your brakes

its probably because you didnt get an alignment with your bigger tires-- so infact you just wasted you money getting your alignment done with the level and old tires...

 

So it's not vibrating through the wheel. No vibration when braking. Just when you go faster, it doesn't want to track staight. Doesn't pull left or right, just wanders, right?

My guess, maybe toe in/out. You might need to re-check the alignment.

Lug nuts aren't loose, right?

 

I am having the same issue right now. I just put brand new tires on my truck and only went with 10 ply 265/70/17's. It feels really swirly and washy right now when I wiggle the steering wheel back and forth going down the road. I took it back and had the alignment done and the toe was out a little, but it did not cure anything. The manager at the tire shop said you will get that with new all-terrain tires until they "settle in" he said. I call BS! I am still trying to figure it out. Cheap tire??? They are Kelly's and were $800 so I don't think so, but maybe? Go figure................Just my luck!

Aaron

 

Dark check out the following site and give them a call for a steering stabilizer:
http://www.bds-suspension.com

I have their lift on my truck with the upgrade to include new rear leafs and steering stablizers. I did look for an 08 and they list a steering stablizer. On my 06 the steering stablizer from them mounts to a bolt on the stock suspension. If this is the case with the 08' then you should be able to just buy that part of the kit. My truck doesn't move around when i hit a bump like most, i have said it before, but i live on a old country road with a lot of bumps and cracks and i drive with one hand on the wheel all day every day with no problem.

 

aaron you might want to play around with air pressures... tires do have a break in period and thats about 50miles...

 

Yeah I run 60 psi in my Trail grapps. I do notice a little more "wander" on the highway, but there is a lot more rubber hitting the road too. It shouldn't be that bad though. I still haul my big enclosed trailer and its just fine. I would still like to put a steering stabilizer on my truck though.

 

I just went from 42-46psi. I hate going much higher than that with only a 1/2 ton. The max rating is 80psi. Hammer says go 70-80% of max, which would be like 56-64psi. I'm afraid it might ride to rough way up there.

Aaron