Balancing KO2's

This may sound strange, but try using no weights to balance. Look at your rim and tire and find the small dots on both the rim and tire. These used to be called "index" points and last I knew were intended to line up the low spots on both. They are red blue or yellow, and are the size of a pencil eraser in diameter. I have run large chunky tires on my 88 Toyota short bed and two TJ Wranglers. Tires were bias ply super swampers, two sets of BFG All Terrains, and a set of excellent Kanati Mud Hogs. All size 31x10.50 R15. I have two brothers who did the same as well with several Jeep, trucks and Samurais... We never balanced any tire and on my vehicles I never experienced any shaking or poor wear. My Jeeps were DDs and my last '03 TJ 4.0 saw highway use all the time at 65-80mph. All tires were worn down to and past the wear bars. Find a shop that mounts mud tires or an old school mechanic and I'll bet you will be surprised.

 

I thought they balanced the wheels, not the tires. I'm confused. I have KO2s on trd pro wheels and never had issues. I don't drive over 70mph though. I'm not in any hurry.

 

I have KO2s with 4 Runner pro wheels with no issues. Balanced one time and drive at least 80mph every day.

 

I've had tire balance issues on all my toyota trucks. I always thought it was because some tire shops balance from the lugs and not from the center of the hub and not use the Haweka balancer adapter since Toyota's are hub centric. Also think most don't try to position the tire and hub to their high\low spots

 

What rating are the KO2’s? I believe the Tacoma is only rated for C rates tires. I have E rated KO2’s and it only vibrates “kinda bad” at 65+ but that’s expected from a bigger tire that’s E rated on a truck that’s not meant to handle such tire. That and my truck is also lifted so I take that into account.

 

They come in all sorts of ratings and sizes, the tacoma was built with p-metric tires in mind and they balance much better.

That said, any sort of aggressive large lug tire is going to have balancing issues simply by nature. Add a larger diameter and you'll have more problems.

I had Duratracs on my 16 and they were balanced by one of my apprentices, never had any vibrations, but I've had many many customers with duratrac vibration issues.

Part of the problem is luck of the draw, which factory and which mold.

 

I know they come in different ratings I was just curious what OP’s were and others who were having issues. I too had Duratracs on my 4Runner and those things rode absolutely smooth it was crazy to see how meaty they were. I was originally wanting Duratracs but they don’t make em in 275/70/17 so I was SOL and took my first experience with the KO2’s.

 

Misread My bad.

 

My KO2's are the smoothest tires I've had in a long time.

 

You’re good, text always comes out harsher than it really is wasn’t trying to call you out or anything

 

I'm going try this before giving up on my Wildpeaks. These tires vibrate so much doing anything over 65.

 

You can find the heavy spot just by putting a tire on any balancer. That is what they do. Hunter has tricked people into thinking that they can press a drum against the tire with a few hundred pounds of pressure and spin it at 30mph and some how you are getting real world information that wasn't available with a standard dynamic balancer. An out of round tire is out of round and very easy to spot. You don't need a fancy machine to do that. Techs were spotting out of round tires long before these machines. Actually out of round tires were much more common before most manufactures changed their process from clam shell molds to segmented molds.

The hunter balancer works like any other balancer which it does well, but the road force numbers are little more than a gimmick, but a great marketing tool because they make a lot of money with it. The sold it to shops as a way to increase revenue and margin which is pretty much what it does. You go into a shop and they offer you regular balancing at a price, but you can get this special "road force" balance with all the extra meaning less data if you pay double. The result is the same. A balanced tire is a balanced tire.

 

I've had KO2's on my 07 Sport for three years and have had to have them balanced more times than any other tire - maybe 2-3 times a year. Anything above 70 on the highway and it is uncomfortable.
Before these I ran Nitto TerrainGrapplers and never had an issue. Can't wait for the KO2's to wear out (they do have very good durability!) so I can go back to the TGs. Plus, I feel I got better traction offroad with the TGs than the KO2s.
The KO2s do look a lot better though.... ):

 

Not sure if this would make too much of a difference with balancing. I just checked and my KO2's are "E" rated, not C. Still, they run super smooth!

 

KO2's are know to have really good road manners, especially for a relatively knobby AT tire.

Sounds like you have something wrong with a tire (bad batch maybe?)

 

I have C rated KO2s with Method wheels, 265/70/17. They vibrate like crazy at 78-85mph. I drive a lot on the interstate and my passenger seat shakes like crazy. I have put like 20k on them. It is annoying. I plan on getting them roadforce balanced in the near future.

 

That sucks... Why would some be fine and others not? Would the rating of the tire make a difference with balancing? Like "C" vs. "E"?

 

Dealing with the same bs.
275/70/17 ko2s
Method Con6
3 shops
3 balances.
Still bad steering wheel vibrations at highway speeds.
4th shop suggested balance beads.
5th shop i called suggested... Damn it i cant remember but something about the hub.....
You know whats fukn frustrating as all hell??
Driving your new truck with aftermarket parts up a hill on a highway while it struggles to search for the proper gear and the steering wheel vibrates my hands numb.

 

What is this bad reputation you speak of?

4 Toyotas later, over 1 million cumulative miles driven on BFG’s, and no balancing issues or blowouts ever for me.

Im on 165/75/16 KO2 E-loads now, enjoying them on and off road, including smoothly cruising 70-80mph (112-128 km/h) legally in the western US.

OP- have them balanced on a road force balancer and also check the roundness of those tires and the rims.

 

Also: check the alignment- toe-in/out can cause steering issues.