What's wrong with my tires?

I have 285/75r16 BFG KO2s on my third gen Tacoma, and I noticed that when my truck is rolling at about 5-10 mph, I can feel the whole thing thumping along like my tires have a small bump on them.

It's most prominent when the truck has been sitting still over night, and feintly noticible by the end of the day. At high speeds, I feel nothing at all.

Should I be worried?

 

Do you live somewhere cold?

 

It's particularly cold, and more noticeable today. 58 F is cold where I live.

 

Customer states...

 

Your tires don't care what's cold for where you live.

Sunday must be the new Friday

 

Tires have feelings too, you know.

 

are you lifted? This sounds very similar to a driver CV needle bearing issue

 

I think I saw a shell between the siping on the left front tire this morning.

 

Tires can get flat spots when it's cold that go away once the tires warm up. But it's usually when it's well below freezing

 

I have a 2 inch lift in the front. Is the needle bearing an easy fix? I do most work myself.

 

That's what I thought too, but it's definitely not close to freezing here.

 

you pull the driver CV axle, then pull the stock needle bearing using a tool. Then put the ECGS clamshell in place of the needle bearing.

look up ECGS clamshell bushing for Tacoma on Google, tons of info

If you are lifted you should do this mod

 

I may do this when I install my long travel, since I'll have to pull the CVs anyways to slap on the extended CVs. Seems long travel would stress it even more anyways, so anything to strength the suspension is my goal.

Is it normal for the needle bearing to feel worse when it's cold, and less noticible after it's been warmed up?

 

Thats not uncommon, especially when its been cold.

 

long travel is going to introduce a whole new wormhole of maintenance so you will likely be installing other things as well beyond the clamshell bushing. Should be fun

I noticed a consistent vibe when driving slow that felt like a slight cobblestone road feel when coming to a stop. Cold could make it worse since steel shrinks and gets more dense on a molecular level when it’s cold and the opposite when it’s hot

 

Yeah, I have a long list of gussets that'll need to be welded on. I'm researching other ways to reinforce, protect, and maintain the system long before I buy it so that I know I'll be ready to tackle some serious terrain. Since wife and I are moving to Utah in a year or two, it gives me time to get the whole thing planned out.

Really though, thank you for the information. I'll look more into the needle bearing issue and see what everyone has experienced and how to fix it properly. It seems even if the needle bearing isn't the problem, it's still a smart fix to be had.

 

I'm definitely hoping that's the case. If it winds up being the tires, and it's just to do with the cold, at least I can rest assured my tread will wear evenly. If it's an out of round issue, I probably won't know for a few more thousand miles since they are pretty new.

 

Mine would be wonky for a mile then fine.

 

20 below here today/18 below yesterday. my tires dont do that, buy some general grabbers..

 

He did state in an earlier post that it is 58°F outside. Not exactly what I'd consider to be cold enough to cause an "out of round" issue.