Tire disaster.. need opinions

OK, I need some opinions.

I bought new beefier tires for my Taco. I have a health issue that will make it necessary to drive long distances for treatment once a month for at least the next year through winter and everything so needed something for all seasons without having to change them out. I asked the shop what's the best for this also wanting bigger more aggressive looking tires .. I went with Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T from a very reputable tire shop in Oshawa (2nd Time Around Tires).

I told them I wanted the biggest possible tire I could do without rubbing on a stock Tacoma. They installed the tire and upon getting home went to back into my driveway and it rubbed hard ... and I'm not talking on plastic, I'm talking right on the control arm. I called the shop and they didn't even hesitate to tell me to come back.

The next day they took a look and confirmed they needed to get a bit smaller. They order them and I drive around on these tires for a couple days and when the tires get in, they replace the bigger ones with the smaller ones, no chargers, no fuss!

I hit the highway the next day and notice quite a vibration. I return to the shop and tell them, they say they did a full inspection and nothing seems wrong with the tires. I drive a couple more days and hit the highway again, I can't go faster then 100kmh because the shake became quite scary. Back to the shop, they tell me they do every imaginable 'test' on the tires and it definitely isn't the tires according to them. They kinda made me feel like I was imagining things at this point and seemed annoyed that I had come back.

So a couple days later believing I was fine, hit the highway to go from oshawa to ottawa ... and the second half of the trip I couldn't really go faster then 80 without the entire truck shuttering so bad things were rattling and could barely see anything from the rear view mirror it was so shaky and I genuinely think the truck had a major issue. I call toyota and ask them if they could look at the truck.

They call me back and tell me that the wrong kind of balance was done for an A/T tire and there would be a cost for a tire balance the right way and a realignment as the truck wasn't driving straight either. That'll be about a $400-500 bill. I'm supposed to pick the truck up on Tuesday.

Today is Tuesday.. went to the toyota here in ottawa and 480 later .. they tell me that when road forcing the tires, one was particularly difficult leading them to believe the tire is bad. The tire shop threw my alignment way off so they corrected that and they said this truck can't actually handle these tires ...

What would you do at this point? March back into the shop with the bill from Toyota? Demand a reimbursement? These were not low end tires nor was this from some shop that was some hole in the ground known for something other then tires... and to be fair I went back 2 times after install to complain something wasn't right.

What tire can I put on this truck?

 

less words more numbers...

what tire sizes you talking about, you failed to give the specifics

 

Welcome to modifying a truck.

Bigger and heavier tires will affect a bunch of stuff. Balancing a set of bigger AT tires is a PITA also.

1st shop probably aren't too hot on balancing bigger AT tires.

If you wanted smooth sailing on the hwy you should not have gotten MT A/Ts anyway

 

what size did you start with
what size did the shop first install
what size did they go down to


some may or may not agree, but size matters

 

Bring the evidence of what found by the dealer back to show the tire shop to see how they suggest. Best of luck!

 

First of all, there was no need for a special balance. Road force balancing is a complete and total joke. I would demand a refund for that. To balance all for even at the ridiculous dealer price should have been no more than $200. As for your alignment, post the print out. It is hard to say what is wrong without seeing the numbers.

 

Go with Michelin Defender LTX M/S... I love mine. Great all-around tire. Factory size. Whatever is in the door jab.

 

Stop saying that. There are dozens and dozens of posts on here about how road force balancing fixed a tire shake problem. Local tire shop could not get my wild peaks balanced well enough to not shake on the highway. They tried 3 times. Brought it to the dealer, had them road forced balanced on a hunter machine and the truck was shake free after that.

 

First tire was a 285 75 16
Second tire was a 265 75 16

 

I'd suggest the Yokohama Geolandar GO15s in the stock size. Winter rated, pretty mild and very very quiet!

 

Being in Canada he probably doesn't run the same set of tires 12 months a year

 

What do you mean? He said in the first post he doesn't want to change them out. They're not dedicated winter tires and I've been running them since the beginning of winter when my old ones weren't cutting it. Took on a really nasty blizzard this winter and they handled it pretty well.

 

I have to agree on this tire choice, only one size up as I did and no rubbing, smooth on the highway. Your beefy tires in the pic looks like overkill for your described driving needs.

 

I loved the LTX AT2 on my 1st gen. Very capable offroad, but no gggrrrrrr Ima tuffboi looks.

 

What? You clearly know nothing about tire balancing or how this gimmick of a machine works. Do you seriously think pressing a drum against your tire while spinning replicates in any way a real world action? You have been seriously suckered into some marketing gimmick. Look, tires have been balanced properly for years. Do you really believe that people have just been lucky or was there something that changed in the auto industry that necessitated this gimmick?

Road force balancing doesn't fix a vibration. It can't. A skilled technician fixes a vibration. Toyota trucks are more susceptible to vibrations because of the design of the hub and the wheel. The key to getting a good balance is centering the wheel properly on the balancer shaft. If it isn't properly centered, you will get false readings from your balancer. It will zero, but because it isn't centered on the balancer, it isn't properly balanced. The problem is caused by the large center hole on the wheel and the large cone combined with heavy wheel tire combos, make it difficult to center. You basically have two options to make getting it centered more accurate. 1. use a bolt plate adapter which inserts pins into the lug holes along with the large cone to get it centered. Option 2. use a special cone that was designed for the Toyota wheels that has much less taper and forces a more accurate center. Toyota put out a TSB suggesting option 1. Quality tire shops usually go with option 2 because it is much easier and less time consuming. Both yield the same results.

Now getting back to the road force balancer. The road force is a total joke as I already stated. Meaning less information. However, it is a good machine for dumb techs. It helps a moron that probably shouldn't be doing the work complete a task. Coates and other manufacturers have idiot proof balancers as well. They are freaking expensive. Most shops don't buy them because if you know what you are doing, it is a waste. Hunter through marketing to idiots has been able to convince shops to buy their over priced piece of crap with the idea that they can increase revenue by suckering in people just like to into paying more thinking you are getting some techno wizardry that requires extra dollars from your pocket.

You are free to spend your money how you like, but before you call someone out for trying to save people money, you should put a little more effort into understanding how things work and you might be able to keep from getting ripped off. When you have balanced as many tires as I have, feel free to come back and we can chat.

 

No but a road force balance tells you what way to position the tire on the rim to get a close as possible to a perfect balance....

Sorry but you are flat out wrong here.

 

so are you running a lift? 285 not lifted will rub... Doesn't look like your alignment is off enough for the accusation of the tire store messing up the alignment. you need a new place for all service as the 2 you may have picked suck

 

I was actually able to do the same thing with a regular spin balance 20 years ago when I was installing tires. I was a tech that put the time into doing a good job....

 

For sure. But a road force balancer takes the guess work out of it, especially when it comes to bigger all terrain tires.

 

265-75-16 shouldn't be a problem in a stock TRD. But based on their site the tires are 58lb each. Even the BFG KO2 which is pretty heavy is 53lb. If you switch consider, non-LT tires.