Issues with tires after recent shop visit

I have a 2017 Trd off road and am running 33x12.5x20lt nitro ridge grapplers on 20x10 arkon ceasers. i just recently went into the shop to have them rebalanced and have my alignment done, as it was about time for those to be done. after being road force balanced by the shop, the rear end now shakes worse than ever around 60 mph. any suggestions? improper lug nut torque? get them rebalanced? anything helps, i’m getting so frustrated with this.

 

Check to make sure they are seated properly but sounds like one of them in the rear either lost weights or wasn’t balanced properly. I use a heat gun on the sticky weights in the winter time since they will fall off easily if not.

 

would it be a bad idea to just run it over to the local discount tire to have that checked or should i not trust them? i’ve read mixed opinions on discount tire, but if they generally do the job well, i would rather save some money there rather than a local shop

 

I would go back to the original shop that did the work to let them check it first.

Generalizing a national brand name with quality of workmanship is grossly oversimplified. As an example, I have had Firestone Lifetime alignment since 2014, but lived in four different states since then covering probably eight different Firestone shops. The lifetime alignment doesn’t change but I had vastly different experiences at them all. Some extremely knowledgeable, most no issues and a couple shops I won’t go back to utilize.

My point is these are all human beings that work at these places with varying levels of knowledge, maturity and experience. I would go back to where you had it done originally and explain the issue. Let them learn from whatever happened or validate it wasn’t their fault by finding the real problem potentially. I like to support small shops when I can. However, if you want something cheap or potentially easy fix then go to a big name brand. The local guy has a fair enough shop rate for what they can afford. If they were getting rich doing it then they would be a chain. Even if it is a simple fix or hiccup, I try to tip for their time and effort. I have fixed multiple people’s stuff before and they pay for their own parts I sourced utilizing a service that charges me fees and taxes without even enough leftover to cover what I paid for the parts on their vehicle.

If you are near upstate New York there are a couple of us at least with our own tire machine and balancers to check you out as well. I’m not a shop just someone invested in tools.

 

I am in Stillwater, NY if you are near by and want to have the balance checked. Only problem right now is the gravel driveway to the shop is all ice so getting out is a bit of a challenge.

Did the shop provide you with a printout of the roadforce balance results? If you paid for roadforce balancing and all they did was a standard mount ands balance with a road force measurement, then you didn't get what you paid for. The force match procedure for a brand new set of wheels and tires should be:

1. measure Bare Rims on RF balancer and tag/mark appropriately.
2. mount tires the standard method using the red and or yellow dots to align the tire on the rim.
3. measure road force for each wheel/tire assembly and mark per the machine's recommendations.
4. re-clock or re mount/balance per the machines recommendations
5. Balance wheel and apply weights and check road force.
6. Install wheels as recommended by the balancer locations.

Road force Balancing is a tedious and time consuming process, which is why it costs what it does. But the results are only as good as the tech who is performing the work.
Plenty of shops own a Road Force machine and only use it as a way to upsell a premium service, measure the road force variation and if it is within spec, they will do nothing and send you on your way.

Also worth noting: The limit for roadforce variation on LT tires from the factory is 35lbs. I am riding on TRD Baja wheels with 265/75R16LT Duratracs and 3/4 of them are over that number and yes, they ride pretty terrible even though I went through the entire procedure I outlined above. The best thing I have done to help the ride quality is drop the tire pressure to around 30PSI.