Cincinnati Area Thread (Tri-State, Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana)

Let me know, I'm about an hour south of Cincinnati this week, might be able to find time to come up and try

 

Why not just have all the tires checked for balance? Much cheaper than all the options thus far.

 

GoPro under the truck!

If the driveshaft vibes are bad, you'll see it.

 

I’ve had the tires balanced three times already...

Great idea but I don’t have a GoPro...

 

I'd let you borrow mine, if I was closer.

 

Have you had the tires road force balanced? Those machines can find other imperfections a standard balance cant find.

I don't think they'd work on MTs, but they would probably work on KO2s.

How much of a pain was the LCAs?

 

If you want to help rule out balance, pump them up high...like 40-45, even 50+ if E rated just to see if they smoothout on the freeway (will ride like bricks, but smooth bricks). Then you may know its tires.

That was Toyotas silly solution on the Trail Teams FJs that had the E-rated KOs stock...people kept complaining about vibes and I think over-inflating pretty much forces them more round and takes away chances to bounce down the road with Toyotas generally softly sprung trucks.

 

Yep. First two times were done normally by TD and the third time I took it to Discount Tire and paid to have them road force balanced. The road force machine found all four were “out of balance” but none showed a high road force rating or any indication they needed to be rotated and remounted. I may take it back there today and ask the service manager to ride in the truck with me then have them try it again...

LCAs were an absolute b*tch. Glad I didn’t even try to do them myself. The tech had to cut/melt three of the four bushings/cams to get them out. On front passenger side cam, he tried to use an air powered cutting tool to cut the seized sleeve but wasn’t getting anywhere so he switched to a torch and melted the bushing until it let go. On the driver’s side, he just torched both bushings and it fell right out.

So, funny you mention that. When I first had these C rated KO2s mounted, I had them put 40 psi in them. I immediately noticed the vibration as I was getting on the highway driving home (~50 mph). It went away above 60 mph though. And since, I’ve dropped the psi down to 32 and I now feel the vibration/shaking from about 45 to 70+ mph...

Also, worth noting, with the new LCAs and tie rod ends, the vibration/shaking no longer feels like it’s coming from the front. The suspension and steering feel much firmer and significantly less “sloppy” now. And the steering wheel doesn’t shimmy at all. I can feel the pulsing sensation in the wheel but it doesn’t move. It’s definitely more of a “the whole cab is bouncing up and down” type feel that I can detect in my seat and the floor more so than anywhere else.

 

Cab mount bushings? Was this already assessed?

 

Haven’t touched those. But the fact that the truck didn’t do this before the new tires went on makes me think it’s a tire issue more than anything...

 

Hey guys, headed to Cinci for a week in early September and wanted to hear about your recommendations for things to do? I'm particularly interested in hearing about the favorite eats of the locals.

 

I’m at Discount Tire now about to have the tires balanced a fourth time. If this doesn’t fix the issue I’m honestly about to give up on the KO2s and buy new tires. Nitto sells the Ridge Grappler in a 285/70/17 SL now and I’m tempted to go that route. I read a few threads on a Jeep forum and they seem to hold up as well as the C rated version off-road. And my truck spends 90+ percent of the time on pavement and I don’t really need an LT tire anyway.

I bet I could sell these four BFGs individually as like new 33” spares and make back most of the money I spent on them.

 

I'd potentially take a BFG off your hands to use it as a fullsize spare....depending on how much you wanted.

Or you could buy highway tires, then find a set of rims and use the KO2s as offroad tires.....that idea seems sort of lame given most people do that with MTs, but thought I'd mention it.

 

I spent $695 on these KO2s (not including mounting and multiple balance attempts). So I’d just want to get as much of my money back as possible to put towards the new tires. If it comes to this option, I’d probably sell them locally for $150 each. And they only have ~2000 miles on them...

 

Do you run the Pros daily or have another set?

 

Yea, I'd have to think on that. I have MTs so it wouldn't match, and I think that's a bit more than the cheapest china MT I priced to use as a spare. Other guys on KO2s may jump on it though.

I keep them on all the time. I thought about running a different set, but I don't drive the truck every day, and you never know when you'll need them (I had to tow my tractor through the woods the other day).

 

There's lots of good hipster restaurants in the "Over the Rhine" area. I personally like Senate, but there are other good ones close to it.
Some people like Rhinegeist brewery, but I think most of their beers taste the same and are too hoppy (I'm a stout guy). Madtree is another big brewery and they have good stuff. There's tons of other smaller good breweries, if you want more names we can list some.

Is there anything in particular you were considering? Hiking? Offroading? etc?

 

Have you ever tried Montgomery Inn for BBQ?

 

Just left Discount Tire... only my back driver’s side tire was “out of balance” and it needed an extra 1/2 ounce of weight. Also, the other three tires showed road force numbers under 10 but the back driver’s side came in at a 27.

The tech didn’t think that was high (he said anything over 35 and he’d remove and remount) but I thought most posts on here said anything over 25 needed attention?

 

Tafts Ale house in OTR is pretty sweet, good beer, good food, best ketchup like sauce thing I've ever had.

Last time I was there, the atmosphere had gotten a bit uppity for me, but the whole OTR area feels that way these days.