Poorly balanced tires or incorrect alignment?

Guys, I am in the process of removing the 5.5 inch lift kit from my 2015 prerunner and leaving the truck with only 1 1/2 inch lift. So, I just got back from the shop from changing the 285/70r17 tires to 265/70r17 and the steering shakes a lot. The shop was Discount Tire and supposedly they did road force balance. I'm wondering if the steering shaking is a result of fast and crappy balancing or if it has to do with my current alignment, I have a 4 degree caster and since these tires are now smaller... I don't know! I'm a bit ignorant on that subject. I wonder if I should take the truck back to balance or remove the suspension first, re-align it (that would take me several days) and then take it back to balance and tell them the shit they did. What do you recommend?

 

Edit: And good luck with your lift issue.

 

"Help" in your title generally means you're stuck somewhere & need immediate help.

Edit: And good luck with your lift issue.[/QUOTE]
You're right!

 

Get all the suspension correct first. The get the alignment done properly. Then have the tires rebalanced.

 

Curious how your 5.5 was achieved.

 

2wd

 

4 degrees positive caster is not generally a twitchy number; (want to say 3 ish or even less is stock). Is it shaking at all speeds? A wheel imbalance tends to manifest to feeling it at higher speeds, say 50-60 mph where the vibration is felt. If that’s the case, rotating backs to front and vice versa may “solve” the issue and let you know it 1-is a tire and 2- is now one of the back two tires. If it is shaking all speeds, you may have a ball joint issue especially if that lift was done without a taller spindle or aftermarket UCA, and the upper ball joints wore at an extreme angle.

 

I have the Maxtrac spindles that give me 4 inches of lift, JBA ucas and Bilsteins 5100 with the OME883's that give about 1.5 more lift to the 2wd. I'm going to check the lower ball joint when I remove the suspension. I want to leave the truck with the Bilstein's and OME883's only. By the way, it is shaking a lot after 55mph. So, now is running worse with the 265 than the 285.

 

If all you have done right now is downsize the tires and then it started shaking, I would say very likely a tire balance issue. Alignment would be less likely to cause this vibration unless its atrocious or you have a failed component like a bad ball joint. I would do things one at a time so you know where any adverse effects come from, and also leave alignment until the end after your suspension is how you want it.

 

Balancing my tires made it feel brand new. I did it at Firestone

I had crazy steering wheel shake at low speed and high speed, and it was messing with my brakes as well. But seems fixed after the tire balance

edit: im not lifted