The shimmy-shake that comes and goes. Please help.

[RAMonkey]

My truck likes to intermittently shake on the highway. If I stop and get back up to speed, it stops, and all is good. My usual long trip is 180 miles, or so. It usually happens somewhere in the middle of that after traversing rough road. I get a shimmy in the steering wheel and a massage chair shake in the seat. I can both see and feel the wheel moving and if I look out the rear view, I can see the bed vibrating. It’s become a little unsettling and can’t seem to figure it out.

I recently found the front left tire had a sidewall bulge and had it replaced along with an alignment. Everything was fine for a couple of trips, but the shake started again today. My only thought is that perhaps the balance beads get out of sync somehow and cause this. When I tried to have them removed and changed for traditional weights, the guy said it would be way too many weights to make up for the 16oz. of beads that are in there. Hence, I still have beads.

Everything else is tight and I’ve double checked torque specs. All my mods are listed in my signature.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Scram1500]

The replacement tire and other front tire sound like they can't be balanced, or have tread separation. Try a rotation and see if the vibration changes to the rear

 

[RAMonkey]

The replacement tire and other front tire sound like they can't be balanced, or have tread separation. Try a rotation and see if the vibration changes to the rear

Just did a rotation when I got the new tire. The shake is not as pronounced as it was, but it’s still there. These tires all have less than 5k on them, except the new one, obviously.

 

[Jeffjad]

My truck likes to intermittently shake on the highway. If I stop and get back up to speed, it stops, and all is good. My usual long trip is 180 miles, or so. It usually happens somewhere in the middle of that after traversing rough road. I get a shimmy in the steering wheel and a massage chair shake in the seat. I can both see and feel the wheel moving and if I look out the rear view, I can see the bed vibrating. It’s become a little unsettling and can’t seem to figure it out.

I recently found the front left tire had a sidewall bulge and had it replaced along with an alignment. Everything was fine for a couple of trips, but the shake started again today. My only thought is that perhaps the balance beads get out of sync somehow and cause this. When I tried to have them removed and changed for traditional weights, the guy said it would be way too many weights to make up for the 16oz. of beads that are in there. Hence, I still have beads.

Everything else is tight and I’ve double checked torque specs. All my mods are listed in my signature.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I never liked those balance beads. I always feel like places that say weights won't work are being lazy. Take it somewhere that will do weights and I think your issue will go away. Just my .02

I had 35" ridge grapplers before my current tires and I never had balancing issues. My shop used weights.

 

[Ratchet]

Another vote for ditching the beads.

 

[stevj]

If you have a two-piece drive shaft, have your carrier bearing checked, especially if you have lifted the rear of the truck without resetting the driveline angle.

Steve

 

[RAMonkey]

If you have a twp-piece drive shaft, have your carrier bearing checked, especially if you have lifted the rear of the truck without resetting the driveline angle.

Steve

Thank you for the info. I Just checked and I don’t have one of those…

 

[Rick3478]

I recently found the front left tire had a sidewall bulge and had it replaced along with an alignment. Everything was fine for a couple of trips, but the shake started again today. My only thought is that perhaps the balance beads get out of sync somehow and cause this. When I tried to have them removed and changed for traditional weights, the guy said it would be way too many weights to make up for the 16oz. of beads that are in there. Hence, I still have beads.

It sounds like your tire guy may be a little confused about how the beads work. But at the same time, if it took 16oz. of beads to get balance, that suggests your tires are pretty bad, and the one you found bulged tends to reinforce that idea. Also, dynamic balancing beads need a pretty-close-to-round channel to roll in to work properly.

My gut says you have crappy tires.

 

[RAMonkey]

It sounds like your tire guy may be a little confused about how the beads work. But at the same time, if it took 16oz. of beads to get balance, that suggests your tires are pretty bad, and the one you found bulged tends to reinforce that idea. Also, dynamic balancing beads need a pretty-close-to-round channel to roll in to work properly.

My gut says you have crappy tires.

I hope not. They are Nitto Ridge Grapplers with under 5k on them. I guess anything is possible. They tire guy came out and showed me the cupful of beads that he removed from the tire and said it was two bags worth, which came to 16oz. Anyway, I have an appointment for road force balancing and another alignment this week. We’ll see what happens. I’ll report back…

 

[kapinallinen2]

I hope not. They are Nitto Ridge Grapplers with under 5k on them. I guess anything is possible. They tire guy came out and showed me the cupful of beads that he removed from the tire and said it was two bags worth, which came to 16oz. Anyway, I have an appointment for road force balancing and another alignment this week. We’ll see what happens. I’ll report back…

Road force did the trick for me.

 

[RAMonkey]

Well, so far, so good. I had the beads removed and the tires road force balanced along with an alignment at a shop with a good reputation for knowing what they’re doing. The steering is tight and no shake on my recent couple of trips. I asked what the next step is if this doesn’t work and they said there is no next step, we fixed the problem.
Hope it’s fixed for good.
Thanks for the input.

 

[Hydroblueguy]

Well, so far, so good. I had the beads removed and the tires road force balanced along with an alignment at a shop with a good reputation for knowing what they’re doing. The steering is tight and no shake on my recent couple of trips. I asked what the next step is if this doesn’t work and they said there is no next step, we fixed the problem.
Hope it’s fixed for good.
Thanks for the input.

I hope this solved your problem. I had a similar issues with traditional balance and road force balance. My 19 ram would not hold balance over a few hundred miles from day one, bought new. I finally got ram to buy it back, I still say I had bad rims from the factory, ram said they replaced the rims with no fix. I’ve been told these new rams with 20 or 22” tires are very had to balance and keep balanced! I was told road force balance fixes all balance issues, mine were road forced balanced a few times within a few 1000 miles, didn’t fix my vibrations at all. It will be interesting to see if in 500-1000 miles your vibration comes back? Good luck