Vibration after Bilstein 5100 leveling??

[IrishRED]

Hi All, I apologize now as this may be a bit long. Just a few days ago I had Bilstein 5100 shocks installed to replace my stock squishy shocks and use to almost level the front end. At the same time I swapped out the stock tires for General Grabber ATx (275/70R18) tires and added Bora wheel spacers. I know, I probably should have done this one step at a time instead of all at once. Anyway, the first few days I drove locally and had no issues at all. There was the expected slightly stiffer ride and slight increase in road noise because of the more aggressive tread but nothing unexpected or out of the ordinary. Yesterday I went on the highway for the first time and noticed a vibration that started at around 50 mph and got slightly worse as speed increased. The vibration is minor but it was definitely not there prior to all the changes.

I immediately checked the wheel spacers to confirm that there were seated flush and checked both the wheel spacer bolts and lug nuts to make sure they were still torqued to the proper specs. I checked the shocks and all hardware seemed properly tightened and there was no rattling sound that you would get with loose shocks, just the vibration. The vibration is not felt in the steering wheel but in the vehicle itself (seat, gas pedal, floor, etc..) nor is there any issue with steering in that it drives straight as an arrow. I did not get the vehicle aligned as I thought that just the change of shocks and 1.5" front raise did not warrant it, especially since the ride was straight and true after. I will probably take it in to get it aligned just to see if that is the issue or eliminate it as a possibility.

So, my question (finally) is what else could be causing this higher speed vibration or has anyone else experienced this with a similar setup? Could it be as simple as a wheel slightly out of balance or even just a normal occurrence with new more aggressive tires? I have run BFG KO2s on all my other trucks and not had this issue but this is my first time with General. Since getting the work done, I have put roughly 30 miles on the truck. I am open to opinions / suggestions!!

 

[ksn240]

I would definitely get an alignment done. That won't necessarily fix it but anytime you alter the suspension and change the height it needs to be done to ensure even tire wear. Most likely culprit is probably a wheel/tire out of balance.

 

[Ram1500rsm]

You have to get the truck to the alignment rack after doing anything of the sorts you did in the front.
As for the vibration remove the wheels spacers and give that a try. I would think you should have no issues running 275/70/18 without the spacers. Why do you have spacers with that size ? Are those 18 factory offset ?

 

[IrishRED]

You have to get the truck to the alignment rack after doing anything of the sorts you did in the front.
As for the vibration remove the wheels spacers and give that a try. I would think you should have no issues running 275/70/18 without the spacers. Why do you have spacers with that size ? Are those 18 factory offset ?

I removed the spacers and ran it without them. It made no difference, the vibration was still there. The wheels are stock 18s. I got the spacers because I wanted a wider track / stance.

 

[Ram1500rsm]

I removed the spacers and ran it without them. It made no difference, the vibration was still there. The wheels are stock 18s. I got the spacers because I wanted a wider track / stance.

It should be a balance issue in that case.. Talk to the shop who did the wheel/tire install and let them know what's happening. What did you change, wheels? Tires? or both?

 

[NorthernArea51]

Definitely get the alignment. My money says it’ll smooth out after that.


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[IrishRED]

It should be a balance issue in that case.. Talk to the shop who did the wheel/tire install and let them know what's happening. What did you change, wheels? Tires? or both?

Just the tires, wheels are stock.

 

[Scram1500]

If the alignment doesn't solve it, it's a tire balancing problem. 99 times out of a 100 vibrations come from rotational mass that isn't balanced properly. Rotate the tires and see if the vibration changes

 

[IrishRED]

If the alignment doesn't solve it, it's a tire balancing problem. 99 times out of a 100 vibrations come from rotational mass that isn't balanced properly. Rotate the tires and see if the vibration changes

I am set to have the alignment done and tire balance checked on Tuesday. I am not going where I got the tires mounted/balanced but to a shop where I know they will do a good job .... they have a reputation at being the "best in the area" for this type of thing!!

 

[IrishRED]

Just to give an update here (it has been a while) with the short version of the long story. I had an alignment done and all is well with that, only minor adjustments needed. One of the rear wheels/tires took an extremely high amount of weight to get it to balance so I / we (installer) thought there might be a problem with the tire. So, we replaced that tire and nothing changed! So then, just to be safe, the installer swapped out the other rear tire ..... still no change. I then removed the wheel spacers, to see if that might be the issue ... still no change. After that, I put the spacers back on and had the tires rotated and, viola, the vibration is gone from the rear. Additionally, with the suspect wheels/tires now on the front, there is no vibration nor abnormal feel in the steering or front end at all. So the problem is solved .... temporarily, until I have to rotate those tires/wheels to the rear again. When I get some time after the holidays, I will take my truck to another shop and have them double check the wheel balance on the front tires now, again, and also see if there are any issues with the wheels themselves. After all, I have swapped out the tires so, since there is still an issue, it would have to be with the wheels ..... right? The wheels, again, are stock and everything was fine prior to the addition of the new tires shocks and spacers! Any other thoughts or suggestions are welcome at this point!

 

[Scram1500]

Odd that the vibration did not end up in the front after rotation. Sounds like the rims weren't sitting flush on the rear hubs. Have the rims and hubs checked for run out

 

[IrishRED]

So the vibration actually was noticeable in the front just way less and different than in the rear, it took me a while to pickup on it. Just to recap, I had my tires balanced 5 times by two different shops, not the dealership. I even had the two rear tires replaced by the installing shop. Nothing fully worked, so my next step was to try a road force balance. Just last night, I went to Grand Premier Tire & Custom Wheels (<<link, if you happen to be in the Albany, NY area) and told them my sad story. They recommended just doing a normal balancing first because they have found that a lot of shops in the area just are not doing a thorough job, including dealerships. They allowed me to stay in the shop area, to see what they were doing and explain everything, while they ran all four tires/wheels. Of course, they found 3 of the 4 to be out of balance, two significantly .. this after 5 previous attempts!! They stripped all the weights on all four wheels and started from scratch!! End result, they got all the tires balanced properly with less weight on each and even identified a very minor wheel hop on one tire/wheel ... which they did not feel would be an issue. My ride home was smooth as silk and put a huge smile on my face!! Now, obviously, I need to drive a lot more to really evaluate the ride but the shop even said that if this did not solve the problem, they would do the road force balance next and deduct the cost of this initial balance from that bill!

When I got the General tires, I got a great price on the tires, including mounting and balancing and all that. Well, I got exactly what I paid for .... ****ty service!! My advice to all is to make sure that your wheel/tire shop is doing the best job they can for you and that they care about getting it right!! Hopefully this will be my last post on this thread but, if not, I will keep you all updated.

 

[ALT_F13]

Old thread, but reminds me my story.
Leveled with 5100 on 5th setting. On 35" tires - all good, no vibration. But I've recently swapped to 32" Big Horn wheels for a smoother ride in the city and to improve trailer towing MPG.
Until 80mph the ride is super smooth. However, after 80mph I can feel the vibration. Even passengers feel it. Wheels were balanced in the shop that does my tires and they are really good at balancing. My suggestion - vibration in the front axle shafts since CV joints at the angle because of the leveling. Weird that ride is smooth until 80mph and then suddenly it starts shaking. 32" tires mean more rotations at the wheel comparing to 35".