General Tech Tire balance or cupping issue

[frieed]

2012 JKU Rubicon with 20k miles, stock BFG 255/75/17 KM1's, 2.5" Teraflex coil lift with shocks @ about 3k mile.

I noticed a bit of steering wheel shimmy starting around 55 mph.
Also at 55 mph, on a tight enough left turn that the left side unloads a little, the driver front tire will start to bounce a bit.

Took it by an as-yet unnamed tire place to have the tires balanced and the sales droid there laid hands upon the tires and
declared them to be cupped and that the shimmy/bounce was something I would just have to live with; the price of mud/terrain tires.
Maybe his hands are extra-extra sensitive or something, but I see zero, none, nada cupping. Looking here for a second opinion on possible causes.

Other than this, the tires are wearing amazingly well.

-Frieed

 

[RogueJeepr]

I wouldnt go back to that tire store if he gave ya that excuse . Is your jeep still under warranty ? Maybe the dealer could help ya better. I'd check the trackbar bolts they may have loosened up a bit. Switch the tires front to back and see if there's any improvment. That will tell ya if a tire is outta balance or not.
Maybe a better stabilizer than OEM might work.

 

[TRD270]

I would get an alignment to start, I've been warned of bad factory alignments on the JK's. I haven't taken mine in yet, but was planning to next week after beating up on it a bit to see how it looks

 

[Hickey]

I've got 19,600 on my JKUR. I noticed uneven wear a month ago. I cross-rotated the tires and they got really loud. Had the balance checked, it was fine. Had the alignment check... It was off by a lot. My other Jeep was off alignment from the factory too.

It drives better after the alignment, and seems my mpgs went up a tick. The tires have started to quiet down after 1200 miles.

 

[TurboMinivan]

As a general rule of thumb, Chrysler will "good will" you one free alignment in the first 12mo/12k miles. However, you have an aftermarket lift on your Jeep, which means all bets are off... unless the dealership installed said lift before you bought the rig. (In that case, you'd definitely need to return to the selling dealer and discuss it.)

HTH

 

[frieed]

I first noticed it right after the Hole in the Rock trip and did a thorough cleaning at the car-wash thinking I had mud sitting on the wheels.
When the wash didn't fix it I started wondering if I had knocked a wheel weight off, but don't see anyplace that looks like one is missing.
I suppose that while running the length of the trail and back at 15 psi the tires could have spun on the wheel a little moving the heavy spots on the tires out of alignment with the balancing weights.

 

[frieed]

Got It aligned Sat. and front wheels re-balanced and the problem is gone.
The alignment was off very slightly which did not surprise him since the tires are wearing really evenly.
So my vote is for a tire slipping on the rim throwing the balance off.

 

[TRD270]

Good to hear the problem is gone