Out of Round LTB's I'm thinking

Picked up the 33x13.5 LTB's yesterday...






While they look dandy, the make the truck Vibe like a Magic Finger Bed....

They came on the rims and barely had any use (wonder WHY?!?! DOH!!)

you could still read "SWAMPER" on each outer lug they're so new...The rims were new when he bought the tires and they came to me with weights on them...figured they may be balanced....NOPE...Took them to NTB and they balanced them for free with LOTS of weight


....uh What is the point of you are going over 180* around the rim?

Brought it back and had them re-do it t oday...still no joy....I went up to the shop and Zach and I pulled them off and used 20oz of BB's (The
new Silver SPEED MAX from Daisy ;-) )in each wheel...same vibes at
the same speeds, just as harsh.......

Oh well, we shall see...I currently have the SSR's back on...and it drives smooth as silk.

Well...Thinking the tires are out of round or there is an issue with
a wheel...taking the set to john billings at GSP to see what he
says...I'm hoping that if it's a tire issue, that he can rectify it
with interco even though I got them from a fella in Ct...John Knows his shinola so if it's a wheel or tire issue he can deal with it.

Who knows!!

Worst case scenario is they end up as trail tires!

They could very well be out of round. Swampers are know for it. Being bias doesn't help either. You probably should do what you can to make sure the tires are mounted on the same side as the rig they came off of. I've been told that they the belts shift around during the first 50-100 miles and settle in. If the rotation direction is changed they become a beast.

Stupid question, but how long did you run them and did you have them balanced while they were warm. With new tires we alway's ran them unbalanced for a few day's an made sure they had about 40 miles driving time (immediately before) when balancing them. The BB's should adjust for it, but the tires might have some nasty flat spots if they set on a parked rig for very long. You should be able to see if they're out of round on the balancing machine or on the rig. Spin them by hand and hold something close and what the distance. Make sure the rims aren't fubarred too.

If these are like the original TSL's you can't compare them to an SSR. They will be twice as loud, ride twice as rought, and wear more than twice as fast.

Good Luck.

I only brought the SSR's up to show that alignment was not an issue (had it taken care of this AM anyhow and it's bubble on.

Tozovr,
Those things look awesome, but I can tell you that's the ride they're gonna give. I had the 34" LTB version that I used for off-road only. They are incredible off-road. When I sold the 32 BFG AT's I ran the LTB's for a month in the summer. They were awefull. I had driven with them in the winter to trails a couple of times too. They flat spot since they are bias, especially if it sits outside in the cold. It usually took about 10 min. of interstate speed to get them warmed up enough to eliminate most of the blurring vission they created. They were still loud though!!! The month I had them on the road, I found out a few things about the bias Swampers;

-They are terrible in wet weather, so watch out. Very little traction.

-they will wear out quickly, a friend ran them every day. After 10,000 miles they were bald.

-my 34's had terrible road wander, as the sidewall flexed alot on the road

-My gas mil. went from 18 with the at's to 12 with the LTB's.

-They're pretty tough, but I noticed some slicing in the rocks, unlike the truxs which I've yet to rock slice (they've seen more rock than the LTB's too).

I decided that it was a pain to switch tires to wheel. I also had a few times were I went wheelin' in the AT's because the mood hit and I wasn't near the house to change tires. So I sold the LTB's and bought the Swamper Truxs. The Truxs is awesome in all areas!!! For the true daily driver that runs rock and mud too, the Truxs is it!! They are slightly louder than the AT's, will prob. get 40,000 miles tread life or more, killer in the mud, killer in the rock, and gas milleage is around 15 with 35's vs the 18 with the 32 AT's.

THE ONLY THING I MISS ABOUT THE LTB'S... The scared looks people used to give to me when they heard my XJ growling through the neighborhood. Women and children would often be seen heading for the nearest door into their house.

Run them for off-road, save the ssr's for the road. When they wear out, get som TRXUS!!
Greddy

See this is not my first set of Bias swampers...and we're not talking rough ride...we talking shit falling off the seats and the rear seat. The steering column smashing up and down...The rig bounces all over...this is an out of round tire or a bent rim...
We have other rigs in the club with LTB's that smooth right out once the morning flatspots are gone, this is
we'll get to the bottom of it.


I've run the TrXus (had them in 31's last year) and it's a great tire, but here in New England with the steep wet, muddy rocks, it's real swampers or a strap...

I've got 33x13.50 ltb's on the TJ, and its my DD. Other than flat spotting for the first 5 minutes, I have no problems. I know a guy that works at Interco. I bought my LTB's from him. He works in the design/ development/ marketing division, but might could help you out, if not he'll get you someone that will. Dev Besse (800)299-8000.


HTH!!
Patrick Toney

I bought the LTBs Greddy had and I love them off road but yes on road they make it hard to keep the XJ on the road going road speeds...I have noticed that on the wheels the lug holes are rounded out so we are going to put them on a new set of wheels before we judge them as the problem. Aas tot he bias part I love mine will not go back to any other for my Rigs. We have the 34" on one and the 32" will go on the new rig...

As of right now the tires are getting dealt with on one of these..

http://209.176.154.132/pub/technical/4127T/4127t.cfm

A $15,000 Hunter Road force. If this won't balance them it will tell me where the issue is (wheel, Tire, XJ)


RJ

The bigger the tire (doesn't matter what brand), the more likely it is to be out of round. You can balance an out of round tire perfectly if you have the room to hang enough weight on it, but it will still be out of round. Trueing the tire can have a drastic positive effect.

Most of the local tire stores in my area are reluctant to sell Interco tires, simply because they are largely such a headache to get to run smoothly on "street vehicles".(there are literally hundreds of lifted trucks in my area that NEVER see actual off-road conditions). The real problem in my opinion is misapplication. Even though they are DOT rated and street legal, they are still off-road tires. As a result they will not have the handling, wear life, etc of a true "street tire". But if you need the all out performance for off road applications, you have to live with a compromise. It's a decision we each make.

I am not "bashing" Interco...I have seen how well those tires perform when the going gets tuff...I have seen more swampers on the "tug" end of the strap than on the "tow" end..just my 2 cents.

Here's what you should do:

lower your air pressure to 10psi or less and drive around on them. If they weren't broken in by now they will be after this. When you get them broken in you should notice a considerably larger sidewall bulge and a smoother running tire.

The LTB's are horribly stiff and should never be inflated over 25 psi for any type of driving. We found that the extra pressure of the bias ply will allow for to much stiffness and a very harsh ride. After break-in they rode much smoother, however still loud as hell.

FatXJ said:

Here's what you should do:

lower your air pressure to 10psi or less and drive around on them. If they weren't broken in by now they will be after this. When you get them broken in you should notice a considerably larger sidewall bulge and a smoother running tire.

The LTB's are horribly stiff and should never be inflated over 25 psi for any type of driving. We found that the extra pressure of the bias ply will allow for to much stiffness and a very harsh ride. After break-in they rode much smoother, however still loud as hell.

Click to expand...

Tires do not "Break-in"!If there is such a term they would "Break-out".If what you said was true I could drive awhile on my 10yr old trailer tires and they would become pliable again(I dont think so)!Rubber like other products "cures" over its lifetime becoming harder with each "Heat cycle".

I agree with having the tires "trued",also check the rims for "run-out".

I had a set of TSL´s on my Tow truck. You´ll probably figure out whats going on, when you run them on the analyzer. I had to try mine, on various spots on the rim (break the bead and twist) trial and error, until I found the spot with the fewest wieghts. They ran much better, after the trailing edges of the lugs, wore down some (after 1000 miles or so). Then I rebalanced. Always were harsh in the cold.

If you haven't already, have a tire shop check and see if any of the wheels themselves are bent or 'out of round'. I worked at a tire shop for years and pulled many brand new steel rims out of the box that were bent.

Second, find a tire shop that knows what "match balance" means and see if thier machines can do that. Basically the balancer matches the heavy spot on the tire with the light spot on the wheel. I did that with my old CJ on 33's and wound up with half the amount of weight on each wheel than I started with and a much better ride.

Also find a tire shop that has "truck weights". These are simply traditional clip on weights like you have but much and heavier and thicker so that you can have the same amount of weight in a smaller area so you aren't wraping the weights way around the wheel like in your picture.

In your pic showing all the weights on your wheel I see that there are weights directly across from one another. Those two weights are useless because they cancel each other out. The "truck weights" I mentioned will help keepthis from happening. They won't have to wrap the weights so far around the rim.

Good luck-------------Dave

Well the tires and rims are OK....and the felas at this place got them much closer and things are much better...BUT

There's always a BUT! Seems as though much of my issue lies in the rig...as I said, the SSR's (32x11.5) ride very well and there are few Vibe issues except for two small spots at specific speeds, and it's barely noticeable. It is at these two spots that the LTB's are horrendous. Thinging my crappy castor is to blame. Getting my angles back I feel will likely cure the rest of the issues....soooooooo, the Clayton Kit will get slapped on this next week or so, instead of waiting another month.



Thanks for the hlep and support fellas, turns out I'm mostly the problem LOL!!


RJ

ya know RJ.. you arent making a good sals pitch for the LTBs i was thinkin about getting... definately going with the radials... now i understand what you meant when you said you messed up your neck messing with the new tires.. and once again the rig looks great.. think i'll start calling you CAPTIAN BOLT-ON since if its on the market its bolted to your rig.... :laugh2:

mike

Update!

All is well with the LTB's...rides super, no wobbles (just bumpsteer due to the aforementioned contol arm angles).

How about captain Jeep-crack since there's been lotsa welding, plasma cutting and saw zalling!! :guitar: