Bias ply tires......

Rattly my teeth out. Is there any way to get bias tires to soften up a little? I'm runnin them at about 10 PSI on the street, just to see if it helps any. I've noticed that the tires dont bulge almost at all, and look like they have about 30 lbs of air in 'em.

Also, im balancing them with airsoft bb's. eight ounces in each tire. they arent doing thier job. when i hit 30-40 mph (cruising speed around portland) the slightest little bump will send my front end into DW. Everything is tight and greased, the only thing thats not is my steering box. I have about 2'' of play in it. But that never affects anything with my Procomps or my street tires. Will actually having my tires balanced with lead wheel weights help my situation any?

All I know is bias-ply isn't recommended for street. At 10 psi I would think you'd wear them out fast. So you may want to watch them for abnormal wear.

Is it the white knuckled "i'm going to die," shaking the jeep apart kind of deathwobble?

2" of play in your steering box is a lot, I'd look into that if I were you. 10 psi for the street isn't good either, it will cause excess heat, which best-case scenario will wear your tread much faster. Worst-case scenario it will cause ply seperation, leading to premature tire failure, i.e. blowout. You should be running 20-25 psi on the street.

Dude i have the EXACT same problem. 38" tsls but i run at 19 psi. I switched to the airsoft bbs (10 oz in each) and had no change (but it rides better at 70mph). between 30 and 40 mph the front end wants to shake off. I have no idea what it could be. it seems to be worse when I turn the steering wheel to the left at that speed. maybe we can figure this shit out, its been doing this since I bought it.
Rustys 8" long arm (semi-radius arm) up front.

Have someone sit in your rig with the trans in neutral and work the steering wheel back and forth while you crawl under there and see where the play is. The track bar lower bracket at the axle is the most likely culprit. Check your steering box bolts and tie rod/drag link ends as well. You shouldn't have significant play in any of those spots, they should feel solid and not "clunk".


Death-wobble is a symptom of a problem, not a problem in itself. Also check your caster angle (S/B 87.5 degrees as measured at the milled surface of the front diff where the cover bolts up) Tires being out of balance is often a cause as well, and can be caused by something as simple as dried chunks of mud stuck to the wheels. Pressure-wash the wheel inner diameters (where they clear the calipers/drums) and check to see if your wheel balance weights got thrown/scraped off on the trail.

Good luck.

Honestly you are SOL. Bias tires do ride like crap on the street compared to radials, Its all in the tire construction.
Just accept that your lifted, locked and now bias tired rig, is set up better for the dirt that the street. Its not a bad thing, its just the thing YOU decided to do with it! Enjoy.

I used to have a set of 32x11.5 bias ply road tires for my F100. When I was in highschool I'd bolt them up, drive the truck into school and let the kids in autoshop try and balance them.

One kid actually gave a tire back to me with wheel weights all the way around it, on both sides. I guess he just didn't get it.

I don't have any play in the steering and the trackbar is solid. the caster angle (from my measurements) is 6 degrees back. I dunno about the toe i have not checked it. did this start happening when you put the bias tires on? or did it do it with the pro comps too?

from my experience tsl's are a lost cause, the tires were physically not round, i tried bb's and whatnot. the best thing i could do to get them driveable was switching the 2 worst tires to the back. the leaf springs absorb alot of the weight thrown around better than a linked suspension.

they do make smooth, sound bias ply tires though. irok's arent bad and come pre-balanced from the factory via a rubber strip glued to the inside. my 37" creepy crawlers came damn near perfect. never flat spotted.

the pro comps never did it. i may have to switch front to rear and see if that helps. but that sucks cause the ones i have on the front have less tread than the rears.

I can tell that my DW is slightly worse when it is cold outside, and the tires heating up doesnt have much effect on that. Also, when I attach the sway bar I can't even drive the jeep cause the DW is so bad.