The Completely Pointless Thread II

[twisteroo]

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I walked 47 miles of barbed wire, I use a cobra snake for a necktie........eh, fergaboudit.

[AnthonyG]

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I am going to post my first venting post so here it goes, also it will be long so you have been warned.

I bought new rims and tires for my truck in late January by discount tire direct had everything mounted and balanced by them and shipped to me. I had about 3500 miles on truck and I switched out my crappy pirelli scorpion tires when they came. A few weeks after I put them on I noticed a little vibration in the steering wheel and the right rear when on the high way doing 65+. I wrote it off to maybe being the new tires being falken wild peaks having such an aggressive tread that maybe it was just what comes with those types of tires. I also noticed they maxed out the pressure on my tires the rating was 80psi they were all at 85 when I got them.

Once I dropped the pressure to around 50 psi I noticed alot better feeling. However now that its warmer, for some reason I noticed the vibration more I don't know why. So now my truck is at 7300 miles oil life was 28% so I figured hey time for a oil change and maybe Ill get the balancing checked maybe the guy at the DTD didnt balance them right.

I bring the truck in guy takes it for a ride notices very slight vibration because he didn't go on high way but brings it back changes oil then works on the wheels. Takes off front right puts it in the machines, calls me into the shop and says your rims f***ed, I was like what do you mean they are pretty much brand new and I didnt do any crazy driving yet cause its just becoming spring now. He said no it wasn't you they tried to doctor your defected rim, he showed me and sure enough the rim had a little wobble. In it the machine said it was 9 1/4th out and inside the rim I saw a half moon of weights running up it, 17oz's of weight total on the opposite side of the problem. He checked the right rear same issue that was 9.5 out. They even painted over the weights to hide it because there was so much weight. The other two wheels were fine but these two were the problem so I had to pay the auto shop for their time in finding the problem and the oil change and I went home to call.

When I got home I called the company and told the rep what happened of course he played the shocked card. I dont blame the customer service though I blame whoever they have doing their balancing they should have had the common sense to hold up my order and just say these are defective cant mount them. So the CS rep shipped out two new rims that day they should be here tomorrow and he said after I get them mounted send them the auto shop bill and they will reimburse me the costs. So they are trying to do the right thing and I appreciate that from the customer service people but seriously a tech should know better then send out rims and tires like that where it causes potential for things to go real bad. I just hope the replacement rims aren't messed up, if they are I will just toss this set and put back on the FX4 20's and get different tires since the scorpions suck.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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This is why I am very leery about buying this kind of stuff online. Better off going directly to a shop and getting it done. If you're going to get ripped off, might as well be by the experts of ripping off here in NJ.

[AnthonyG]

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The problem was I up sized my overall tire diameter and places like sts and pepboys wont mount anything that goes above the manufacturers standard size. Stupid company policies so for the most part there was really no where I could go for the rims, The site I bought from though has hundreds of retail locations they just aren't really on the east coast. They seem to be doing the right thing by me but I wont know till these rims come today and I get it all re mounted and balanced.

[Twitchin Kitten]

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Yeah they're doing the right thing. You just missed the joke laced with sarcasm

Don't go to shit joints like Pep Boys and the like. They don't do this stuff because it messes with the calibration of the odometer and stuff like that. Go to a speed shop to get things done. They will also know how to calibrate that shit and give your vehicle accurate record keeping abilities. You can only go up like one size or some shit (LK will know exactly) before it starts messing up the odometer reading.

Buy your rims and tires and find a shop that does work on race cars and stuff. I'll also pm you a place that does things "against the rules" by you. I don't want it public.

[LKTraz]

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As far as sizes......you can get such a wide variety that by doing just a little homework you can play with a multitude of width/height combinations and not affect your speedometer/odometer calibration.

As a general rule though, 2 widths up and one sidewall height up in combination will only minimally affect the settings and you really won't notice it. More than that and it make a difference.

For example: Your truck is spec'd for 225/60 x 15 tires. You could go with 245/75's with no real problem. As well 255/60's would also be ok.

Speed shops can get you the tire height corrected drive gear for your speedometer in MOST cases.

A & A auto parts can get you damn near anything you want being that they are owned by 3 time Top Fuel champion Joe Amato. Now the nearest stores to you are in Allentown and Bethlehem but if you really want something it could be worth the phone call and later drive to the store. Hell if you're feeling spiffy you could do a combo trip and hop on over another 25 - 30 miles and hit Cabela's while you're at it!

http://www.aaautostores.com/

[AnthonyG]

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I went to bryant automotive by me and his guys remounted the tires on the replacement rims, they are pretty cool about doing whatever I needed done they just charge more then most places in the area for it. It didn't really matter in this case since DTD said they would reimburse me for any costs in inspecting and remounting and balancing the tires to the new rims. Luckily it did the trick and the only thing I feel now is the not completely smooth ride because of the aggressive tread of the tires which I expected.

As far as diameter differences and such, I used a calculator on the f150 forums before I bought these tires and rims in January. The oem tire and rim for my model was the 20" rim that was 8.5 wide the tires were 275/55/20. I dropped to an 18 inch rim same width and tire size is now 275/70/18 calculator said diameter increase of 3.76%. So at 100 mph what my speedometer showed would be 3.76 mph less then my true speed. On average my speedometer is only 1-2 mph less then my true speed since I dont drive around town at 70 mph lol.

[twisteroo]

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I dont drive around town at 70 mph lol.

Why not??

[Twitchin Kitten]

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I do when i'm in the mustang

[twisteroo]

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I do on a bicycle.

I once doubled the speed limit downhill in a school zone. Caught on one of those radar wagons.