Steering wheel shimmy - tire noise

Howdy,
I have a steering wheel shimmy above 60. I had the tires rebalanced and increased the pressure and its mostly gone away, mostly. I still have an increased tire noise as the BFG Kos have gotten about 25k miles on them. I have 305 65 18s at 35lbs. 3.5 in coilovers. Anyone dealt with something similar?

 

Very common on 4Runners, especially with KO2. I dealt with it on my 4Runner. Was common enough that local shop i used discouraged people from buying KO2 for 4Runners.
It's likely still tire balance. There is a sweet spot for some trucks to get balance just right. Balance is a bit like alignments as far as shop techs go. Green light on machine is good to them but doesn't mean it is actually "good".

 

If you dont have worn steering or suspension components that need attention then the cause is still likely wheel balance. BFG is almost always a problem to balance. And if you have not had the vehicle's front end aligned in the last year, you may need it. Toyotas are sensitive to both alignment and wheel balance and what you describe is the symptom of one of those being off.

 

I mount and balance my tires myself. You probably have a tire that is out of round. I can balance a tire that is 3/8" out of round up/down or left/right on the tread and have it read perfect on the machine, but it's still going to shimmy worse and worse the faster you go.

Your tire techs aren't going to tell you this. You can sure as hell see an out of round tire on the balance machine, but it'll still show balanced on the machine readout with enough wheel weights.

 

Thanks for the responses. I have about 20-22k on the KOs. Should I sell them and get new tires? Anyone of the Toyo, Nitto, Falken that seem better over the other? They are all roughly the same price. If I keep this truck another 4-5 years I don't want to live with it. My alignment is fresh.

 

I basically had the same issue on my old Falkens/Method setup. Road force balance, rebalance, alignment, etc. Finally just bought Toyo ATIII and it's smooth now.

 

I eventually found a guy that balanced my KO2s to get rid of shimmy. Lasted over 10k miles before i noticed it slightly coming back.

Those finally wore out and i got Toyo RT Trail now. Sometimes in cooler temperatures there is a slight shimmy with these but goes away within 5 miles driving.

 

Ok, a solid endorsement for the Toyos. All the Raptors and jeeps running around with KOs having these issues?

 

I pump my KO2 to 40 psi cold anything lower will shimmy.