New Tundra Owner Having Buyers Remorse

Don’t mean to hijack the thread, but I have never run my tires over 40psi. In fact I think the highest I ever ran was 38psi and thats because it was set at the dealership. I lowered it when I checked them.Why would anyone run higher than 36psi?

 

Towing, additional weight in the bed, looking for better fuel economy.

 

Best reason is that they have E-rated tires and can run at the higher pressures ... usually for better towing (thicker sidewall means less trailer sway and higher pressures means more load the tire can safely handle). Plenty of threads on here about load ratings and PSI. But yes, on stock OEM tires you aren't going to run 40psi +.

 

Read the sidewall of the tire, not the sticker on the door. My Michelin's say 51 PSI MAX, so I run them at 42, get a smooth as silk ride, better fuel economy and the tires will wear like a hogs nose. The dealerships and the manufacturer want you to run those lower pressures so your tires act as part of your suspension. Screw that, I want my tires to last a LONG TIME. I say this from experience, having owned and operated a tire store for many years. But, it's whatever you feel most comfortable with.

 

Wow, wish I hadn't pushed that button now. The monitor was reading fine before I pushed it, now it's blank. Have to dig out the manual and see what to do now. Maybe just by driving it will set itself. Back when I had my tire store they had not invented this stuff yet.

 

Those are OEM wheels with the TSS package.

 

If you have Discount Tire in your area, they will reprogram the tire sensors for free. Even if you didn't buy any of the setup there.

 

So i've been doing some playing around with TPMS and how they actually operate while getting the data from them over the air with a RTL SDR dongle and some software to decode the TPMS sensor data. From what I read most TPMS sensors work the same and basically go to sleep when the car hasn't moved for a bit. Pushing the button causes the TPMS control module to send out a brief RF signal telling the sensors to wake up and start reporting in. Pushing it 3 times will also put the control module into a learn state so that new sensor ID's will be accepted by the system. I think the reason they tell you to go drive is so that the sensors don't go back to sleep and will give the entire system time to sync.

Interestingly enough even in their idle sleep state sensors do send RF data out at regular intervals reporting the pressure and temperature. Mine seem to do this every 5 minutes or so from what i've observed.

 

My wife got some rims from a Tundra on her Sequoia. They had factory sensors in them

We went to discount tire and they scanned them in for free

it was a 5 minute job with a tire scan tool

 

Drove the truck up the road and the sensors came back. All is good.

 

If you haven’t driven it since you reset that’s most likely your issue. Once you get it up to speed the pressure should register.

 

Oops looks like you already figured it out

 

So the guy I bought the rims from lives in at Oklahoma but he met me halfway. Only had to drive about 80 miles to meet him. And help me put two on the front because the thing was still vibrating so bad that I could barely drive 65 miles an hour. But now I’m cruising along at 80 smooth as silk. So not only were the tires Lumpier , they were also unbalanced. The new wheels look so much better to me. This has been quite an adventure.

 

So the guy I bought the rims from lives in at Oklahoma but he met me halfway. Only had to drive about 80 miles to meet him. And help me put two on the front because the thing was still vibrating so bad that I could barely drive 65 miles an hour. But now I’m cruising along at 80 smooth as silk. So not only were the tires Lumpier , they were also unbalanced.

 

I liked your black wheels better, but it's not my truck. Glad you got your problem solved. You will be happy now. Enjoy your TUNDRA.

 

Just put the last two on while the PDR guy finishes up. Anyone want to buy some black rims?

 

Glad you got the problem smoothed out. Now you can enjoy your truck!

 

Yes indeed! These tires rides so much better. The previous set must be way out of balance. I can’t believe the tire jockey could be that far off. Had it not been for the severe vibration making me believe something was wrong with the truck, I would have probably kept those tires and wheels on there for a while. I was going to clean them up real good and make the best of it. I

But I’m so much happier now. I can now experience the things that have cause all of you to fall in love with your trucks. But for a minute there, I thought I had been stuck with a problem.

Thanks to everyone that provided support and feedback. This has been a bit stressful. I didn’t sleep at all Sunday night. But I made up for it last night. Now I’m going to go pull 10,000lbs.

 

I feel like I need to jump in here about the tire pressure, yes its true those tires ride a bit rough I just put those on my platinum, I run them at 35psi. You obviously have a TSS model which came with the KO2's and that's why your door sticker says 49psi. You can run these lower for a smoother ride... However... these are LT tires and the load rating is lower if you run at the lower pressure so if you load the truck, tow etc... you will lower your load capacity on this tire. All these people telling you what they run their tires on have no relevance to your TSS with KO2 stock tires. Run them below 49 and they will wear faster and lower gas mileage. just so you know. Maybe a 40-45 might be a good compromise?

 

I replaced them. Tires and wheels. Not only did they ride rough, they were severely out of balance and I didn’t like the look anyway. So I was happy to replace them. And l love the new set...looks and ride quality. The old set is for sell.

But you are right, running those low pressures in that tire immediately hurt the gas mileage and I’m sure it would affect the life of the tire. And I didn’t think about load carrying capacity, but you’re right there too. I don’t know what the load carrying capacity of the new Michelin‘s are, but I will find out and hopefully they’re sufficient for what I do... Which isn’t much.

The only reason I have to pull 10,000 pounds today is because I drove my motorhome over to Dallas from Louisiana to find a vehicle. The selection is better here in the Dallas area. So now I have to put my class b motorhome (large van) back to Louisiana with this truck. But it’s actually only 7,000 pounds so I’m good.

 

I thinks You Spend Couple hundred for a new set of Shocks get a Better Tire and one that works for the Terrain you spend the most time on.

the KO2 are at the point where their going to create a Bubble. I had a set on a diesel same issue

 

Sounds like a good decision, if you went to a passenger tire (p285) then you could go down to what all of us have on our door sticker, other LT tires are similar to the 49 on your door sticker. You got a pretty awesome price on that truck, I've been searching for one for my son.

 

If the front struts haven't been replaced then I'd replace those.

Springs can wear out as well, especially if the truck has been hauling heavy.

 

The dude's truck is only 4 years old, his springs were NOT the problem. The problem WAS the TIRES. He is good now.

 

I've seen shocks and struts completely blown at three years and 50k.

 

Wish I had seen this post earlier. My 2018 came with the same wheels you had. Yours is a TSS which is another version of the XP that I own. My truck was bouncy as can be, and when taking a curve on a bouncy road I truly felt unsafe. Southeast Toyota puts on these heavy wheels and tires on these trucks not accounting for the flimsy factory shock absorbers, making the truck a bear to drive regardless of tire pressure, trust me I tried them all. Finally I decided to upgrade to Bilstein 5100 shocks simply to level out the truck. As luck would have it my truck started driving like a dream from a second to the next. The whole problem all along had been overwhelmed shock absorbers not designed for such a heavy wheel, not to mention larger tires as well which yours was obviously sporting before you changed them.
Glad you sorted it out and are happy with your new wheel / tire setup because I remember how dreadful a drive my brand new truck was.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

I still feel it bounces more than it should and it still shimmies a little under braking so I just stopped at a Brake Plus for a free brake inspection and they said everything looks good. But the maintenance history on the Carfax shows that the brake pads have been replaced twice in the past 10,000 miles as well as the rotors resurfaced, so they have been chasing a shimmie as well.

Since resurfacing the rotors have not solve the problem, new rotors are recommended. I also agree with you that the shocks need replacing. So those are the next repairs on my list. New rotors and new shocks. And I think I’ll take your advice and go with the Bilstein 5100s.

Thanks again!

Ralo

 

Sure hope you get your issues solved. I was hoping it was ALL in those tires. If the price wasn't ridiculous I would say go with the TRD PRO suspension, but DAMN. They want $895 just for ONE shock & spring assembly. And $675 for each rear shock. But man they ride like floating on a cloud and soak up every bump in the road. Something to consider anyway.

 

This has been a good thread to read. Thanks everyone!

 

Well I left Dallas this morning towing my RV. It weights 7000 lbs alone and the car dolly added at least another 2000 (I think), but the Tundra had no problem pulling it. I even had to get up to speed on a pretty short on ramp because a diesel couldn’t get over, and I was quite pleased that the 5.7 did the job.

I averaged 10.9 mpg using cruise control between 60 and 65, but I pretty sure mileage would have been better had I not been using cruise the whole way. The transmission downshifted a lot sending the revs to 3000 (4th gear) quite often, so I’m sure that hurt the gas mileage. But it was nice to see it accelerated back above 60 mph going uphill.

While I still feel a slight vibration when braking, the front wheels bouncing when hitting bumps seems to have diminished once I left Dallas. I’m surprised how bad the roads are over there. I thought Louisiana had the worst roads in the United States, but Dallas is providing some pretty stiff competition. So maybe I won’t need shocks just yet after all. I’ll give it some time and evaluate.

But other than the front brake shimmy, all the other vibrations seem to be resolved, allowing me to explore other aspects of the truck, like tow mode, the stereo, the seats, and the overall ride and handling. I’m still learning the truck, but I can say that I’m not disappointed. Seems I may have gotten a smoking deal after all! Other than the front rotors, the truck seems to be in great condition. I can’t find anything else wrong with it (except gas mileage) .

Thanks to everyone that participated in this thread. I especially appreciate SouthCalPaul providing that link to replacement wheels on Craigslist. That’s when things turned around for me psychologically. When I saw those wheels that I ultimately purchased, it gave me a solution that I was really looking forward to. I know many like the black wheels, but I think those only look good on white, lifted trucks. But to each his own.

Not sure I’ll be doing anything else to the truck. I’m usually ok with a stock setup. The less money I put into it, the better deal it is. If I can get my money back when my CyberTruck is ready, I’ll be thrilled!

Here’s a few more pictures! I think I have the big gas tank! The low fuel light had just come on when I filled up.