Bad experiance with BFG Rugged Terrains

Chris344 · December 28, 2011

At the end of October I decided to replace the stock Goodyears on the Yukon with a set of BFG Rugged Terrains in 275 55 R20. I noticed after picking the truck up that there was a substantial vibration above 70 mph. After re-balancing the tires 4 times, BFG agreed to replace the tires with another set.

The second set was even worse. I took it to back to the GMC dealer (thinking maybe it wasn't the tires but something in the drive line) and they told me that the tires had a bad Road Force test number. BFG then wanted to replace the tires again (with another set of Rugged Terrains) and would not refund my money. As of today, I've had to take the Yukon to the dealer or the tire store eight different times to get this taken care of.

After spending a a few hours on the phone with BFG this week, they agreed to put on some Michelin LTX's. The vibration is finally gone, but this style of tire was definitely not my first choice.

I really liked the way the Rugged Terrain looked but after all this hassle, I wish I would have gone with the Nitto Terra Grapplers.

RockySierra · December 28, 2011

It seems to be hit or miss when it comes to tires. For every positive comment about a tire, there seems to be a negative one too. There will be people on here who swear by the BFG Rugged Terrain and then there will be those like you who don't like em and have had issues.

Spurshot · December 28, 2011

It seems to be hit or miss when it comes to tires. For every positive comment about a tire, there seems to be a negative one too. There will be people on here who swear by the BFG Rugged Terrain and then there will be those like you who don't like em and have had issues.

I was thinking the same thing. BFG is a fairly well established and mostly respected tire product line/company. Although I am not a current consumer of BFG tires, I have been in the past. It's disconcerting to hear of such a fundamental product quality problem from someone about the BFG tires.

I was riding to So Dakota with a friend one year and he had a vibration in a Cooper A/T style tire that required replacement on that trip as determined by a Cooper dealer in Cedar City UT. I suppose it happens from time to time. But, jeeze, 2 sets in a row? That's just a runaway quality control problem.

This is why people that find a tire they have good luck with stick with them and become loyal followers. My current following is for Toyo A/T tires. With my 99 GMC, I was a follower of the factory installed Firestone Wilderness A/T E rated tires. They gave good service and good tread life. I had a number of sets, ultimately going 225,000 miles.

Stevens03 · December 28, 2011

I had a similar experiance with BFG once with my 03. I installed 35" tires and they were terrible. I had to fight with BFG to get them replaced, but in the end they were replaced and never had a problem afterwards. I made several trips back to the installer, then NTB, then an offroad shop costing me quite abit trying to get them balanced. I initially thought the tire places just didn't know how to handle 35" tires. But the offroad shop was the place that told me the tires were not able to be balanced and needed replaced.

After much frustration, I was happy.

RockySierra · December 28, 2011

Well I had thought I had found a great tire to stick with after having them on several of my trucks, however I am finding that Yokohama Geolanders to be complete crap on this truck, as well as the Bridgestone duellers that it came with from the factory. I will be trying a different brand when it comes time to replace.

Chris344 · December 28, 2011

It seems to be hit or miss when it comes to tires. For every positive comment about a tire, there seems to be a negative one too. There will be people on here who swear by the BFG Rugged Terrain and then there will be those like you who don't like em and have had issues.

I'm thinking it may have to do with the size I had. When I picked up the Yukon yesterday, the service manager told me that he was in the process of replacing the 4th set of Rugged Terrains on a customers Yukon that had the 20's.

manley · December 28, 2011

Just curious... did you try "road-force" balancing? I've had the vibration issue, and that solved it. Happened on my wife's Lexus RX, as well as my current Silverado. Really does cure the "vibration at speed" problem!!!

RockySierra · December 29, 2011

Never heard of that, what is it? All I do is have a 4-wheel alignment done after every tire purchase, and a re-balance done every other rotation.

Chris344 · December 30, 2011

Just curious... did you try "road-force" balancing? I've had the vibration issue, and that solved it. Happened on my wife's Lexus RX, as well as my current Silverado. Really does cure the "vibration at speed" problem!!!

I did try that, that is how it was determined the tires were defective. From what I understand, the machine gives your tires a "score," low being good and high being bad, and all of my tires (both times) had high scores.

The bad part about that test is that it is expensive ($100). To make things worse, BFG said they wouldn't cover the cost! So as it stands now I'm out the money I spent trying to correct the problem. Even after calling BFG numerous times, they still will not cover the cost.

As said, this has been a very negative experience.

RockySierra · December 30, 2011

Who did you purchase the tires from

manley · January 3, 2012

Just curious... did you try "road-force" balancing? I've had the vibration issue, and that solved it. Happened on my wife's Lexus RX, as well as my current Silverado. Really does cure the "vibration at speed" problem!!!

I did try that, that is how it was determined the tires were defective. From what I understand, the machine gives your tires a "score," low being good and high being bad, and all of my tires (both times) had high scores.

The bad part about that test is that it is expensive ($100). To make things worse, BFG said they wouldn't cover the cost! So as it stands now I'm out the money I spent trying to correct the problem.

Road force balancing is not a "test", it is balancing a wheel/tire under loaded conditions. You need to find a new tire store!

Chris344 · January 3, 2012

Who did you purchase the tires from

I ordered the initial set from discounttiredirect.com, they had a really good price and free shipping. The first set was replaced by Hay Tire in Charleston, SC. They were really easy to work with even though I didn't buy the tires from them. The second set was replaced by the GMC dealer.

Just curious... did you try "road-force" balancing? I've had the vibration issue, and that solved it. Happened on my wife's Lexus RX, as well as my current Silverado. Really does cure the "vibration at speed" problem!!!

I did try that, that is how it was determined the tires were defective. From what I understand, the machine gives your tires a "score," low being good and high being bad, and all of my tires (both times) had high scores.

The bad part about that test is that it is expensive ($100). To make things worse, BFG said they wouldn't cover the cost! So as it stands now I'm out the money I spent trying to correct the problem.

Road force balancing is not a "test", it is balancing a wheel/tire under loaded conditions. You need to find a new tire store!

What I meant by test was the Road Force measurement that is achieved from the Road Force machine. The load roller on the machine performs a computer simulated "road test". It measures the tire/wheel assembly to determine how "round" the assembly is when rolling under a load. This is how it was determined that the tires were not "round" and were too defective to fix with a proper balancing. At least this is how I understood the procedure.

MikeNH · January 3, 2012

^ That's correct. We had one at the dealer I worked at and it was hit or miss. Sometimes it'd work great, other times it would not. (What the machine is doing is it will measure tire roundness and wheel roundness and somehow determine the best tire/wheel relationship to "even out" the imperfection).

rerla · January 4, 2012

I had the same problem, bad wear, lots of vibration, alignments done all the time, balance done all the time. Went with the Nitto...way smoother.

gnet158 · February 1, 2012

Maybe the size has something to do with it but I ran them on my good old S-10 and loved them. Go 60k out of them. But that was also a lonnng time ago.