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Posted

I talked to a tire guy who services my companys fleet about road force balancing. He had one for a while and got rid of it because he said a normal tire balancer that is in good working order will balance a tire just as good in his opinion. We actually used to have balance our own tires at a job I had many years ago and we used a bubble balancer, very old school but worked every time.

I might tend to disagree. There are 2 things everyone should keep in mind:

 

First, it's not "Road Force Balancing". It's measuring the Road Force Variation, and then attempting to correct it. If the RFV is high, there are limited things to reduce it. What Hunter calls "Force Matching" can help, but because of the nature of Force Matching, may not is some cases. Basically, all the tire shop guy can do is index the tire and wheel to cancel out each other excess RFV. But, if the wheel is perfectly round and has no runout, then a tire exhibiting high RFV cannot be compensated. Remember, the RFV is generated by variation in the tire rubber stiffness and/or runout/out-of-round of the tire or wheel. Not weight imbalance. That is completely different force generator. The tire manufacturers will grind the tread slightly to reduce a "hard spot" on the tire, but this is rarely done in the tire shops and GM prohibit is it.GM says if the tires can't be Force Matched adequately, get a new tire.

 

Second, traditional tire balancing is simple a weight balancing correction. So, a tire with excessive RFV can be weight balanced and still shake the vehicle like crazy when it rolls on the road. Now, I know we never did RFV and never had problems. I myself have done many bubble balance tire installs. So what's different? Why is it such a big deal?

 

Many reasons. Cars are much stiffer now, so much more of the road vibration, and tire generated vibration, is transmitted up to the driver. Plain and simple.

 

Tire compounds are much different that 30 years ago. Even over the last 10 years, tire rubber is made completely different. Remember when 30,000 miles was a good tire? Now we have tires last 3 tim s that long. How? Totally different rubber compounds.

 

Remember when cars had 13" and 14" wheels? And pickups had the big 15"! Now, we start at 18". The 22"s on my Yukon weigh twice what a 14" would in the old days. And, that mass I out a much larger diameter, which generates significantly more centrifugal force. In fact, the force goes up with the square of the radius!

 

Add it all together and the tires and wheels need to be much better that 30 years ago.

 

And remember, the tire manufacturers have been checking their tires on Uniformity machines for years, unbeknownst to us. So, it's been done for a long time. It's nothing new. The only thing relatively new if the Hunter GSP 9700 which brought the technology to the aftermarket level and put it in the tire shops.

 

At the end of the day, a decent tire that has been uniformity checked by the tire manufacturer mounted on a decent wheel, weight balanced only, and put on a vehicle that is not SUPER sensitive, will work fine. But that doesn't mean RFV is "useless" as some tire guys would have you believe. They just don't understand it enough to be able to apply it properly, and make is useful. It's a bit high tech, and the tire shop industry has always been on the low tech side!

 

And there is one last thing to consider. Most tire shops will denounce the value of RFV for reasons of cost and practicality. First, the machine is more expensive than others that do an "adequate" job. Second, any idea how long it takes to do the full RFV/Force Matching per the Hunter manual? Several hours. Most tires shops aren't making much profit if it takes that long. And the know most customers won't pay the extra because the whole concept will be way over most customers heads. And most customers will say" what do I need that for? Never had to do that before". Easier for the tire shops to get you in and out quickly, get your money, and carry on with life. And last, I order to actually correct for a large amount of RFV, the only solution is a different tire. How many tire shops carry a massive inventory of each and every tire make, model and size? None. All the shops I've every dealt with have a small amount of inventory and usually,,they have to get a set "from the warehouse" across down. So imagine the tire shop,is going to do a proper, full RFV install of tires for you. You book the appointment and they bring in a set of tires. You show up and wait patiently for 2 hours while the guy attempts to force match out the high RFV on one or two of the tires. Finally, he says "well, I can't get it in spec. I need to order tow more tires. Can you bring it back tomorrow, or leave it here till I get it? May take a coule more days." Most customers would freak out!

 

Sor practically, it's almost impossible to make use of the technology. And most tire shops, even if they do understand it, will opt out. And it's easier to simply adopt that opinion that "it doesn't do anything" then fully understand it explain it.

 

IMHO!!

  • Like 3
Posted

I appreciate GM Customer Care commenting on here, I have been treated very well by them so far with my issues.

 

I would like to say while my truck is still in for the vibration issue my dealership has done an amazing job at keeping me a happy customer.

 

Wesley Chapel Chevrolet has gone well above and beyond attempting to rectify my vibration, and if anyone is in the Tampa Bay area I highly recommend them because of their level of Customer Service.

  • Like 1
Posted

I'm wondering if GM found something since they suddenly came back and are trying to talk to so many people..... I doubt it though. With all the issues my truck has, I'd love to get atleast one of them fixed, but I'm not holding my breath

  • Like 1
Posted

Hello littlecricket,

We would like the opportunity to further assist on your behalf. I apologize for the inconvenience, but if you wouldn?t mind could you send us a private message with further details regarding your concern. We look forward to hearing from you.

Kindly,

Brandon J.

GM Customer Care

Brandon J,

 

Nice to see the flurry of posts. Hope you will reaching out to each and every person on this thread who is having unresolved problems. That said, why the sudden activity? Is there any chance you can shed some light with us? And how about the SUV thread with the similar issues?

  • Like 1
Posted

Brandon J,

 

Nice to see the flurry of posts. Hope you will reaching out to each and every person on this thread who is having unresolved problems. That said, why the sudden activity? Is there any chance you can shed some light with us? And how about the SUV thread with the similar issues?

would definitely be nice to know

Posted

So an update on my 2015 Silverado. Since filing for the vehicle defect notice the truck was dropped off at the dealership. During its 10 day sleepover at the dealership they were able to confirm the vibration on the dealerships picoscope as well as the GM engineers picoscope. Like every other time they went back to the tires being by issue. They ended up finding the actual rims were out of balance per GM specs. I believe they said the rims alone took around 7 ounces to balance and weren't supposed to be over 4. Just FYI I have the 22" wheels. They ordered new ones which came scratched from the factory and then ordered another set. They also attempted to balance my original set which the dealer had because they had scratched during the first few visits and had already replaced them. Those wheels were also to far out of specs. They finally ended up getting a good set of wheels finally within GM specs. Next it was on to the tires!!!! Without getting my paper work out I think they ended up using 2-3 sets of tires to get 4 good tires that would pass the GM specs. I also have be Bridgestone duelers A/T tires. During all the balance process the dealer even had the hunter reps being out an actual large vehicle which had the latest and greatest hunter balancerachone on it and tbey used it as well as their in house balanced to verify balancing accuracy. So to end the long story they actually called me on the 10th day at 5pm and said the truck was finished. In Florida all they have is 10 days to complete the repairs. Kind of funny they called and finished on the last hour they had. The truck does ride better but it's been a few weeks and there is still a vibration and the intermittent vibration still comes and goes while at highways speeds. GM customer care called and I told them it still wasn't completed. They said in their eyes the truck was completed and offered me half a months truck payment. What a complete waste of my time. No one from GM even rode in my truck upon completion so how can they say it fixed? It's actually an insult to me that I bought a 50k truck and they think I'm worried about 225$ really GM?? Guess it's off the the BBB to file a class against GM. I have been patient and kept my cool with GM during the entire process but it's a joke how they are treating this issue. I have all documentation and videos and ready to take them the the BBB and arbitration if necessary! Good luck everyone!

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

Hello daveturton,

 

We are sorry to hear about your 2015 Silverado console shaking concern. This certainly is not what you should expect with a new vehicle. Could you please send us a private message with further details, your full contact information, current vehicle mileage and VIN?

 

We look forward to assisting you further.

 

Best,

 

Brandon J.

GM Customer Care

 

Well I hope some of these guys your are asking to PM you get back to us on this thread telling us what you have done for them. I have the vibration problem in my 2015 Sierra and have yet to have it back to my dealer for I know there is no fix for this yet. I do not need 4 sets of tires or new rims just to have the same problem. As far as I am concerned GM should find out what is wrong or just go back to putting 2013 parts back on these new trucks. I had NO PROBLEMS with my 2013 Sierra. This is not right and someone has to make it right. We bailed out GM with our tax money and now you are making BILLIONS and we are stuck with $40 to $60 thousand dollar trucks that ride like a 1972 Jeep CJ5.

Edited by rshad
  • Like 1
Posted

I'm wondering if GM found something since they suddenly came back and are trying to talk to so many people..... I doubt it though. With all the issues my truck has, I'd love to get atleast one of them fixed, but I'm not holding my br

I'm wondering if my efforts have had anything to do with this. I received a "thank you" card from GM marketing. It was signed by a GM executive. I reached out to that individual via linked in and shared our concerns via a linkedin message. In my original message, I included a link to my website to help them see the severity of the issues in one place. Another individual reached out to me via linkedin to setup a call to discuss. I obliged as I would love to see this resolved for all of those who had issues.

 

Those that have accused me of not so nice things, sorry that you feel that way. Nothing would make me happier than seeing all of those that are frustrated to have an ear that is willing to listen and help them get the truck that they want. I'm fortunate to hvae been able to buy my way out of a vibrating truck, that isn't the same for everyone. Hopefully this effort from GM is a true effort in standing behind their product. Maybe we never get to 1,000,000 views :)

  • Like 1
Posted

Posted a video of shake before. Had tires balanced less than 1000 miles ago. Truck vibration seems improved but still there. I think it was mentioned previously about the temperature. It had previously been rather mild temp wise and the truck was shaking more. Now that it's cold the vibration is less. Balance was done about a month ago. I think it's going in for its second visit soon.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Good Morning sk252,

 

I’m genuinely sorry to hear about your vibration concern. Could you please keep us updated with how your second visit goes? If you would like to discuss your concern in further detail, please feel free to send us a private message.

 

Thank You,

 

Brandon J.

GM Customer Care

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