How many trucks DONT vibrate?

Fole75 · August 9, 2015

Last week while at work I noticed another person with a crew cab/standard bed just like mine, we both have no issues. I had my ring and pinion replaced. Now there is a crew with a short box.. He has the vibration going on.. There are a few double cabs on base with no issues..

Is it possible that there is a issue with the trucks are coming out of the Mexico plant vs the ones coming from flint or Indiana?

It's just a head scratching thought from last week..

CANDenali · August 9, 2015

Nope. My 14 Denali was built in Mexico and she's smooth.

Sent from Windows Phone.

Robert.jean1 · August 9, 2015

Built in Mexico and smooth although it does shimmy at low speeds due to MT tread.

Roader · August 9, 2015

CC standard box, for most part no vibration but sometimes in the 70s i do feel slight vibration. Could just be the road. I havnt had it long enough to compare the feeling each time since the highway Im on is heavy with traffic

Fole75 · August 9, 2015

I wonder why its so spotty with the vibrations... Just made me think when the two others I know with short boxes vs the standard box...Googled a lot of it.. Pretty much couldn't find a def. answer...

CounterMeasure · August 10, 2015

I wonder why its so spotty with the vibrations... Just made me think when the two others I know with short boxes vs the standard box...Googled a lot of it.. Pretty much couldn't find a def. answer...

My belief is there are wide tolerances for acceptability in various driveline components for cost reasons, and probably considered fine in the past on older body styles. You luck out and get just enough of parts that are on the edge of acceptability and you get some vibration. Now couple that with less mass overall to dampen the vibrations in the new body. Even better, add the thin high tensile steel used in the bodies to give rigidity but also happens to be really good at sending vibrations right up the body panels. Perfect storm.

I suspect as builds continue on the K2 design, certain parts will have their tolerances tighten up, and the vibration reports will slowly decrease. As an engineer in a large company myself, I am sure engineering is screaming for a set of things they believe will make it perfect, but the bean counters are pushing back due to cost of implementation. They'll have to find a happy medium, which might take several iterations.

Fole75 · August 10, 2015

My belief is there are wide tolerances for acceptability in various driveline components for cost reasons, and probably considered fine in the past on older body styles. You luck out and get just enough of parts that are on the edge of acceptability and you get some vibration. Now couple that with less mass overall to dampen the vibrations in the new body. Even better, add the thin high tensile steel used in the bodies to give rigidity but also happens to be really good at sending vibrations right up the body panels. Perfect storm.

I suspect as builds continue on the K2 design, certain parts will have their tolerances tighten up, and the vibration reports will slowly decrease. As an engineer in a large company myself, I am sure engineering is screaming for a set of things they believe will make it perfect, but the bean counters are pushing back due to cost of implementation. They'll have to find a happy medium, which might take several iterations.

Well thought! Good perspective on things.. This is my first GM came from Jeeps.. Did the prior body style have the vibration issues???

JRL1164 · August 10, 2015

14 Double Cab 4X4 with no vibrations.

XMR15 · August 11, 2015

2015 all terrain crew cab with 4.5 inch lift and 35s and no vibration! Smooth as butter even with the big tires. I was told these trucks tend to vibrate for some reason and I should re-think the lift with 35s...however no problems at any speed.

Stevens03 · August 11, 2015

Well the 2015 I just got was smooth at the test drive but I have noticed some vibration at various speeds but no were near as bad as my 2014 DC. Im actually thinking that its my tires now. This is a different feeling than my last truck. Aside from that I love love love the new SLT crew cab.

HondaHawkGT · August 11, 2015

2015 all terrain crew cab with 4.5 inch lift and 35s and no vibration! Smooth as butter even with the big tires. I was told these trucks tend to vibrate for some reason and I should re-think the lift with 35s...however no problems at any speed.

I did a small lift plus new 33's and had a random vibration after everything was bolted on. At first I blamed the balancing beads they used to balance the tires. I bumped up the dampening rate on my shocks and the vibration I had disappeared. Smooth as silk, rides like stock.

HondaHawkGT · August 11, 2015

Well thought! Good perspective on things.. This is my first GM came from Jeeps.. Did the prior body style have the vibration issues???

Google "Silverado frame beaming".

Then again, you could google "Ram vibration", "F-150 vibration", "Tundra vibration", etc. and find hundreds of threads with hundreds of truck owners all pissed off that their new truck made by so and so is a vibrating POS.

I think the biggest contributor to the vibration is the slow transition of the half-ton pickup from being a workhorse on the farm or construction site to a highway cruiser. Suspensions getting softer and softer, frames are boxed designs touting "even stiffer than the last one!", body mounts are softened and tuned to isolate the cab from the harshness of the potholes that litter our highways, and tires have moved away from stiff sidewalls and 10 plies to fluffy P-rated car tires. What do people expect? Stiff frame + soft tires/suspension/body mounts = additive vibration/resonance.

Newell33 · August 11, 2015

Google "Silverado frame beaming".

Then again, you could google "Ram vibration", "F-150 vibration", "Tundra vibration", etc. and find hundreds of threads with hundreds of truck owners all pissed off that their new truck made by so and so is a vibrating POS.

I think the biggest contributor to the vibration is the slow transition of the half-ton pickup from being a workhorse on the farm or construction site to a highway cruiser. Suspensions getting softer and softer, frames are boxed designs touting "even stiffer than the last one!", body mounts are softened and tuned to isolate the cab from the harshness of the potholes that litter our highways, and tires have moved away from stiff sidewalls and 10 plies to fluffy P-rated car tires. What do people expect? Stiff frame + soft tires/suspension/body mounts = additive vibration/resonance.

I would agree with you if this were the case with every one of the new trucks. Since there are a lot of what owners call "silky smooth" trucks on the road, I'd bet that we're still looking at a manufacturing tolerance issue with driveshafts, ring and pinions, tires, wheels, and other rotating driveline components.

HondaHawkGT · August 11, 2015

I would agree with you if this were the case with every one of the new trucks. Since there are a lot of what owners call "silky smooth" trucks on the road, I'd bet that we're still looking at a manufacturing tolerance issue with driveshafts, ring and pinions, tires, wheels, and other rotating driveline components.

That's just it though. With how 'soft' guys expect their trucks these days, it takes only a minor interaction between multiple parts at their high or low side of their respective tolerance to cause a noticleable vibration. Hence why there is such a wide variety of vibrations being reported and no matter how many parts GM tries to throw at the problem the problem remains. Even non-rotating parts like the leaf springs and shocks could be a contributor to a percentages of the guys with vibration problems. I had defective rear shocks that I hadn't noticed until I removed them to install my rancho 9000's.

GsBowtie · August 11, 2015

2015 cc, short bed, Z71, 1900 miles so far no vibrations I can tell anyway. It's very smooth. Rides great and was built in Mexico. I sometimes feel what may be some vibes between 35_45 mph but it's very very minor and could likely just be the road. If not for reading these vibe threads I'd probably not give it a second thought