1500HD very unhappy with 22s

KurtMcMouth · July 19, 2005

I went ahead and put my 22s from my now gone 2500HD on my new 1500HD. All seemed well at first, a little rubbing when turning, but that's to be expected. Got up to 60 or so, still no issues, after 10 minutes or so, the front end started surging badly at 45 mph or greater speeds. For anyone who rides motorcycles, it was like the truck was trying to do a tank slapper, left, right, left, right, left, right...

Now these wheels and tires are substantially larger and heavier than the factory 16/245 combo, but would why would my old 2500HD have no issues with them and the 1500HD be incapable? I didn't think there was a whole lot of difference between the 1500HD and 2500HD...

Anyone have a suspicion of what could be going on here?

dannyukonxl · July 19, 2005

I went ahead and put my 22s from my now gone 2500HD on my new 1500HD. All seemed well at first, a little rubbing when turning, but that's to be expected. Got up to 60 or so, still no issues, after 10 minutes or so, the front end started surging badly at 45 mph or greater speeds. For anyone who rides motorcycles, it was like the truck was trying to do a tank slapper, left, right, left, right, left, right...

Now these wheels and tires are substantially larger and heavier than the factory 16/245 combo, but would why would my old 2500HD have no issues with them and the 1500HD be incapable? I didn't think there was a whole lot of difference between the 1500HD and 2500HD...

Anyone have a suspicion of what could be going on here?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i think there was a release not to put 22's on the 1500hd's due to frame stress issues, i think that was on the new ones though like 2005, but if those 8 lug 22's fit then its gotta be a pre 2004 1500HD? if so then check the balance first, then check the alignment, then check the camber

chadlyt · July 19, 2005

did you align it? depending on the offset, you may want to try that.

71GMC_3/4T · July 19, 2005

Also, if you have a front end wiggle, check the idler arm.

I fought a problem with normal size tires where it would go into oscillation at 40mph on a certain bump I hit every day on the way to work.

sxmax · July 19, 2005

I went ahead and put my 22s from my now gone 2500HD on my new 1500HD. All seemed well at first, a little rubbing when turning, but that's to be expected. Got up to 60 or so, still no issues, after 10 minutes or so, the front end started surging badly at 45 mph or greater speeds. For anyone who rides motorcycles, it was like the truck was trying to do a tank slapper, left, right, left, right, left, right...

Now these wheels and tires are substantially larger and heavier than the factory 16/245 combo, but would why would my old 2500HD have no issues with them and the 1500HD be incapable? I didn't think there was a whole lot of difference between the 1500HD and 2500HD...

Anyone have a suspicion of what could be going on here?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i think there was a release not to put 22's on the 1500hd's due to frame stress issues, i think that was on the new ones though like 2005, but if those 8 lug 22's fit then its gotta be a pre 2004 1500HD? if so then check the balance first, then check the alignment, then check the camber

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That was only for 1500 crews with the super short box. I would call them a light duty crew cab.

Except for the additional body lift and some other minor things you pretty much have a 2500HD.

MrQuadrasteer · July 19, 2005

I'd say check the alignment, the balance of the wheels and check all the steering components.

Another thing, are the wheels hub-centric ?? A lot of folks miss that and bolt the wheels down when they're not quite flat like they should be...

Other than that... maybe it's your trucks way of telling you it's all blinged-out !!!!

KurtMcMouth · July 19, 2005

Thanks for the replies. The tires should be balanced, because I pulled them off my old truck and they were fine and have done nothing with them until last weekend when I put them on my new one. I really don't think it's a tire balancing issue because when it started acting up on the way home last evening, I stuck my head out the window and the front tire was visibly surging from left to right. WTF!!!

The thing that strikes me as most odd here is that it seems to take some 'time' before this misbehavior begins. Like I said, it seems fine for the first ten minutes, and then it begins acting up. Perhaps something is heating up and getting weak? This is really beyond me.

Re: Alignment, how would putting different wheels/tires on muck up the alignment? or are yall saying that perhaps the alignment is out of whack to begin with and putting the larger and heavier wheels on exascerbates the problem?

Keep the replies coming. At the end of the day, if i can't figure out what the deal is, I'm going to off these and go with some 20s.

Thanks again yall.

KurtMcMouth · July 19, 2005

i think there was a release not to put 22's on the 1500hd's due to frame stress issues, i think that was on the new ones though like 2005, but if those 8 lug 22's fit then its gotta be a pre 2004 1500HD? if so then check the balance first, then check the alignment, then check the camber

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mine is a 2005 1500HD, 8 lug, 'standard' box (not the one with the baby bed on it). The 22s bolt up with no problem. The only info I've got on putting larger wheels on it something that Discount Tire said. They're system claims that you can't even put 20s on 2005 1500HDs because of something to do with the rear leaf springs. First of all, that's hard to believe, and secondly, the symptoms I'm seeing do not seem consistent with a root cause of that kind.

SS Crew · July 19, 2005

You might want to pull your wheels off and see if there are any of those little washer/clips that they usaully put on brake drums to keep them from falling off during assembly. I can't remember, but I think I had those on my discs when they put my wheels on.

You might have a metal booger or something thats not allowing the rim to sit tight and flush to the rotor.

You could always try rotating your tires and see if you get the same effect. You might just have a heavy tire on the front that might have been on the rear of your other truck so you didn't notice any difference.

Hope all goes well.

BBSilverado · July 20, 2005

Try jacking the front end up and manually hand spinning your tire/wheel and see if it is nice and true. As mentioned, the wheel may not be flat and tight against the rotor.

KurtMcMouth · July 20, 2005

On the commute to the orphus this morning, I noticed that this problem is intermitent as opposed to only when warmed up. As a result of that, I inspected the situation a bit more. I noticed that the left front wheel *seemed* to be missing a wheel weight. There was some sticky crud on the inside of the wheel where a wheel weight once was. Now, they may have been balanced more than once. I don't keep track of the coordinates of wheel weights between balances. Now, based on those 2 data points, I'm resisting the urge to claim victory with this as a root cause at this point. It is a reasonable assertion though and there is one fairly sure way to rule it out.

Against my better judgement I took it over to Discount Tire at lunch and had them balance all four. Hopefully those fools didn't break the tabs on my center caps again [nuther story]. Anyway, I did not notice any significant shaking on the way back to work. Hopefully this was just an issue of balancing.

If this turns out to be the fix, the only justification I can come up with for why this would be an issue on this truck as opposed to my old one is that I did rotate the tires when I put them on the new one. So, the ones that were on the back of the old truck are on the front of the new one and vice versa. Perhaps the missing wheel weight was less of an issue on the rear than on the front.

It's either that, or just one hell of coincidence that the wheel weight fell of while the tires were sitting in my garage.

MrQuadrasteer · July 21, 2005

Hope that's it !!!! Let us know in a few days how it's doing.

KurtMcMouth · July 21, 2005

Hope that's it !!!! Let us know in a few days how it's doing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Still no significant shakes. When I hit a bump it seems to shake just a bit afterwards, but only for a second or two. It's considerably better. At this point, I need to decide if I can live with the remaining shake. Nothing comes for free.

MrQuadrasteer · July 21, 2005

Hey, doesn't look like it was asked yet- how many miles on it ??

You might crawl under the front and check your tierods and drag link for excessive wear.... Grab it in your hand and twist it back and forth. Some movement, with resistance, is okay, but if it twists any more than 1/2" each way, that could very well be your problem. The heavier wheels just aggravate the situation.

Maybe.

sxmax · July 22, 2005

I think the truck in question is brand spankin' new so I don' think those parts would be bad. Maybe a bad tire or tweaked rim. The 2500hd he previoulsy had them on maybe was a stiffer ride so the shake maybe wasn't as noticable and it was lowered, but now with the plush ride of the 1500HD since they have some different components it might be more noticable.