Vibration is only one concern. Acurracy of the odometer and speed-o-meter
will be affected. Since the diameter of the tire has gotten larger, your
speedometer will report a lower reading than you are actually traveling.
My guesstimate is your speedometer is reporting your speed to be 5 to 8
mph slower than you are actually moving. Easy test. Get a friend and a
clock with a second hand or stopwatch. Get on a highway and look for those
mile markers. Set your speed according to your speedometer reading to 60
mph. When you pass a mile marker, start the clock and stop it at the next
mile marker. If you traveled one mile in less than a minute, your going
faster than the speedo shows and you'll need to get it calibrated.
Vibration with big tires can be corrected but you need to find a good tire
shop that will balance the tires in the "fine" mode instead of the coarse
or medium modes. In fine mode, they can get the vibration out so it may
only vibrate for a couple of mph range. I have stock LT Cooper's on mine
and it vibrates at 47mph to 49mph then again at 64mph to 67mph. The guy
that did my balancing had the balancer in fine mode but when he spun it,
you could see the rim wasn't true'd and had a slight warp to it. So my
stock steel rims aren't great. I'd rather have spun aluminum rims.
Smitty - KF4UQY
Raleigh, NC
'92 3.9L Magnum, Shtbd.
-----Original Message-----
From: ROADRUNNER [SMTP:fsjz@aurora.alaska.edu]
Sent: Saturday, December 13, 1997 10:26 AM
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: DML: Wheel Swap
I just purchased a base model '97 4x4 Dakota. It came with those little
P215/75R15 Goodyear Invicta tires, with 15x6 rims. I decided to get some
larger tires, going with Chaparral LT235/75R15 (which do not have an
aggressive tread pattern). I have noticed more vibration with
the larger tires. I understand that the transition from passanger to
light truck tires will change the feel, but how much should LT tires
change smoothness of the ride? [The ruffness appears to greatest at
speeds above 50 mph and when decelerating.] Any ideas on what could be
causing increased vibration? This is essentially my first truck so I am
unfamiliar with what would be considered normal vibration by any long time
truck driver.
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