vibration with Swampers

linvillegorge

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2005
Location
Morganton
Alright, I have a '97 TJ with 2" coil spacers and enough trimming to fit 33x13.50 LTB's. I have a killer vibration at around 35mph. It seems like driveline vibration. The only thing is that when going to the 33" LTB's from 32x11.50 BFG AT's, I didn't add any more lift. At most the tires added an additional 1/2" of lift. I just didn't think that a minute difference like that could cause this much vibration. The LTB's are balanced, so it's not a tire balance issue. If it comes down to it, I'll just drop the transfer case and skid 1/2". Do you guys think it's driveline related or possibly something else? BTW, I don't have a slip yoke eliminator - I'm not going to invest the $$$ in one when I'm not planning on running the tcase longterm. There was NO vibration until I switched to the LTB's.
 
The taller tires shouldn't affect driveline angle. The axle centerline is still in the same position in relation to the transfer case. You gained 1/2 of lift on the bottom side. Does that make since?

You raised your ground clearance 1/2 an inch, not the clearance between the top of the tire and the top of the fender. Just another way of saying it.
 
I think a taller tire will still effect driveline angle though. I understand your point about clearance between the tire and fender, a taller tire wouldn't increase that, in fact it would decrease it unless you trim the fender.

Just imagine an extreme example. Say you have a Jeep with stock tires. Now swap out the stock tires for 44" Boggers but don't add any lift. Has your driveline angle changed? Yes, the taller tires have increased the driveline angle, but only by half of the difference of the height between the two sets of tires.
 
Tire size has no direct effect on driveline angle. the axles' position in relation to the chassis do not change. I set my pinion angles with 26" tires, and with my 38's thay are still the same.

You are fully aware that you have bias-ply tires of an old design? Swampers as a whole aren't known for being very round.

OTOH, look out the window at 35mph.. are the tires wobbling? That's right about the speed death wobble tends ot creep up.
 
I have LTB's on my TJ and they do the same thing. The've done it since day one and I just got used to it. Sometimes its barely noticeable and other times its almost ridiculous.
 
Alright cool, this helps. I see what you're saying about the driveline angles now. That's what I was wanting neptco, just to see if others were experiencing similar things. The Jeep is now pretty much for offroad only now, so it's not a huge deal, I was just wondering if there maybe something easy that I could do to remedy the problem. It's not a big deal, just kind of a pain in the @$$!
 
I had mine balanced when they where first put on, and that proved pointless since the first time the wheel got against a rock it just broke the weights off :rolleyes:
 
unless you get them pad-balanced from the inside, balancing swampers is futile..
 
Yeah, I knew they were bias before I bought them and that the ride wouldn't be near as smooth as with a radial. I just didn't expect such an extreme vibration with them. I just happens right around 35mph. You can feel the lugs "walking" at lower speeds, then the terrible vibration happens right around 32-38mph, then it fades away again at higher speeds. I watched the guy balance them at the tire place. He does primarily commercial tires, so he's used to dealing with big, heavy tires. They all balanced to within a 1/4 ounce. I'll try to get an alignment done on it to see if that helps, I know it's out of alignment.
 
If it is smooth with one set of tires....its not the drivetrain. Could have easily lost a weight on one of the wheels in the woods. Could have a bent wheel? Could just be a swamper...

Seth
 
you said they were balanced, when? I have some bias IROKS (36's) and the have wicked vibrations unless i balance them bout every 2 weeks. Thats why i got the just tires lifetime deal though so i just keep taking them back and making them deal with it. they zero them in on their machines no poblems. well maybe its hard but they get it done ( stacking multiple layers of full pads of weights) the first time i brought them in one of my tires was off 18 ounces. gooooddd god thats alot. but any way i need some radial tires because bias suck on daily drivers.
 
What is this! Swampers vibrating? Never!
 
linvillegorge said:
I think a taller tire will still effect driveline angle though. I understand your point about clearance between the tire and fender, a taller tire wouldn't increase that, in fact it would decrease it unless you trim the fender.

Just imagine an extreme example. Say you have a Jeep with stock tires. Now swap out the stock tires for 44" Boggers but don't add any lift. Has your driveline angle changed? Yes, the taller tires have increased the driveline angle, but only by half of the difference of the height between the two sets of tires.
Click to expand...
???????????
 
I have the same tire and have vibrations galor! 35mph is where they are the worse. Adjust your toe in and see if it goes away. It takes a little tweaking to get it dialed in. BTW, you have bias swampers... get use to vibrations!

Gary
 
The LTB's are the worst riding and hardest to balance tires out there. When I worked at 4Wheel parts I had more problems with those tires than any other. They balanced worse than the boggers of the same size. You either have to learn to deal with it, or pony up for new tires. They do get better with wear though. Good luck.
 
By the way tire size does not have anything to do with drive line angle. Measure your angles with stock tires then measure with larger, nothing changes because of tires. Even if they are 44's. Think about it a little bit.
 
RocksUnlimited said:
By the way tire size does not have anything to do with drive line angle. Measure your angles with stock tires then measure with larger, nothing changes because of tires. Even if they are 44's. Think about it a little bit.
Click to expand...

100% true

The only thing that bigger tires will change in drive line would be u-joint problems.
I have a friend with a blazer stock tires no problem went bigger started having drive line problems and was due to the u-joint taking more work to turn the tires.
It was on its way out but only showed up with bigger tires when we changed it all was good.
May want to look over the drive line close and see if something else showed up around the time of the tire change.
J
 
I had them balanced three days ago when I first got them. I'll get it aligned and see if that helps. I knew it would ride quite a bit rougher and I expected some vibrations, but this is extreme. My old CJ with SOA, 36's and non-CV driveshaft didn't vibrate near this bad. I think the worst one of the tires required 12oz. to balance. Right now, I'm pretty sure an alignment would help quite a bit, because I know it's off right now.
 
Someone mentioned getting the lifetime balancing somewhere. DO IT. I bought new rims this year and went to Discount Tire to have them mounted/balanced. It was almost $100 and I flipped. BUT IT IS WORTH IT just for your reasons. The high cost included lifetime balancing/roation. To help the vibration problem, prevent other problems, and save the life of your tires it's well worth it.
 
I had the 34x10.5 LTB's and never had any issues with them. Maybe because they are only 10.5'' wide, i dont know. One tire took about 19 oz's to balance, the other 4 only took 4 or less. Only time i noticed any kind of vibes was at about 75 mph, lol.
 
Some people can't be satisfied. Swampers suck on the road, but I'd put em on my cadilac if they'd fit............if I had a cadi that is.
 
nccurious2000 said:
I had the 34x10.5 LTB's and never had any issues with them. Maybe because they are only 10.5'' wide, i dont know. One tire took about 19 oz's to balance, the other 4 only took 4 or less. Only time i noticed any kind of vibes was at about 75 mph, lol.
Click to expand...

Having driven jeeps with both 33x13.5 and 34x10.5's, I can say that there really does seem to be a difference. The 13.5's (expectedly) make more noise, but neither ride all that bad though. Another thing to remember is that bias ply tires flat-spot. So after they warm up they should work better.
 
Just an update...
The tires now have about 100 miles or so on them and the vibration is gone. I don't know what was up with it, but it's fine now.
 
Probably getting broken in...
 
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