Vibrations at 57-65 mph!

[hmoritz]

Please help!
I have a 2000 1500 that I have lowered with a Belltech 2"/4" kit. I have 20"X8" Goodyear Eagle GTII's (which I think is the culprit - due to the 8" width). Recently, I did the 60,000 mile tune up and alignment and balance and anything else I could possibly do to better its ride and all seems well - except when driving at 57 - 65 mph. It shakes horribly! I balanced the wheels to the 1,000's (all four). I have yet to notch the frame - that's next on the list, but I was wondering if there were any alignment pointers for this dilema or if it's something else. I can't see people tolerating this as normal, I'm almost ready to put the stock wheels back on. Any suggestions???

[nick1221]

That sounds like alignment, especially at the speed you mentioned. That is the #1 symptom that your wheels are misaligned. It is one thing to balance the wheels, another to make sure they're straight and level. Another warning bell is that you adjusted the height. You need to be sure that it is aligned.

A second scenario is that you did not do the alignment immediately after adjusting the suspension, and then proceded to cause uneven wear on your tires. So you get the alignment done, but you're still driving uneven tires. So check the tires themselves. Get a ruler or something and measure the tread depth on the outside and inside of all 4 wheels and see if they are the same.

You didn't say how it is shaking, but if you notice it in the steering wheel especially, a very likely cause is uneven tires on the pavement. You may also be able to hear it (if music/radio is not on), especially when you are slowing down with the car in neutral. Whether this is because of alignment or unevenly worn tires is to be determined...

[hmoritz]

Thanks for the input, unfortunately we've just undergone the works - including the alignment - the tires may be worn unevenly - I'll measure them when I get off work. It could be from rotating the tires from front to back. Is there a trick to aligning wide tires that we're just not figuring out?

[SoCal Truckin']

Is it possible that you have a bad universal joint?

[hmoritz]

Checked everything again and did another alignment - same problem, different day. There has to be something I'm missing.