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Crusty's 75th Annv PW #1590 build/mods adventure

So today was brake install day.
I replaced the front pads back around 35K miles.
Truck now has 68K miles. So figured time to just replace it all.

Rear pads were a little over half way gone. Rotors took a little persuasion to remove. But overall, was a easy job.

Old rear stuff.
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New rear stuff installed.
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Front pads were almost gone. Front took about the same amount of work once I figured out to turn the front right or left so I coukd fit the impact in to remove the bracket bolts. :rolleyes:

Old front pads.

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New stuff on.

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Now for the bad stuff.
So while I was under the front and had the tires off, I figured why no check the front alingment and retighten all the bolts on the new drag link and tie rod bar. Got about 3/4 of a turn on the nuts on the drag and tie rod. But it was a big ugaduga to get it.
Then I look at the jam nuts on the bars and find 1 loose. ****. So time to check it all. The others were somewhat tight. So set up to check the toe. I came up with almost 1/4" of toe in. WTF??
So got busy and readjusted the toe to almost 0. It's a slight bit of toe in, but as close to 0 as I could get.
Got everything tight and right.
So much for the alingment I just paid for.
Now I have to call back tomorrow when the store manager is in to try and get a refund.
Needless to say, I won't be going there anymore, or to any of their other stores.

Tomorrow morning I'll take the truck for a drive and embed the brakes. Then hit the highway and see if it handles any better now that the alingment is where it should have been.
 
So I called the shop today and talked to the manager and explained everything. He refunded my monies for the alingment.

Took the truck for a drive onto town today. Last day of Hot August Nights.
Truck ran and handled great. Just a little tire noise at higher speeds. Seems I need to run higher pressure in these tires than the BFG or MTs I have been running. Seems the sidewalls are more flexible.

And brakes work great after bedding them in.
 
Just got back from a 1700 Mike road trip to Baja. Truck worked great.
Got to use my new Roadshock lights. They are awesome. Was 8th/last truck in our caravan. Front truck said my lights were bright.
Moved up to second truck. Coukd barley see the front trucks high beams. Mine overpowered them.
Good spread put to the sided as well. Saw stuff that I couldn't see with just my headlights and fog lights. So they are a win.
 
Crusty old shellback said:
Just got back from a 1700 Mike road trip to Baja. Truck worked great.
Got to use my new Roadshock lights. They are awesome. Was 8th/last truck in our caravan. Front truck said my lights were bright.
Moved up to second truck. Coukd barley see the front trucks high beams. Mine overpowered them.
Good spread put to the sided as well. Saw stuff that I couldn't see with just my headlights and fog lights. So they are a win.
Click to expand...
How'd the Kendas do on that trip?
 
So I got just over 5K miles on the new tires. Took her in for a rotate and balance before a road trip tomorrow. Highest tire originally was 11+ Oz. Now it's at 6. All the other tires basically cut the weights in half of what they had. When I get back from my road trip, gonna swap back over to balance beads and have the front end alingment checked/ajusted.
Tires wore 1/32 at 5K miles. Now read 18/32.
 
A little more update on the Kendas.
So I had to air up some on my trip to Baja as I had a load in the bed. But I never aired down after removing the load. So the rear tires were about 5 PSI more than I normally run for about 1500 miles or so
A few days ago, when I was checking my tires, I noticed that the front tires have a slight feathering on the outer edges of the tires. I checked the rears and noticed the same type of feathering, but in the center treads, nothing on the outer treads.
Today, we rotated the tires, rears to front, fronts crossed over to the rears. And we adjusted the air bs k down. 37 F/32R.
On the trip home, I did noticed the tires were a bit more noise than before the rotation.
On the good side, the tires now use less weight to balance.
When I get back from my 1500 Mike road trip next week, I'm looking at taking the truck back in to the shop, replace the weights with balance beads once again, and have the alingment checked/adjusted. Or I may wait on the balance beads till it's time to rotate the tires again at another 5K miles.
Tire seem to have good road manners. No real off road or snow yet, only rain. But snows coming next month.
 
Have you heard of Centramatic wheel balancers? I put them on my H1 with BF Goodrich 39X12.5 KO2s and the ride is smooth as can be. Not sure if they make them for the 3/4 ton Ram.
 
Megalodon said:
Have you heard of Centramatic wheel balancers? I put them on my H1 with BF Goodrich 39X12.5 KO2s and the ride is smooth as can be. Not sure if they make them for the 3/4 ton Ram.
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Yes, I've heard of them. I've been using the balance beads for decades now with good results until recently. But the issue has been the tires, not the beads.
Now that the tires are about straightened out, the balance beads shouldn't be an issue.
 
So took the truck in to have the tires rotated and go back to balance beads. They checked the toe and it's at .09. But there is too much play in their system to try and adjust it. It keeps going from. 05 to .10. So I told them to leave it and I'd do it at home.
Drove home and have a vibration from 55 to 80, worse than it was before.
So now I'm back at the shop, having them add another 1 oz per tire to see if that fixes the problem.

Never had so many problems with balance in the previous decades of using them as I'm having recently.
 
Crusty old shellback said:
So took the truck in to have the tires rotated and go back to balance beads. They checked the toe and it's at .09. But there is too much play in their system to try and adjust it. It keeps going from. 05 to .10. So I told them to leave it and I'd do it at home.
Drove home and have a vibration from 55 to 80, worse than it was before.
So now I'm back at the shop, having them add another 1 oz per tire to see if that fixes the problem.

Never had so many problems with balance in the previous decades of using them as I'm having recently.
Click to expand...

I had some issues getting mine balanced as well at first. Initially it was my fault, my balancer was a bit out of calibration, and I wasn't using the right cones to mount the wheel on the machine. I took them elsewhere to have them road force balanced, and they were better, but the guy that hammered the weights on did a crap job. Most of the weights ended up getting flung off hauling my toy hauler out to PA.

I ultimately learned some things recalibrated my balancer and rebalanced them myself on my machine, and they all balanced with 2 - 4oz of weight. Except for 1 tire that took 9 oz, but since then they've been flawless, they're actually riding smoother than my Wildpeak AT3's currently.

I also tried beads on several vehicles, I've never had any luck with the beads, I tried beads on my truck, on some family cars, and the work F150, in most cases I ended up having to break the beads loose, suck all the beads out then balance them properly on the machine to eliminate any vibrations.
 
I've been using them for decades with no issues. Here recently, the main issue is the bags didn't break.
These tires took a lot of weight initially. Second time it was less but a bit more than normal.

Just gave me my truck back, so going on a drive.
 
I have always had luck with beads, but I learned recently that not all tires can be balanced with beads. In fact, I need to get my fronts balanced again I’m so sick of these Goodyears.
 
So I had them add another ounce of beads to each tire.
It's a whole lot better. Not perfect, but livable. Some could be the bad roads I travel. Lots of construction going on the roads into town. Heading out on a 400 mile round trip Friday. Will see how they do.
 
Kenda Kevelar 35x12.50 17.

Never had a issue with the BFGs.
The MT Baja Boss only had issues because the bags didn't break like they are supposed to.
 
Have the 35 K02s on mine and no problem at all. Drives like it's on a skating rink. The H1 was a bit of an issue on getting her truely aligned, but same, thing rides like on a magic carpet. And those are 39s.
 
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