hey dudes,
just thought i would let you all know a little something that happened to me. So I have a 5" superlift on my 97. I thought that the u joints were going out. I am in college and was driving the truck home to my dad's place which is an hour away on country roads. I felt the rear end give way a little. I got out to see that the differential was flexed up and that was my problem. I had a broken u bolt holding the rear axle in place!!!! So make sure to check your u bolts on your lift. This lift was done correctly and only has about 15,000 miles on the lift. I am just glad I caught it and wasn't traveling at a high rate of speed on the interstate. So I called a buddy from home and he pulled me home with his GMC dually. What a discrace!! anyhow, the truck in now getting new u bolts and universal joints. So make sure your u bolts are nice and tight or you may see your rear axle pass you on the highway.

 

Also, could someone tell me where I can get my tires balanced. I have 38" swampers and everywhere I go no one can balance them. 4wheel parts put sand bags in them but it doesn't really help.

 

4 wheel parts cant balance them? i thought they had a policie that they can install fix anything they sell?

 

Is there something wrong with the tires? Out of round? Seperation?

 

I installed a 4 inch lift in 97 on my 97 with 36 micky t's. I got a local tire shop to order 10 ounce weighted tire patches that go inside the tire. The tire must be mounted to the wheel an then spun on the balance machine. then mark the tire where it is out of balance as well as where the valve stem lines up. dismount the tire from the rim, placing the patch inside but not on the sidewalls in the area that was marked. remount aline the mark an valve stemand any more weight can be added on the wheel. the patches come in different weight ranges. I already know my tires were 10 or more ounces out when we ordered the wieghts.

 

well, wandell,
the tires are brand new, less than 500 miles on them. They are biasd tires 38x12.5x16.5 TSL superswampers. Everyone says that there is not enough space to put weights. All i know is i just put a new front end under the truck at Ford and I really don't want to do it again because the tires are shaking the crap out of the truck. All i know is if you have Ford do any work you basically just paid for the truck twice!!! Anyhow, I need to get them balanced really bad. BigTruck, You and I have pretty much the same truck. how are your tires balanced? As for 4wheel part being able to do it I am unsure. I try not to go in there unless I have to because they guys that work in there are real jerks and they really don't like me because I pull in and dwarf all of their trucks sitting in the parking lot.

 

Did you ever try golf ***** in the tires? I've read in off road forums that people would put 2-3 golf ***** in tires that are bigger then 35s to stop them from shaking.

 

when you say no space to put the weights do you mean that it is all filled with weights? any shop should be able to balance your tires if they sell a 38" tire, whoever you bought the tires from should balance them, my 38" 15.5" tires balanced just fine, i wouldnt put any golf ***** or anything in your tires at high speed they will stay in one spot and throw the tire even more out of balance, you could have them road force balanced to see if they are out of round, mine are radial so they balance alittle easyer, well good luck, do you have any pics of your truck?

 

well i know have the rear end problems all fixed up but now it is missing out really bad. So bad that I don't want to drive it until I can come up with some money to get it fixed. hey Bigtruck, does your truck cost you a little bit to keep it on the road because of the big tires and lift and all the extra wear because of it being so big. This is all this truck has done. And everything is so expensive on it. I had a 97 2wd flareside that was a bad truck but i sold it to buy this one. The only reason I want to keep the truck instead of trading it is because it is really cool and I like big trucks. I also like the attention it gets. I don't have any pictures up yet. I will let you know when I do. It looks pretty much like yours only mine is black.

 

mine drives on the street maybe 500 miles a month and offroads maybe 250 miles a month and it handles perfect on the street and off, the trick is radial tires and getting them balanced corectly also the steering stabilizer helps for bump steer on the street, i go threw tires pretty fast but the claws are holding up pretty good, the trick is to rotate them every oil change to get the best life out of them