Why does my truck shake? Why does my truck pull to the left or right? These are great questions with no short answer. As tires have gotten bigger, it is harder to get them to balance. This makes it easy to unbalance as well. The added weight of the bigger tire also adds a ton of stress on Tie Rods, Ball Joints, and Shocks / Struts. This is even more of a problem with today’s Ford, Dodge, and Chevrolet trucks with Diesel engines. These engines, in many cases, are double the weight of the gasoline engines. That added weight is a killer of wheel hubs and all suspension parts.
What to do? There are ways to combat this, because, let’s face it, we love our trucks, so this is a problem that is not going away.
- Regular Tire Rotation / Balance is a must. About every other oil change is a good rule of thumb. Make sure to have the front suspension check at the same time, as this can catch things early before they become a major headache.
- Check your tire pressure once a month.
- Spend time off road?? This is Texas, so for me the answer is, “Heck Yeah!” Well, then wash the undercarriage afterwards. Cleaning will remove dirt, mud, and sand. All of these will destroy a suspension. The grit is like sand paper on moving parts and it also dries out rubber bushings. Around the coast much?? Salt is very aggressive on all metal parts. CLEAN!! Can’t stress this enough.
- Lastly, I would say get the alignment checked once a year. My last set of tires on my Ford cost me $1500! I feel an Alignment is cheap insurance don’t you? Remember once they start to wear it is too late!
Thanks for taking the time to read. I hope this was helpful!. Check out the YouTube video below and leave some comments of likes / dislikes or some questions for future blog posts!