Tire dealer did exactly the same thing for me and solved my problem as well. My vibration is gone. I remember years ago, sometime in the 1950’s, a tire dealer who is long gone was spin balancing a tire on my dad’s car and couldn’t get it to balnce. He moved the tire on the rim, pulled off the weights and started over. He got the tire in balance right away. I don’t understand it, but apparently this technique has been used for years.
You might take a look at the tire sidewalls and note if the tires have a yellow or red dot on them; or both.
These denote how the tires should be mounted on the rims in relation to the valve stem.
If they did not match the appropriate dot to the stem that could have been the cause of this problem.
Do a net search for more info about this procedure.
First, thanks for letting us know what happened. That not only helps us refine the process and gives us confidence in our recommendations, but also serves as a basis for future responses.
For what it is worth, the dealer used a Hunter GSP9700 - which maybe he didn’t have in 2006 when the truck was new. It’s a remarkable piece of equipment and quite useful in diagnosing tire and wheel related vibration issues. But like many things, it is only as good as the man using it.
My understanding is: I should have no issue in rotating UNLESS I have a flat and the tire has to be unmounted. Then I want to be sure they put the tire back on in same place on the wheel. What a relief! Ya’ll have been very helpful and as I said, perhaps this thread will assist someone else. If I knew then what I know now…I could have solved this a couple years ago!!! bill
The technique you guys are alluding to is called “indexing” the tire. Many tires come with a dot that shows the tire’s heaviest spot, many don’t. “indexing” places the heavy spot on the tire opposite the heavy spot on the rim (which is across from the valve hole. For tires that aren’t dotted, indexing is an old method of trying to create some sort of natural balance.
The tire guy can usually tell when a tire needs this done, as the weights necessary to balance the wheel will be unusually heavy.
To be honest, I don’t think this is the entire answer. Tires should not be this difficult to balance. I’ve long believed that the quality of tires offered on the open market today is spotty. Some are great, some are crap. Like others here, I’ve had tires that simply would not run smoothly
My 2005 isn’t a 4x4 but I have the exact same problem. I bought this new and noticed right at the beginning that there was a slight vibration. Now, after new tires, several attempts to balance these, the shimmy is worse than ever. This seems to be intermittent I can drive on cruise control at 60 mph w/o probs, then suddenly the shimmy or shaking of the steering wheels starts for about 1/2 mile and then subsides. I have to let go of the wheel it is so bad!
So I am heartened to see that I am not nuts. As a woman truck owner here in North Florida I am definitely not in the minority, but the shake/rattle/shimmy makes folks look at me as if I am a crackpot.
I wonder if Toyota realizes this is a problem with these trucks? Probably. But thanks anyway for the suggestions. I’ll take them these threads/links and see if they’ll help me out. Otherwise, I love this truck!