OK so during the last month or so I have been doing a full brake (calipers and pads) wheels bearings and seals on all four corners. While I had the tires off, I thought it be a good time to double check the wheel balance. I was getting a slight vibration which I could feel at 65-75 MPH and somewhat noticeable when just turning the steering wheel just a slight amount. Nothing I thought to be serious, just a very slight vibration.

Rear tires are 4 years old and have over 75K miles, front tires are 2 years old and have about 35K miles. Rears balanced just fine and not change in weights from when they were installed, 2 oz on 2 and 0 on the other two.

The fronts were Hmmmm quite interesting. Drivers side took 2 oz same as original balance, Passengers side took 14 oz! (original was 2 oz) I thought a bit strange. took it out for a test drive and with the tires supposedly balanced, it shook very badly. Later that day I took it to another tire shop to have them recheck, I could not figure out why when balanced the vibration was much worse. Second shop verified 14 oz on the suspect tire. They took it off the wheel and inspected it and found nothing remounted and we noticed slight hop on the inside of the tire. We measured and it was about 1/4 inch out of round. The wheel was straight so it was in the tire. Further checking. the heavy side of the tire was 90 degrees to the high side. the consensus of opinion was that the tire was going to come apart!

Went to a Michelin dealer and the only thing I could get was "buy another tire and we will send out someone to look at yours in 3-5 weeks". I was trying to leave for Texas that evening so I was pressed for time. I went back to the guys that checked the tires as they did not charge me for at least 1 hour of checking and balancing. I bought 2 new Bridgestone 225R70 19.5 tires.

I have never liked Bridgestone tires as they always seemed to have a vague steering feel. After the tires were on the front, first thing I noticed was how much softer the road bumps felts, not too unusual as the Michelin were load rating "G" and the Bridgestones were load rating "F".

YES the vague steering was back! I didn't have time to check anything and left later that night.

The next day was a real eye opener. WIND! the Breakaway was a real hand full. Steering was difficult and unsettling. Was never this bad since going to Michelins! Oh well. I had to continue and it was a miserable drive to say the least.

At the Texas Mile, I had a day free so I decided to check toe. Toe was about 1/16 inch toe in, that is where the Michelins liked it, good steering feel and no inside/outside wear. I changed the toe to 1/8 inch toe in and steering was much improved, further toe in to almost 1/4 inch was even better. Left it at that and then had to go to work.

The ride home was SOOO much better. I still say the Michelins do track a slight bit better than the Bridgestones but now it is acceptable, the ride with the softer tires is so much better. Wind was as bad or worse than on the way down but now the Breakaway would just wiggle and did not require anywhere near the amount of steering input.

Conclusion is that tires from different manufacturers will require different toe setting. With the solid axle camber can only be changed with shim plates, once set that should not be an issue. I previously increased the camber to 7-8 degrees and that also was a great handling improvement.

Home with more things to do! Another write up later about MD 3060 issues that are now showing up!

Just rolled over 210K miles!