Runflat removal and install - some good and bad

[T9000]

I used a crayon to mark the low spot as the wheel rotated

I am about to redo some of the tires and I can see how to easily mark the high spot on the large half of the wheel (which I think is the one that matters more?) coming from the outside, perpendicular with a chalk.
To mark the low spot, I would have to come from the center of the tire, perpendicular to the inner lip of the large half, and that part is facing towards the truck suspension.
Did you actually mark the high spot and determine that the low spot would be diametrically opposed? Or maybe you turned the wheel to get more space in order to reach between the wheel lip and suspension? I am not with the truck and running these scenarios in my head, maybe I am missing something?

 

[blutow]

I am about to redo some of the tires and I can see how to easily mark the high spot on the large half of the wheel (which I think is the one that matters more?) coming from the outside, perpendicular with a chalk.
To mark the low spot, I would have to come from the center of the tire, perpendicular to the inner lip of the large half, and that part is facing towards the truck suspension.
Did you actually mark the high spot and determine that the low spot would be diametrically opposed? Or maybe you turned the wheel to get more space in order to reach between the wheel lip and suspension? I am not with the truck and running these scenarios in my head, maybe I am missing something?

I marked the low spot (the spot nearest the center). There is plenty of room to mark it while spinning, I’m not sure what you are saying with the suspension.

 

[T9000]

I marked the low spot (the spot nearest the center). There is plenty of room to mark it while spinning, I’m not sure what you are saying with the suspension.

Did you mark it on the rim cap (the one that has the 24 holes) or on the larger rim part (which has the 24bolts)?

 

[blutow]

Did you mark it on the rim cap (the one that has the 24 holes) or on the larger rim part (which has the 24bolts)?

both, and then reassembled the rim so that the low spots on each part aligned

 

[T9000]

both, and then reassembled the rim so that the low spots on each part aligned

Yes, very good! I was going to make a simple holder and combine it with the creeper to advance it slowly and mark it more precisely than by hand, but there is not much room on the inside, I presume you marked it by hand?
I always tend to make things more complicated and create a lot more work for myself to get things done “the right way” lol

 

[blutow]

Yes, very good! I was going to make a simple holder and combine it with the creeper to advance it slowly and mark it more precisely than by hand, but there is not much room on the inside, I presume you marked it by hand?
I always tend to make things more complicated to gain accuracy lol

I used a 5 gallon bucket to stabilize my hand as the wheel rotated with all 4 wheels off the ground and the truck in gear. I know, not exactly the most precise runout setup, but I'm not convinceed any of this is making a significant difference or worth obsessing over. Having all wheels off the ground, some were not turning and I had a rear turning fast and a front turning slow. I used the slow front one for my tests. You could do it by just jacking one wheel off the ground in 4H, but that makes me a little nervous and that hub would be spinning really fast. Surprisingly, I put over 10 miles on my truck odometer running tire tests.

 

[Action]

Yes, very good! I was going to make a simple holder and combine it with the creeper to advance it slowly and mark it more precisely than by hand, but there is not much room on the inside, I presume you marked it by hand?
I always tend to make things more complicated and create a lot more work for myself to get things done “the right way” lol

Do it without a tire on the rim.

 

[T9000]

Do it without a tire on the rim.

Yes, that’s exactly what I am planning, to do the rim without the tire.

 

[T9000]

I used a 5 gallon bucket to stabilize my hand as the wheel rotated with all 4 wheels off the ground and the truck in gear. I know, not exactly the most precise runout setup, but I'm not convinceed any of this is making a significant difference or worth obsessing over. Having all wheels off the ground, some were not turning and I had a rear turning fast and a front turning slow. I used the slow front one for my tests. You could do it by just jacking one wheel off the ground in 4H, but that makes me a little nervous and that hub would be spinning really fast. Surprisingly, I put over 10 miles on my truck odometer running tire tests.

Yes. I only lifted one wheel and tried to mark it by hand. You are right about not making a big difference, and that’s to speeds up to 65mph, after that the truck starts to vibrate between 65mph and 80mph, and I just want it to be very smooth across the whole range, that’s why the obsession lol

Actually, I didn’t prove that the vibration is due to not matching the high on tire vs low on rim, and so far I was able to isolate it to one tire by moving them around and swapping with the 5th tire. The tire that creates the worst vibration appears to also have the worst runout and will see if matching the high to low will improve anything.

 

[T9000]

Check this out…crazy….so here are the wheel weights, 72 pieces (last row is doubled up) x 1/4oz = 18oz…this tire has the most weights of all and is also the one that induces the increased vibration at higher speeds….
At the time I didn’t think much of the huge amount of weights as I heard that it could be as high as 20oz…





Tonight I took apart the tire (marked its position vs both sides of the wheel just to keep track of the changes vs results) and boom….found lots of water inside, at least 16-20oz. This is the same tire with rusted bolts that recently sat outside in the rain for a few days, but I don’t think that had anything to do with the water I found inside because it never lost any air and the vibration jas been the same from the beginning…however these tires with runflats inside, sat in back of my other truck while I went to several shops trying to find someone to install it and during that time it rained a few times, after which it got hot and thought that after at least a week in the sun any water would have evaporated…I still can’t believe that I didn’t notice that much water being inside, one of the reasons being that I didn’t use the bucket on this one, I just built it standing.
I also had to cut one of the wheel bolts because the nut got totally stuck right at the end and I stripped the bolt collar out of the wheel (getting new nuts & bolts)
Something happened when I used the rust remover, it did clean the rust, but it made the bolts fatter because they all had a very hard time coming out.

I will report back after resembling to confirm that indeed the water was the main issue. I still have to do the other three tires, which may also have some water, but I don't think it's as much.

 

[Action]

I dont know what happens on the wheel studs, but if you or a shop use an impact gun to install lug nuts, you will have to remove them with an impact gun. The nut threads get distorted when too tight. I just got done changing hub oil. All of my lugnuts spun off with the tire iron. I put them on with spinning tire iron and torque by hand.
some people put coolant in tires to help balance while driving. If you have lube in your tire, the liquid may not move freely. I have had some take that much weight when dry inside.

 

[T9000]

I dont know what happens on the wheel studs, but if you or a shop use an impact gun to install lug nuts, you will have to remove them with an impact gun. The nut threads get distorted when too tight. I just got done changing hub oil. All of my lugnuts spun off with the tire iron. I put them on with spinning tire iron and torque by hand.
some people put coolant in tires to help balance while driving. If you have lube in your tire, the liquid may not move freely. I have had some take that much weight when dry inside.

I bought over 100 new nuts and a buch of bolts too to replace any that seems to have a distorted thread.

 

[blutow]

Quick update on my my tire results - I finally got the truck out on the open road today. I did some higway cruising between 55 and 70+mph (speedo was buried). I'm very happy to report no vibration or shimmy at any speed. I never got the tires spin balanced, I figured I'd try them first before balancing. I was very surprised there isn't any vibration, especially since I could see a little runout on a couple tires when the truck was up on jackstands. This is with 4 new goodyear enforcer MT's running the stock runflats. I did not add the internal runflat grease. I'm not sure if all the red dot alingment and finding the low spots on the wheels made any difference or I might have just gotten lucky with 4 decently balanced tires. I'm hoping they will stay balanced as they wear.

Impressions from my first extended drive - it's slow up the steep hills, but not as slow as I thought it would be and it drives better than I expected also. Yes, the suspension is stiff with the standard springs, but it's not as harsh as some 1 ton pickups I've driven and it handles and brakes pretty decent. I'm guessing those rear brakes could be a handful in the rain with no ABS and no weight in the back, they seem pretty powerful for rears.

 

[Ajax MD]

Quick question:

Once the run-flat is inserted, which way is the tire mounted on the inner (larger) wheel piece?
The run-flat is asymmetric, having a large lip on one side. Which way does that lip face when mounting the tire on the wheel?

Thanks!

 

[Jinx]

From memory, I believe the runflat states which side is supposed to be the "outside". It's written on the sidewall. So the "outside" would face the smaller wheel piece when it's being reassembled.

 

[Coug]

the runflat should also have a notch in one spot for the valve stem

 

[Ajax MD]

I saw the notch but it didn't click as to the purpose. Thanks.

 

[Coug]

I saw the notch but it didn't click as to the purpose. Thanks.

it's kind of important.
I've heard of more than one tire that managed to get inflated, but didn't want to deflate because of rubber blocking the valve stem area. Definitely not a common issue, but also preventable.