Robe81

This might get kind of long so sorry for the lengthy post in advance but I could really use some help.

Bottom line up front: Truck tends to drift. 75% of the time it drifts left gradually. 25% will drift right. Will almost never just drive straight without correction.

I purchased my truck back in May of this year (2016 F-150 Super Cab 4x4, 5.0 Engine, 265/60R18 M&S Tires) I was looking for a very specific truck and color combo and found it 700 miles away in a large volume dealer. I drove the miles gladly for the right truck/price. Upon getting there, I took it for a drive right off the bat. Noticed it pulled to the left immediately. I asked the dealer to take a look at it and they said they rotated the tires and drove it...problem gone. Cool.

On the drive home I still noticed a tendency of the truck to drift a bit to the left (not immediate or strongly....just a drift) I decided if it still bothered me after a while I'd take the truck into the local dealer and have them look at it.

A month goes by and it bothers me just enough to take it in. Fast forward 3 months and its been to two separate dealers a total of 4x for alignment. Each time they say the alignment is slightly off. Each time I leave, I notice very little difference. The last time I took it in, they gave me an explanation on "Electronic pull compensation" or some such thing that Fords have.

So here is what I'm thinking...

1) The truck weighs 4700 lbs according to the title. Maybe when Ford cut all the weight out of these trucks, this was an unforeseen issue. Tall vehicle, light weight = over sensitivity to road grades.

2) The tires. I have the Hankook 265/60R18 tires. From what I've noticed on other trucks including new Fords, these tires are on the small side. Both in height and width. I'm not a tire expert but I would think thinner tires may be making the truck more sensitive to road grades as well.

3) Hopefully not but there may be a deeper issue with body alignment/etc.

So I'd love to hear others experience with this issue or any suggestions. I'm leaning more towards the tires possibly being the culprit at this point, but I doubt Ford is going to swap me into the Good Year tires on the chance its them.

Again, sorry about the long post.

LMychajluk

Stock tires? I thought stock size in 18" was a 275/65?

9'er

That's the stock size for 2015 4x4, the 2wd get smaller tires. And for some reason some 2016 4x4's were showing up on the lots with the smaller size.

LMychajluk

He said he had the 4x4 in the OP.

idrive

iTrader: (3)

If you have a dealer that is concerned and wants to help it isn't uncommon for them to put a set (tires and rims) on your truck from another truck to see if it makes a difference. I'd ask. It will either fix your problem or rule out the tires being the issue.

Rexey

I'm pretty sure there is a tsb for the wandering. Im surprised your dealer didn't look at that first. Computer update. I'm on my phone or I would post the other thread. Search it. It's here.

stdr04

My truck had the smaller hancook's on it when i was buying it. I didn't think much of it until they brought it up front and parked it next to a 4WD with goodyears. I said, 'i want those tires on mine.' they said, 'we can order you some and give you a good deal, but let's get this paperwork done.' I told them i wanted new tires put on while we were doing paperwork. So sales guy talked to boss man. Next thing i know, we are in a storage room full of 'take-offs'. The goodyears were right there and they put them on for free while we finished paperwork.
All that to say, ask to see there take-offs before they offer to order you new tires.

aguynamedbryan

Do you have the lane keep assist feature and is it active when you notice a drift? I'm noticing a drift in mine (feels like my alignment is off just a little) but when I turn off lane keep assist it doesn't feel as bad... though I'm not sure if that's just a placebo effect.

BadAV

No issues on my 20" OEM Hankooks.

doctorschlachter

This ^^^