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So seems no one can figure it out. My steering wheel shakes/wobbles like crazy around 85-95km it has a 6” bds all installed by dealer. Lift was checked over all good. Changed tires no change . Changed tires again…. No change… changed a 3rd time … no change… 4th time . Yes. Got new tires. Quality none cheap tires and it shook… no change. So he decided to try the wheel it self and see if something is going on there? He said the wheels are about 9oz off and stated that more less why I’m having a shake in the steering. Besides that does anyone else have any feed back on what could be going on? If you type 2021-2022 f150 steering wheel shake on YouTube a few guys made videos of this exact same issue…. Truck is a 2022 lariat with a 6” bds on 35x12.50R20-24 offset.
Obvious question, but did they do an alignment (and give you a printout)?
There was a more recent one. Can’t find it. It was all in the green last. Tires I’ve ran are amp all terrain. Than a predator x-at. Then they tried another tire didn’t tell me. And now I’m running brand new Hercules MT . Shake never changed on any of the tires. I’m going to try and find my last alignment spec sheet.
Whoever aligned your truck didn't even bother adjusting your caster, it should be 5.1° on the LF and 5.3° on the RF. Ford's specs allows for a deviation of +/- 1.0° from those numbers but in practice you never want less caster and I would consider 5.1° and 5.3° to be the minimum acceptable setting. I would recommend finding a qualified professional who can diagnose your issue and align your truck properly.
If your wheels are 9oz out of balance before being balanced that's not great; but if you balance them properly, they will be 0.0oz off when you are done and the starting point before balancing is not an issue. Starting that far off will require a lot of wheel weights and that might be unsightly, but the amount of weight added doesn't matter if the wheels are balanced in the end.
Lots of shops struggle with balancing larger/heavier wheels and tires and I frequently have to rebalance wheels that were just balanced by someone else due to vibrations and shaking steering wheels. If the shop doesn't ensure that the wheel is spinning at full speed before the balancer starts measuring, you will often have vibrations at highway speeds. I always spin wheels up to speed by hand before starting the machine and I often see wheels take an extra 1-2oz when doing this compared to just letting the wheel balancer spin the wheel from a standstill. Using this method, I have no issues and even my customers who drive at speeds in excess of 100mph are happy.
Cheap wheels, tires, or hubcentric spacers are another common issue. The tires should spin perfectly true once they are installed on the vehicle, if you drive the vehicle on a lift or on jack stands and see the wheels hopping up and down or shifting from side to side, that is a problem that must be addressed.
Since you have a 6" lift, aftermarket wheels, and oversized tires, I would highly recommend checking your scrub radius to ensure that isn't contributing to the shaking issue you've described, you don't want to wind up with zero scrub radius after everything is all said and done.
Whoever aligned your truck didn't even bother adjusting your caster, it should be 5.1° on the LF and 5.3° on the RF. Ford's specs allows for a deviation of +/- 1.0° from those numbers but in practice you never want less caster and I would consider 5.1° and 5.3° to be the minimum acceptable setting. I would recommend finding a qualified professional who can diagnose your issue and align your truck properly.
If your wheels are 9oz out of balance before being balanced that's not great; but if you balance them properly, they will be 0.0oz off when you are done and the starting point before balancing is not an issue. Starting that far off will require a lot of wheel weights and that might be unsightly, but the amount of weight added doesn't matter if the wheels are balanced in the end.
Lots of shops struggle with balancing larger/heavier wheels and tires and I frequently have to rebalance wheels that were just balanced by someone else due to vibrations and shaking steering wheels. If the shop doesn't ensure that the wheel is spinning at full speed before the balancer starts measuring, you will often have vibrations at highway speeds. I always spin wheels up to speed by hand before starting the machine and I often see wheels take an extra 1-2oz when doing this compared to just letting the wheel balancer spin the wheel from a standstill. Using this method, I have no issues and even my customers who drive at speeds in excess of 100mph are happy.
Cheap wheels, tires, or hubcentric spacers are another common issue. The tires should spin perfectly true once they are installed on the vehicle, if you drive the vehicle on a lift or on jack stands and see the wheels hopping up and down or shifting from side to side, that is a problem that must be addressed.
Since you have a 6" lift, aftermarket wheels, and oversized tires, I would highly recommend checking your scrub radius to ensure that isn't contributing to the shaking issue you've described, you don't want to wind up with zero scrub radius after everything is all said and done.
thanks for all that. Yeah I see my caster is 3.5 and 4.4. So that should be 5.1 - 5.3 ? That’s funny because this is all done by a ford dealer. And what do you mean by scrub radius? Never heard of that. I’m at a point where I don’t know what’s wrong and it seems ford or shops don’t know also.
thanks for all that. Yeah I see my caster is 3.5 and 4.4. So that should be 5.1 - 5.3 ? That’s funny because this is all done by a ford dealer. And what do you mean by scrub radius? Never heard of that. I’m at a point where I don’t know what’s wrong and it seems ford or shops don’t know also.
- ah okay I just looked up what scrub radius is. Never even heard of that tbh. I wouldn’t even know where or how to look to see what it should be at. I have absolutely no idea. Is it done when an alignment is done??? What should it be at?
thanks for all that. Yeah I see my caster is 3.5 and 4.4. So that should be 5.1 - 5.3 ? That’s funny because this is all done by a ford dealer. And what do you mean by scrub radius? Never heard of that. I’m at a point where I don’t know what’s wrong and it seems ford or shops don’t know also.
I've attached a few links explaining scrub radius below, it's something that you never have to think about on a stock vehicle, but it is something that has to be considered when changing ride height, wheel offset, wheel width, or tire size. Most mechanics never have to think about it so it's easy to overlook. Generally speaking, you would want to maintain the same amount of scrub radius that you had from the factory and you would want to avoid being too close to zero scrub radius.
I've attached a few links explaining scrub radius below, it's something that you never have to think about on a stock vehicle, but it is something that has to be considered when changing ride height, wheel offset, wheel width, or tire size. Most mechanics never have to think about it so it's easy to overlook. Generally speaking, you would want to maintain the same amount of scrub radius that you had from the factory and you would want to avoid being too close to zero scrub radius.
Here are the full alignment specs listed for 2021+ F150s:
Okay. That’s fantastic information. So I guess I can essentially see from just looking at this on my truck and see that angle. So it definitely should be somewhere like that photo. I’ll try and spot something. It’s strange because this all goes away with a stock wheel and that’s probably because the scrub radius goes back to its correct state. But once I toss on that 35x12.50 R20 with a -24 offset it might be setting that scrub radius off to maybe zero? Or maybe wayyy to harsh of an angle.
Steering wheel wobble…
