Nearly two years of trying to find the answer...(1)
I always imagined an off-road expedition vehicle with military tires when I first got the idea to create one.
Years ago, I discovered a surplus of military tires in the East of Canada while conducting research online. One of the attendants at an overland show in British Columbia informed me that he bought the tires straight from the manufacturer. My search for military rims and tires had begun. I could not have had them deliver to my house because I live in a tiny town. You have previously read that we received them thanks to Tirecraft in Claresholm, AB as well as the rims.
It was not too difficult to mount them on the vehicle, and this has been reported in the past blogs. The fact that we had a wobble in the vehicle from that point on and could not go faster than 75–80 km/h was NOT documented. That did not really matter because, due to economic reasons, we had planned to use 80km/hr. However, it would also be more convenient to be able to accomplish faster speeds comfortably when necessary.
We bought and installed a steering damper. Although it improved the truck's control, it was not the answer to the wobble. We then got in touch with the tire seller, but he was unaware of problems with tires like we had, so we focused on the rims as they were the used ones.
Let's align and balance the tires. In Lethbridge we could the truck tire alignment do with Kirks Tire. Alignment wasn't a big problem.
But when we started with balancing, we found out we had the wrong studs and nuts for these wheels as we had tapered holes and it needed tapered nuts to go with, so the wheel got centered properly.
Different wheel nuts were ordered and sleeves to go with it and of course the tapered nuts. Once more, the large tires on the balancer machine required so much weight that it was impossible to add balancing weights, and since they would never be in the axle's center, it would not matter anyhow. On the balance machine, one of the tires was swaying, indicating that the wheel was not straight.
When we got back to our yard, we disassembled the wheel and replaced the disc that attaches on the wheel to the axle (these rims are two-part rims). Yes, that disc was obviously wobbling. After we got in touch with the rim vendor, he sent us a another disc.
Mean while, I worked on several wheel studs and sleeves to enable the tapered nuts. The sleeves in the first series I installed, had to be mounted over the new studs and had double tapers on the end.
It brought the rim and brake drum into alignment.
At this point, the rim plate with the wobble was swapped out for the crooked one, and a test run was carried out.
No, the truck is still wobbling.
The tires caught attention; they must have been out of round. I looked around for someone who could "shave" the tires to make them perfectly round, but I could not find anyone. I started shaving them myself after being shown many options "how to" by YouTube University.
Dang, truck is still shaky... I am at a loss for ideas. Research, research, and more research yields no results.
I bought beads to put inside the tire.
I wanted to give it a try because it would not be too expensive. No, however it did make a difference in that the wobbling was less pronounced and more distinct at higher speeds.
I also found the driver side steering brake drum broken. I believe that the stud holes were being pushed apart by the double tapered sleeves that were centering the brake drum and the wheel. Along with replacement nuts, a new drum was bought and installed.
The double tapered sleeves were removed because I no longer wanted to use them.
Traveling and being retired, or at the very least beginning to become snowbirds, was coming in more quickly.
See you next blog.
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