new tires and alignment, loose steering now?

I recently replaced my stock Firestones with Nitto Crosstek HD's. I also had an alignment done. First time towing with the new tires it felt like it was on skates, getting pushed around when semi's went past. This was never an issue with my OEM Firestones. I bumped the front tire pressure from 60 (where it was with Firestones) up to 70 for the trip home, didn't really notice any change. For this most recent trip I aired up to 80 psi in the fronts and still had a wallowing, sloppy feel to the drive.

I cannot fathom that E rated HD tires have this much slop to them, so now it has me wondering if perhaps something was botched with the alignment. I don't know much about the alignment process, is it possible that something was loosened and they failed to re-tighten which would lead to a loose feeling front end?

I'm highly annoyed that I dropped a lot of money on new tires and am left with a truck that is so poor to drive. Prior to these tires and alignment, it drove like it was on rails. Trucks didn't push me around one bit and it had very crisp feeling steering.

Any suggestions?

Man, i hear ya. I switched from OEM firestones to Nitto Terra Grapplers and i had the EXACT same experiance. Granted i went up a size from stock 275 to 285, but it should not have that much effect. I used to tow my 10k toyhauler no problem at all on the stock tires, now it feels like im on ice.

I will say that i think it might have gotten SLIGHTLY better after i put about 3k on the tires, but not much.

And yes, i always tow at 80 PSI all the way around.

I can only assume the Nitto is just a softer tire or something, but its not a pleasant towing experiance. Empty is fine though.

Oh and i had them mounted on the stock wheels for about 6 months and towed about 1k miles, then i bought some aftermarket wheels (just alittle wider) and didnt notice any change either.

It's prolly the tire. Look for towing reviews with that tire and see what you come up with.

That's quite unfortunate. I read as many reviews as I could find, didn't see any issues with soft tires or towing problems. I'm annoyed...

honestly, it could be either. depending on how they set the front end could result in a loose feeling. id go back to the shop and tell them exactly what you feel and see what they can do about adjusting the alignment before i blamed the tires. id also suggest giving the following a read and printing a copy to bring along.

https://www.thurenfabrication.com/tech/alignment-and-handling.html

Like Zonacats, I also experienced the same thing when going to Nitto Terra Grapplers. Fortunately I don't tow much but I can relate to what you are feeling. I also feel like the steering is very loose at highway speeds while unloaded.

I am going camping today, I may try increases my fronts TP to 80

DannyMK2, great article. I will talk to the alignment shop about this. They told me that my alignment was out "just a little bit" when they adjusted it. I don't know anything about adjustments, toe in, camber, etc. Glad I asked the question and very appreciative of this article!

Assuming they did the alignment correctly, my suggestion is just to drive it a bit. New tires are often, and notoriously, squirrely until they get through a few heat-up and cool-down cycles. Give it some miles and some time, then reassess. I'm guessing they'll settle down in fairly short order.

My Mickey Thompsons were the same way for about 1000 miles. I drove empty to the beach and it was like driving a boat over 70. I lowered the pressure from 80 on the back to 60 and it helped a good bit. They arevnustkke the Firestones now with some miles on them.

Is it possible the new tires are taller and now you need to readjust your wdh to put more weight back on the front axle or maybe the trailer is nose high now? That will cause sway also. Good luck man.

Where did you get your alignment done? I'm fairly close to you and my dealer here says their rack is not big enough for my truck and to find a shop in town. I have tires on the way that are a little bigger and need somewhere to get an alignment.

Was going to get the lifetime alignment at Firestone but was told the same thing. Have to drive all the way to Fredericksburg to get on a large enough rack if I want them to do it.

GsRam, tires are the stock size, but admittedly slightly larger as the OEM tires were worn considerably. I doubt that the half inch difference between worn and new could throw things out that bad.

JRG18, I had the alignment done at Merchants Tire when I got my new tires.

I took it back today armed with the info from DannyMK2 and talked to the service advisor. He seemed to understand trailer sway and was surprised that my 2500 was having issues with a 9500 lbs trailer.

They tried to meet the specs from DannyMK2's article, but weren't able to replicate them. The article wanted tow to be 0.00 to 0.05 total toe. They were able to get 0.125 total toe, 0.06 on each side. The article wanted caster between 3.8 and 4.2 degrees. He said they adjusted caster as far as it would go on the stock parts and got 4.5 degrees left and 4.8 degrees right. That isn't much change from the settings when it rolled in.

I have a trip next weekend, I will see how it does. I contacted Nitto and they said I need to take it to a certified Nitto dealer for inspection. When I talked to the service advisor he stated the tires were fine and he didn't know exactly what Nitto would do. He suggested that Nitto might offer a ride comfort exchange... but didn't know. He didn't seem too optimistic that the slight adjustment would change anything though.

I guess I will see what happens...