Vibration and possible wheel hop

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Franks1500

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Just bought a 2014 Ram 1500 reg cab, short bed.
Has 60,00 miles on it.
All stock
Just put a brand new set of tires on it.

When I go over small bumps it feels like there is a little wheel hop from the rear, and when I am out on the Highway it feels a little like there might be a vibration, again from the rear.
Kind of feels like a tire balance but the balancing on the wheels and tires is all good.
The truck is in absolute mint condition otherwise.
Before I drive myself nuts trying to figure this out I was wondering if anyone here has any suggestions.
I was thinking shocks because they look original. The truck is all stock, no lift or leveling kit.
 

crash68

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Check the tire pressure, don't go over what's listed in the door jam which is usually around 40 psi. If your not towing or hauling anything in the bed you can even go a couple psi below what the door plate states.
 

RamInfo

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When I had that on my 2016 it was a rim with excessive runout both horizontally and vertically, and it did it right off the lot. Had the rim straightened at a wheel repair place as the dealer was 300 miles away…
 

Daw14

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I agree with the shocks , may want to also check out your rear control arm bushings while you are under there .
 

Whiskey13

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Don't always believe tire shops when they tell you balance is good. I have had more than on occasion where a shop tries to say all is good to have another shop actually balance the tires, or even replace a tire that won't balance.
 

Jeepwalker

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I just went through a tire-balance nightmare with a tire shop (which I won't mention). I've been changing tires since I was in my teens and know my way around a balancer. I watched these guys make mistake after mistake. I was standing at the open bay doors coaching them. They had the largest weights on them both inside and out ..way too much! At the end of the day I put a stop to the process and took them to my local small-town Chevy dealer which as a brand new Hunter Road Force balancer ...and they know how to use it. A Road Force balancer has a spinning drum which puts up to 1500 lbs of pressure on the tire as it's determining the balance needed. That simulates road conditions and measures out-of-roundness and tire unevenness/vibration, etc. It can also help determine if there is a broken belt, etc. They (my Chevy garage) ONLY road-force balance's every tire they balance. They don't do it the 'cheap' way. And they also do rim-matching (rotating the tire on the rim to achieve the best balance). A lot of shops have R/F balancers but rarely use it ..or don't apply the complete road force features (because it's a time-consuming process). And if there's a lot of turn-over (a problem with tire shops) the techs likely aren't well-versed on how to use a R/F balancer properly.

Not only that, but the Hunter R/F balancer outputs a measurement of the final balance results, and it grades the degree of balance the tires are in. All GM garages (supposedly) do road force balancing my service mgr buddy was telling me.

It's a premium device and shops generally charge more than normal for performing full R/F balancing. In my case it was $75 to balance all 4 wheels and rim-match them. They were off the vehicle in the back of my pick-up. The results were going from like 6" weights the initial shop put on (inside AND outside), to weights which are about 1.5" (in and outside) in specific locations ...and they cut the balance factor (the Hunter R/F balancer measures in lbs) literally in HALF or more from what the original tire shop had them. And they run smooth as silk down the road! I've had other tires R/F balanced too in the past.

So the take-aways are:
1) tire shop guys don't always know what they're doing.
2) tire balancers need to be calibrated periodically (when was the last time the shop did that?)
3) Not all tire changers are created equal. Mosts don't use the premium balancers.
4) Tires can be out-of-round ...and a regular spin balancer won't flag a defective tire, or be able to compensate (balance) an out-of-round tire like a R/F balancer can.

In your case, given what you said, it could be a shock, and it bears looking into. But it could be too much air pressure, or even an out-of-round tire that wants to 'leap' when it hits a bump the 'wrong' way. It may make sense to seek out a better balancing job on a really good machine.
 
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Jeepwalker

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I would consider removing the rear shocks and put a rod through the bottom eyelet (hold under your feet) and pull up/down with some force to see if the shocks have a 'loose zone' where there is not resistance in a certain spot. I recently had a shock like that on my Hummer a little more than a yr ago. The suspected 'bad' shock wasn't leaking but off the vehicle pulling up/down, there was a loose zone where the shock would move freely (w/o resistance) for about 1.5" of travel. My wheel wasn't hopping but the vehicle would 'cant' somewhat sideways over undulations (kind of like a boat on water). If ya don't address that, it puts stress on the other remaining 'good' shocks. The other shocks were still good, so I replaced the bad one -- problem solved and it rides and handles great now. But a loose shock could cause uncontrolled bouncing too. Esp if you have an out-of-round tire (which might knock out a shock). You could have something like that going on.

You're wise to address this b/c constant driveline vibrations caused by uncontrolled tire vibration can send vibrations and harmonics up the driveshaft and eventually lead to expensive driveline failure.
 
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