Warning: Interco TrXus M/T Problem

I don't know who else has these tires, but I bought the 34x12.50x15s and they are horrible. I bought the tires from 4wheelparts.com, and they came and I mounted them on some Eagle Alloys 589 and they balance and spun horrible. If you are not famililar with balancing a tire, on the machine it will spin for about 5 seconds and while it spins you should watch and see how bad the runout (wobble) is in the tire. Well, these tires are redicious. One out of six tires balanced okay. And it was still a pretty high amount of weight that was needed. For those not familiar with balancing a tire, a normal tire takes about 1.5 ounces of weight on each side of the rim (average weight). Well one of mine wanted 30 and same ounces of weight on ONE side. I was very dissapointed in these tires.
I first had just four tires, but during a transmission flush, the rear wheels were spinning and the rear tires were wobbling like crazy and shook the hell out of my Explorer. I was thinking "Man, well they will send me two new ones". And indeed, they did. But I didn't expect two worse than the others. We made one work (adding about 10-15 ounces of weight on each side) and the other was the one with 30 ounces on one side. So that is what happended today, so I emailed the 4wheelparts.com place, and I guess they will get back to me. I am hoping they will let me get some different tires. I want to get some 33x12.50x15 Super Swampers SSRs. But for anyone thinking about the TrXus tires, please stay away from them unless you don't care about driving like you have a flat tire (thats how my truck runs right now). So please, stay away from these tires.

Best Regards,
-Drew

 

[bmxking5]

That sucks. It's weird b/c my dad just showed me this real nice Dakota that somebody traded in at his work. They were in 35s and they balanced really well. Hope you can get some new tires.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

Well, since these are 34s, it might be a problem with the weight distrubution. Maybe that's why not a lot of people make 34s. I might just downsize to the SSRs which are 33s, but a big 33...I believe they measure at 33.4 or something while the 34s were 34 exactly. Hopefully it is only the 34s.

-Drew

 

[Hokie]

Well, since these are 34s, it might be a problem with the weight distrubution. Maybe that's why not a lot of people make 34s. I might just downsize to the SSRs which are 33s, but a big 33...I believe they measure at 33.4 or something while the 34s were 34 exactly. Hopefully it is only the 34s.

-Drew

I highly doubt tire size would have anything to do with weight distribution.. i mean, they're round. it doesn't matter if they're 28" or 40"

thats odd though, the magazines are giving the Truxs MT good reviews and I know Ken Cooke likes his...

 

[ExplorerDMB]

I don't know what to say. It's weird that 5 out of 6 tires were all messed up. I just can't believe it. I hope 4wheelparts.com will send me some new tires or atleast give me back all that money I spent. I am just trying to get my expierence out there, so if someone is thinking "oh wow, these are cool and pretty cheap" - you get what you pay for. Cheap Sh*t.

-Drew

 

[GJarrett]

Drew, if you're stuck with these, try one more thing. I'm on my second set of 35" Goodyear MTRs and my first set balanced superbly, then the second set wouldn't. I did the same as you and had one replaced and the replacement was even worse. I don't know if they changed the molds or ingredients or what, but I can definately confirm that the MTRs I bought this year do not balance nearly as well as the ones that I bought back when MTRs first came out. Ashli and I drove to Moab this year on the new ones and we vibrated the whole way - I couldn't drive over 60-65 mph or they would shake too hard to stand. I thought I was gonna lose my teeth fillings after a few hundred miles on the highway, and Moab was a full 2,000 miles each way. It was awful.

There is a better type of tire balancer out now. Look for a shop that has a "road force" or "radial force" tire balancer. Most do not have one, they are expensive; and many tire shops won't even know what you are talking about. What it does is place a 200+ lb load on the tire (while it is spinning) to mimic some of the load situation the tire undergoes when you are really using it on the vehicle.

I can tell you that it positively works miracles. Those tires that I had balanced at two different places and replacing one of them twice and still couldn't get them round or balanced.... once balanced on the road force balancer, they now are true and I could go 80 mph if I wanted to. The difference is nothing short of a miracle.

You might give that a try, if you can find a tire shop that has one of those machines.

Hope that helps,
Gerald

 

[ExplorerDMB]

That is a huge help. I will defilently see if anyone has one, but I am in doubt that anyone would around me. We spun the rims on the balancer to see if they were good, and one came up a quarter ounce on the inside and a half an ounce on the outside. Its not good, but it's not bad at all. I mean all the wheels seemed fine. But it seems like all the tires, while spinning, had more of a hop (not round) to them. I just can't figure it out. And that thumping on the right side of my Explorer is probably just as annoying as shaking down the interstate like you were saying. Thanks.

-Drew

 

[taknitezX2]

ya man. that really sucks. but think on the bright side, your truck is pretty bad ass when its parked. at least you can oooo and aaaaaaawww about that

 

[ExplorerDMB]

Yeah....I wish I had another car to drive around and leave it parked until I can figure out all of this. It's my Daily. I will call 4wheelparts.com again tonight hopefully.

-Drew

 

[nak4af]

I had the same problem with my 35's. It took a lot of weight to balance them. We had to actually remove the tire from the rim and reposition it to get it to balanced better. I am using the Pro Comp rock crawler steel rims as well. They don't balance as good as aluminum rims do. Forged aluminum rims such as Weld or Boyd balance big tires very well. That's one of the reasons they are like close to $300 per rim also.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

You and I did the same thing. On the tire that wanted 30 ounces on the outside, we turned it about a 1/3 a ture on the wheel and it went down to about a 15. Its better, but still horrible.

Good News (sort of)....I called 4wheelparts.com and they said that they will take the tires back and give me some other type ones. All I have to do is get my place that balanced the wheels (my work - - perks of the job) to write to them that the tires aren't round. Two guys at work that helped me mount and balance them twice said that they are some P.O.S tires. I agreed. But, I told the guy I'd have it to him by Monday Afternoon. I am going to get the Super Swamper SSRs...if they don't balance a lot better - then I'm gonna spin all the rims by themselves and see what they are doing. If they are bad, I will call up my wheel guy and get him to ship me out some new ones. I hope everything works out ok. This has been a real pain; except my front driveshaft is giving me some trouble too. The NAPA machine shop lengthend it too long (typical NAPA crap - I work for a NAPA auto care center). But I couldn't be paid to put NAPA parts on my Explorer, I'd much rather pay head over heels for Motorcraft any day. Anyway - that's the current news and I will update with the tire situation once I get the new ones (probably in two weeks, knowing them).

-Drew

 

[glfredrick]

I just got done talking to my kid - who works in a 4x4 shop and balances those things all day long (and runs the Truxus himself) and he said that 10-12 Oz is pretty typical for that tire - 30 is a bad tire and needs te be sent back.

I would say personally, that 10-12 is not a great tire either, but that is a tire built primarily by a pure off-road company and from their history, they have not always been that interested in making a really balanced tire compared to some of the other companies. I have seen some other tires by the same maker take as much as 2 pounds (the super swampers in large sizes) that we had to patch balance internally instead of with weights on the outside.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

Yeah 10-12 ounces of weight is bad (atleast from what I've seen). We've had a few Goodyear MT/Rs and stuff come through, and yes - BFG is the best tire on the balancer by far, but it's like a different material. BFGs are made out of your regular michilin stuff (real soft rubber) when the Goodyear MT/Rs and Super Swampers are tougher side walls. I mean, I'm going to try the SSRs...hopefully they'll do better.

-Drew

 

[nak4af]

The most weight I have ever had on mine is 4.5oz.On one tire. The other tires were under three, however we had to remount them like 3 times....that's just the nature of the beast.

You'll like the MT's (truxus) better than the SSR's. Quiter and they last longer. Especially if you are going to see more pavement.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

well with the TrXus tires the way they are right now, they are louder than they use to be. Since they aren't exactly round, they make more noise and they sure as hell make my Explorer sound crappy (example: when you have friends in your car and all of assuden they hear thumping from 0-35mph and they get nervous cause they think the car will fall apart). I'm just very dissapointed in the tire. I've always wanted SSRs, and I don't want to keep the same tire for a long time - so I guess the SSRs will be perfect for me. A few of my friends had them and they seem just as loud to me.

-Drew

 

[nak4af]

When I first put mine on they were loud. Turned out my alignment was off slightly causing the tires to run o the outter lugs more than normal. Just a couple of degrees off can make a huge difference.

The BFG's do balance better but remember...the Truxus MT's are a 6 ply tire! That is alot more rolling mass of rubber. If it is from a bad mold, it could not be true as well making a big problem even worse.

Hope your SSR's treat you well. They are good tires and the larger void will do you better off road. They clean themselves better too. Don't forget to post your pics!

 

[ExplorerDMB]

Just finished talking with 4wheelparts.com and they are shipping me out 4 new Super Swamper SSRs 33x12.50xR15. So once I get them in I will mount them, hopefully balance them, and show you all some new pictures. I am also contemplating on getting new wheels, maybe American Racings Diamond Back wheels. I sort of like those.

-Drew