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Old 03-05-2020, 09:33 PM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Bus wanders with new rear tires

Not sure where to post this so I’ll just try it here since our bus is a 25’ 97 blue bird tc 1000 with a 12v Cummins and the dreaded 545 Allison. Anyhoo, we put 4 new rear traction tires on and it makes the bus wander terribly at 45-60mph. It’s downright scary. The local shop we bought the tires from says it’s due to tire (tread) squirm and that It’ll get better with more miles on them. At this point they’re so horrible I can’t imagine driving the bus long enough to see if that’s actually true. Prior to the new tires the bus tracked straight and true so I’m not inclined to think it’s an alignment issue or a steering/suspension issue. Something else to note is it seems way worse in a crosswind. Any advice from the skoolie community is appreciated.

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Old 03-05-2020, 09:47 PM   #2
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Tire shop is probably right, especially if your old tires were worn down. My semi always did the same thing.
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Old 03-05-2020, 10:14 PM   #3
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I know, have the shop owner/manager put his kids in your bus and drive it at 45-60MPH and see if he still claims it is okay.
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Old 03-05-2020, 10:45 PM   #4
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I've experienced this on semi's too. Seems to settle down after 5-10K miles. Not all tires do this, for some reason. The last 2-3 sets I bought rode fine from day 1, one had a terrible intermittent shake bobtailing but rode fine loaded (it was a company truck and we never had it checked out, not sure if a tire was defective, out-of-round, or way out of balance). Had it been my own personal vehicle, you can bet I'd have been taking it back.
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Old 03-06-2020, 09:07 AM   #5
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Make sure they are all up to the proper pressure for starters.
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Old 03-06-2020, 10:03 AM   #6
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Thanks for the feedback folks. I did take the bus back to the shop and had them check the pressures and balance as well. Still wanders like a stray dog. Since it’s such a heavily lugged (Toyo hyparadial s) tire maybe I’d be better off with something a bit less aggressive? We live in snow country and intend to use this as mostly a 3 season bus but has already seen a little winter camping, hence the desire for a bit more aggressive tread. Any suggestions on 19.5” tires that might work?
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Old 03-06-2020, 10:25 AM   #7
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You say these new tires are large lugs... If you look across the tread does it appear to be crowned in the middle? If so I'm wondering if maybe drop the pressure a little bit so that you're not riding on just the middle portion of the tire. If it's a rated tire for your GVWR but you're probably nowhere near as heavy as gross then the tire was probably engineered to carry more weight at it's stated PSI than you're demanding of it. So long as you don't drop the pressure to the point that the sidewall bulges at the bottom.
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Old 03-06-2020, 10:35 AM   #8
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Yeah those are pretty big lugs. Wonder if the direction of angle of them are the same on each side? Maybe alternating the patterns on the tires?

We just bought some Falken BI850s for our drive tire. Pretty agressive, but smaller blocks and they have worked fine on the highway.
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Old 03-06-2020, 10:36 AM   #9
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Yeah those are pretty big lugs. Wonder if the direction of angle of them are the same on each side? Maybe alternating the patterns on the tires?

We just bought some Falken BI850s for our drive tire. Pretty agressive, but smaller blocks and they have worked fine on the highway.
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Old 03-06-2020, 10:51 AM   #10
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Usually when I have this problem increasing tire pressure helps.

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Old 03-06-2020, 02:38 PM   #11
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I drove a big truck today, virtually brand new (5K miles) and it had a bit of wander to it. The rear tires did, in fact, have a bit of crown in the center of the tread.
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Old 03-06-2020, 03:18 PM   #12
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Off topic Bill are you going to have a rally again this year?
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Old 03-06-2020, 04:12 PM   #13
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When I took the bus back to the tire dealer and had them check the air pressure the said it was at 100lbs and they lowered it to 80 and it seemed to help a bit. Seems somewhat counterintuitive to me as I think that would make the contact patch larger and therefore engaging the lugs even more. I’m wondering if they did so to help the tires break in quicker?
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Old 03-06-2020, 05:02 PM   #14
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Originally Posted by gostrong_13 View Post
When I took the bus back to the tire dealer and had them check the air pressure the said it was at 100lbs and they lowered it to 80 and it seemed to help a bit. Seems somewhat counterintuitive to me as I think that would make the contact patch larger and therefore engaging the lugs even more. I’m wondering if they did so to help the tires break in quicker?
I run 85 in mine. It sure rides better than with 100.
When I got these aggressive tires on my bus it wandered a bit more than the mostly worn tires I replaced. After a couple hundred miles its calmed down and they feel a lot better.
Give them time.
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Old 03-06-2020, 06:08 PM   #15
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Great thread, now this wont be a surprise to me. I just replaced all four rears with these last year (and fronts with others, at they had all aged out):

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Old 03-06-2020, 09:00 PM   #16
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Tall new tread can be very spooky but generally a few road trips that heat the tread up pretty well helps fix the prob. really aggressive tread on shorter vehicles can be really difficult to drive but only for a relatively short period of time. Gene
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Old 03-06-2020, 09:48 PM   #17
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I run 85 in mine. It sure rides better than with 100.
When I got these aggressive tires on my bus it wandered a bit more than the mostly worn tires I replaced. After a couple hundred miles its calmed down and they feel a lot better.
Give them time.
Funny! When those tires were on our 38' bus, I noticed no wandering at all. Perhaps the length of our bus provides enough difference to change the natural harmonics of the drivetrain/wheels. That is a head scratcher to say the least.
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Old 03-11-2020, 09:06 PM   #18
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On a somewhat related note, has anyone done a rear stabilizer on their bus? Maybe that would help with the tail wag? BTW, we’re going to dry a different set of tires tomorrow. I’ll let you know how they work out.
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Old 03-12-2020, 03:45 AM   #19
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A 25' bus shouldn't have much tail wagging to begin with. Before you start pumping money into modifications may I suggest just having the basics checked out like bad shocks? Like the tires, there's nothing inherently wrong with the manufacturer's design of the vehicle that must be overcome but it is almost 25 years old and things simply wear out with use.
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Old 03-12-2020, 06:50 AM   #20
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I am with most others in saying the aggressive tires do tend to wander for a bit till broken in. I have experianced this on any short wheelbase vehicle with mud tires. Lower tire pressure does help. By the way I do not like mud tires for snow. Snow tires need sipeing to be able to bite on hard packed snow and ice typical on a road. The big lugs on mud tires just play slip and slide.
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