test drive on freeway: car didn't pull, but...

heftylefty58 · Oct 3, 2007

Well, I've fallen in love with Yukons, so I'm in the process of shopping around for a used one.

I test drove an absolute beauty that had 20' BBS wheels with 295/50R20 tires. Unfortunately, once we got to ~50 or 60 mph, the car seemed to sway left and right. I've never quite experienced this before, but it definitely felt unsafe. I'm guessing the car didn't necessarily have an alignment problem because it didn't really pull left or right. (It swayed left and right in roughly equal amounts.)

Just curious if any of you have insight regarding the Yukon's swaying behavior at freeway speeds. (For eg, is it common, what causes it, is this expected behavior with these tire dimensions, could this be an expensive fix, can it even be fixed at all, should I no longer consider buying this car, would it be worth it for me to have the owner take it in for a used car inspection, etc).

Thanks in advance.

MadMedwyn · Oct 3, 2007

I've never experienced that. I have a Yukon and a friend has two Suburbans, and neither he or I complained of anything like swaying problem. Big SUVs and trucks do react more to the wind, but I'll assume that's not the case here.

JKmotorsports · Oct 3, 2007

Not sure how much "swaying" or pulling you're experiencing, but wider tires tend to pull themselves and follow slight contours and grooves in the road that wouldn't be noticeable with thinner and softer sidewall tires.

heftylefty58 · Oct 3, 2007

Thanks for the responses. The owner did say that the car only started behaving this way (ie, swaying) once the tires started balding.

I guess I should go ahead and have GMC's service dept perform a used car inspection, while asking them to pay particular attention to the cause(s)/fix(es) for the stability issues at freeway speeds.

I really hope it's just the tires--the car is HOT.

Coastie Kyle · Oct 4, 2007

Had that exact problem on a Nissan Pathfinder with big a$$ wheels and wide tires. Just like the guys are saying it was the wide, flat bottom tires pulling me around. That was the last set of big wheels Ive ever owned.

marinekilz · Oct 4, 2007

I had a truck that did that. an old 76 big blazer and it was the steering gear play. just adding that in there

run4jc · Oct 4, 2007

No sway here

Bought an '02 Yukon a few months back - put new stock size 265/75/16 on and it tracks as straight as a train down the highway - any speed. I still can't get over how great and 'new' the car feels - with 89k miles on it now!

Good luck!

03Cornelius · Oct 4, 2007

I've never had the back and forth sway, but I did have the shimmy and pull to the right, it was the Hub-Bearing, the part alone is $396... They are sealed so they can't be lubed, once they are gone, they are gone.

heftylefty58 · Oct 4, 2007

Thanks all--I'm having a shop check it out at this very moment. I hope they find the cause/fix!

heftylefty58 · Oct 6, 2007

Although I love the looks of the wide tires, it's not worth it if the car is going to sway considering we'll have a 1 year old in the back seat.

Sorry if this is a dumb follow-up question: If I end up buying the vehicle, how do I figure out the narrowest tire that can fit on the 20" BBS wheels?

-Should I check with a BBS dealer?
-Can I just go to any chain tire shop? (With this approach, I guess I'm a little leery that the tire shops will push whatever they have in stock just to make a sale.)

JKmotorsports · Oct 6, 2007

heftylefty58 said:
Although I love the looks of the wide tires, it's not worth it if the car is going to sway considering we'll have a 1 year old in the back seat.

Sorry if this is a dumb follow-up question: If I end up buying the vehicle, how do I figure out the narrowest tire that can fit on the 20" BBS wheels?

-Should I check with a BBS dealer?
-Can I just go to any chain tire shop? (With this approach, I guess I'm a little leery that the tire shops will push whatever they have in stock just to make a sale.)

You'll have to know what width the wheels are before you can decide on which tires will work best.

heftylefty58 · Oct 16, 2007

In case anyone didn't know, this phenomenon is apparently called tramlining.

Clayton74 · Oct 17, 2007

I've got 305-50-20's Kumho ECSTA STX's on my 02 Yukon and it pulls all over the road whenever I get into a rutted section. I've run wide tires on full size quad cab pickups but never had such an issue. I guess it's because they are longer wheelbase? The 20's look sweet, but I'm selling them. The ruts pull the rig around so badly that it's literally unsafe. It must be really bad for people running 22's and 24's.

I was planning to buy an offroad tire for my 20" rims...but I think I'll stick to 16" or 17" when I get my offroad tires. I'm thinking its not just the width, but the low profile of the tires that make it suseptable to the ruts in the asphalt.

GTO2050 · Oct 18, 2007

It could just be the alignment. I have a 96 Exploder and after a new set of tires and an alignment, it exhibited similar characteristics. The toe-in was not set properly.

Clayton74 · Oct 18, 2007

Not sure about the original poster...but I just put my stock tires and wheels back on for winter and it drives perfect without any pull at all.

Jimmie48 · Oct 19, 2007

heftylefty58 said:
In case anyone didn't know, this phenomenon is apparently called tramlining.

Indeed it is, I had this issue with my 2003 M3. I had oversize tires on my stock 19 inch rims, 285's on the rears and 265's on the fronts and I had a tramlining issue to the point that I had to take the rears off and replace them with 265s as well. A narrower tire should help the problem. You cant "undersize" the tire but many people do oversize. You should probably just check to see the appropriate tire for these wheels, heck many of us are running twenties here and dont have the problem so get some bridgestone duelers and call it a day

Try some 275/55's all the way around.

riceplanter · Oct 25, 2007

Maybe tire pressure is off a bit?

mikemjohnson · Oct 25, 2007

id shoot for a balancing problem, since theres a 99.9% chance your wheels arent cambered (sorta does it on my cambered honda)

tann808 · Nov 1, 2007

GTO2050 said:
It could just be the alignment. I have a 96 Exploder and after a new set of tires and an alignment, it exhibited similar characteristics. The toe-in was not set properly.

I agree, you should get it aligned...when buying a used car, you have no idea how the alignment is, cheap fix for an expensive problem if it's not aligned.

test drive on freeway: car didn't pull, but...

Member

Full Access Member

tahoeyukonforum.com

Member

Full Access Member

Full Access Member

Full Access Member

New Member

Member

Member

tahoeyukonforum.com

Member

New Member

Full Access Member

New Member

New Member

New Member

New Member

New Member

Similar threads