Balanced my tires with a screwdriver.

[VirginiaHeritage]

It wasn’t long into my 4-hour drive across VA on Friday that I realized the ride was a little rougher than normal at highway speeds, and at about 70mph I let go of the steering wheel to see if it was the front end and saw a slight shimmy in the steering wheel. TPMS showed all tires at 40psi.

I’m thinking I have a tire out of balance or something else up front is askew already at 4,600 miles. Shit. No time for service visits anytime soon.

I enjoyed the weekend and when I got ready to head home, I noticed my front tires were still chocked full of gravel from back home. A lightbulb went off in my head and I borrowed a screwdriver and pried it all out. A handful of gravel out of each front tire and just a few in the back.

Back on the highway headed home, the ride had smoothed out noticeably and no more shimmy in the steering wheel. Same route, same speed, problem gone.

So yeah, gravel can throw a 35” tire noticeably out of balance. Wouldn’t have thought so, but my Goodyear RTs are over-achievers at gravel collecting.

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[jofer]

Those tires really are the worst when it comes to collecting and throwing gravel. They also have surprisingly weak sidewalls, but given their light weight, that's the tradeoff you make.

With that said, don't forget to check for mud on the inside of the rims if the same thing happens again. Nothing to do with tires there, but mud stuck where you can't see it can make things even more out of balance. It's worth crawling under and looking at the inside rim of every tire after spring (or whenever your local mud season is).

 

[Scott R Nelson]

I have totally given up on being able to get all of the little rocks out of the tread of my stock Sasquatch tires. Maybe gravel is tougher in Idaho, Oregon, and Utah, because a lot of it is way too much effort to pry out of there.

Someday when I wear the tires down far enough, I plan to switch to the Firestone Destination MT2 which should be way better at not holding onto little rocks.

 

[VirginiaHeritage]

I have totally given up on being able to get all of the little rocks out of the tread of my stock Sasquatch tires. Maybe gravel is tougher in Idaho, Oregon, and Utah, because a lot of it is way too much effort to pry out of there.

Someday when I wear the tires down far enough, I plan to switch to the Firestone Destination MT2 which should be way better at not holding onto little rocks.

It’s almost impressive how mine manage to throw enough gravel at my undercarriage to make me cringe several times for the first mile of real pavement, but then still hold onto plenty of it for hundreds of miles at 80+ mph. Smaller bits were even lodged in the sipes that I didn’t bother trying to get out. Some parts of the main tread on the passenger side had 2 or 3 stones lined up in a row against each other. All ground down to match the tread depth and stuck good.

 

[Danielsand]

I do it without ANY tools.

Carefully count the number of stones on one side of the tire. Push the vehicle to expose the other side of the tire. If the number of stones doesn't match, pick up some stones of equal size and use your thumb to press them into the appropriate thread. Easy. Repeat on all four tires. No screwdriver needed.

 

[Fordified1]

Maybe get up to about 100mph and they will self balance?

 

[NC_Oak]

before or after airing back up, removing all the rocks, then moving it forward two feet and getting the rest, is standard work for me. Months ago had a motorcycle behind me and i feared for his / her life. I always remove

 

[VirginiaHeritage]

before or after airing back up, removing all the rocks, then moving it forward two feet and getting the rest, is standard work for me. Months ago had a motorcycle behind me and i feared for his / her life. I always remove

Unfortunately I travel a gravel road to my gravel driveway every day. That’s why I put extra long size RokBlokz mudflaps on in back. Hopefully it at least prevents some mayhem behind me.

 

[Scott R Nelson]

before or after airing back up, removing all the rocks, then moving it forward two feet and getting the rest, is standard work for me. Months ago had a motorcycle behind me and i feared for his / her life. I always remove

And that's why I added mudflaps to mine soon after I bought it. The front ones keep from getting mud up to the door handles and the rear ones keep from tossing rocks at everything behind me.

 

[Tilzbow]

My Goodyears stopped collecting as much gravel after wearing down some 7,000 to 10,000 miles in. (Might’ve been closer to 5,000 but I flat tow the Bronco behind the motorhome so I‘m not exactly sure.) Others have reported the same.

 

[Scott R Nelson]

My Goodyears stopped collecting as much gravel after wearing down some 7,000 to 10,000 miles in. (Might’ve been closer to 5,000 but I flat tow the Bronco behind the motorhome so I‘m not exactly sure.) Others have reported the same.

I'm at 20,000 on mine and they still pick up as much rocks and gravel as ever.

 

[SierraBronco]

It’s almost impressive how mine manage to throw enough gravel at my undercarriage to make me cringe several times for the first mile of real pavement, but then still hold onto plenty of it for hundreds of miles at 80+ mph. Smaller bits were even lodged in the sipes that I didn’t bother trying to get out. Some parts of the main tread on the passenger side had 2 or 3 stones lined up in a row against each other. All ground down to match the tread depth and stuck good.

My traps have grown significantly since I started using these tires

 

[VirginiaHeritage]

My Goodyears stopped collecting as much gravel after wearing down some 7,000 to 10,000 miles in. (Might’ve been closer to 5,000 but I flat tow the Bronco behind the motorhome so I‘m not exactly sure.) Others have reported the same.

I hope that’s true but I still have a virgin spare about to go on when I hit 5k. Mine are the newest version of the RT

 

[Tilzbow]

I hope that’s true but I still have a virgin spare about to go on when I hit 5k. Mine are the newest version of the RT

Mine were the original so I can’t comment on the newest tread design. I will say that before the Bronco I’d never had a rig throw rocks on the hood or top and I’ve been driving trucks with all terrain tires since the early 1980s. Luckily that got better after a while and I’ve since moved on to a different tire.

 

[Chrome_Pony]

315/70R17 Bridgestone Dueler AT/3 REVOs, rock gets tossed once a week, maybe, and I live on a gravel drive. Vast improvement over the KO2s, and with the 4WP coils AND upgrading to 315s from 285s, I still lost 4lbs per side.

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