Thread: Road force balance and vehicle dynamics

With the stiff suspension on the W-body GTP or SS package on my Monte, what amount of road force seen on a Hunter tire balancer is noticable? I put new tires on my car and I thought the road force balance would help with a bouncy ride I am noticing since I have tried almost everything else. One tire was 14 lbs of road force, the other 3 were 20 to 25 lbs. Originally one was 35 but I got that one exchanged.

I say bouncy ride since I can feel an up and down motion even as slow as 20 MPH. It is almost like running over the people access stripes in front of a Walmart.

Thoughts?

Talked with GM service adviser today. He thinks the FE4 suspension package was 22 lbs of road force limit. He said to check back later today and talk with the shop foreman. I will get back to you guys later on this.

Define road force.

Originally Posted by matt5112

Define road force.

My understanding from the Hunter GSP 9700 information on their website is the manufacturing inconsistencies applied to the tire/wheel combo as felt by the vehicle. The tech only gave me a number of what the tires read while on the machine.

In checking for what was up with this tire balance thing, I threw on the Magnum wheels. I really like the look of this. If GM pushed the cradle back about 1/2 inch we would be a go. Anyway with these wheels and tires, no bounce. Filed a claim with Uniroyal yesterday on the current tires and working on what to put on my car next.

If any of you are following this and for future reference on searches:::::

Uniroyal stepped up and replaced this set of tires with Michelin Pilot Sport A/S for almost nothing.... No mount and balance cost or anything. The ride back to work on this new Michelin was much different than the Uniroyal. There may have been defects in the Uniroyal or the Road Force is just too much for the FE4 suspension. I am not sure but this made a big difference on the car.

If anything changes I will come back to this thread and report but for now I see a lot of difference in a positive way. The FE4 suspension is tight even with a 85K miles on the clock.

i thought fe4 only had to do with the coil springs and struts?

Originally Posted by DoubleBlown

i thought fe4 only had to do with the coil springs and struts?

I believe that is all that is encompassed in the FE4 except maybe different diameter swap bars. I was merely clearing up that this particular tire made my car ride like crap and that the FE4 may not be suitable for tires with more than 20lbs of road force.