For numerous years now we have had customers walk into the shop telling us the same story that the dealership they bought their truck from is going to competely void the warranty on their truck if a lift kit is installed. Not only is it false but the dealership is breaking a federal law when they state this to the vehicle owner. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act passed in 1975 protects the consumer from such discrimination and any deceptive warranty practices. What we advise our customers to do is to call the vehicle corporation directly, Chrysler Corp, Toyota Corp., GM Corp. etc. The Corporation knows the law and will tell you that in no way will the entire vehicle be voided due to a modification to one area of the vehicle. The franchise of the corporation on the other hand, being your local dealership, does not understand the implicated laws which, is why they have been breaking it for so long now and offering false information to their consumer. In order for the dealership to void the warranty on a specific part, they have to show more than a casual connection from the part that was modified to the part that failed. The part that failed needs to have a direct connection to the part that was replaced and/or modified. This act covers anything and everything that involves the use of a warranty, not only motor vehicles. Attached is an article on obtaining a compete and detailed understanding of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Any additional warranty questions can be answered by the RMS OFFROAD staff at any time.  

Magnuson Moss Warranty Act

OK OK OK lets finally clear up some stuff on leveling kits. First off, leveling kits are in no way an actual lift kit. Leveling kits, in essence, function as a repositioning of the truck's frontend geometry in relation to its wheel travel ratios. In laymen's terms, it is preloading the frontend to achieve lift in amounts of anywhere between 1.5 to 3", however this lift is gained in some sort of a tradeoff, unfortunately being a loss of down travel in the frontend, called droop. This change in wheel travel ratio usually results in less performance from the suspension because it has much more, but less useable, compression travel. This is because there is increased preload on the springs, whether the springs are either torsion bars or coils. The overall height that can be expected from these type of "so called lift kits," depends on many factors, not limited to, but including actual factory height variations from the factory. Just because the company selling a leveling kit states it will give 3" of lift does not mean it will deliver those results in every case. This is of course dependent on the type of suspension you have. So for all those experts out there, please just wait until I finish before you start chiming in.

The first type is the old tried and true torsion bar suspension. This is probably the most misunderstood suspension system developed. The reason why this is: simply, most people don't realize a torsion bar is a spring that creates a springing effect for the frontend. However most people think they can adjust torsion bars for a cheap lift without any detrimental effects on the frontend. However the same people tend to complain about a harsh ride afterwards and blame it on the fact that it's a "torsion bars suspension," and "these things suck.". This is ignorance if you ask me. Its not the torsion bars that suck, but the individual or the shop that set it up because they don't have a clue of what they are doing or how it works. When you adjust height on torsion bars you do two things: preload the bar more and put more angles up front that require more force or leverage to overcome the additional preload, thus making a harsher ride. Adjustment comes in two forms, either a thicker torsion bar or the mysterious, more common torsion KEY. When you pick up the new key it doesn't look much different then the original until you put one next to the other and you see the slight variation in the position of the hex hole in relation to the original. This "clocking " difference is what gives you more preload without running out of adjustment on the bolt that applies leverage to this anchor arm In addition to a harsher ride you also put the frontend through more stress because of the additional angles that the frontend is riding on. These angles aren't what the manufacture of the vehicle intends for the truck to run at all the time because it creates accelerated wear and tear. Some of the most common wear points are steering linkage idler and pitman arms failing, rack and pinion problems, ball joints, inner and outer cv joints... just to name a few.

The second is the coil over assembly. With most every truck manufacturer offering some variation to this new type of suspension, there are numerous companies and kits available for these trucks. We love hearing some customers call, sounding like they know all there is when it comes to these kits. Then they say something like "I want to only lift my truck a few inches but don't wanna do anything crazy like a cheep leveling kit, I wanna do a replacement coils spring and strut cause that so much better, right?" WRONG. See it will do exactly the same thing as the cheaper spacer kit, whether its an aluminum spacer a poly spacer or the combination of both that some manufactures choose to do. The one thing it will do is cost a lot more and does exactly the same thing in the end, changing the compression and rebound travel ratios the very same way a spacer will. Now, don't misunderstand us, coil overs, in certain cases where the truck can handle more travel and benefit from a true racing coil over, can be very beneficial. So don't think we don't like them because we do and sell many but just for the right application and needs.

Well, to continue about spacers, there are so many like steel, aluminum, poly, and some who use a combination of both. Either way they do all the same thing. Remember, they preload the suspension to gain cheap height but can eventually, at a cost, accelerate wear on the frontend by changing compression and droop travel ratios. Now we want to finish by saying one simple thing. Leveling kits can be very useful if installed correctly and the customer is educated about there use and expected performance limitations. It's the customer that thinks he just installed a several thousand dollar suspension kit and doesn't respect the limitations of the truck or the leveling kit he just installed.. These are the people that you can talk to until blue in the face and they never hear a word you say until one day when something fails and they want to know why. Don't be ignorant, we always explain anything we do in great detail and even after we explain something, if you still have questions, ask us again. Remember, questions are cheap and answers are free. Ignorance always cost us both a lot in the end

There are many opinions on tire pressure. First off we will never tell anyone to run an aftermarket tire at anything other than the max pressure designated on the sidewall of the tire in question. We do this for a few reasons: first, it’s a liability for the shop if we recommend an arbitrary pressure to run a tire at and you have a blowout caused directly from under inflation. Secondly, running a tire at any pressure other than max pressure is up to the individual. If that individual makes this decision, they assume all the risk.

There are many calculations in picking a different pressure for tires and that number can be debated many ways. The incident involving Ford Explorers and Firestone Tires is one leading example. Years ago Ford experienced massive tire failures caused by heat build-up and under-inflation, which resulted in delaminating tire treads. The situation was seriously debated between Ford and Firestone engineers. Ford chose to run the Firestone tires at 26psi, and Firestone had a max psi of 35psi. This is only a 9 lb. difference, you say; well, that equates to a 26% difference in overall pressure, a nearly one-quarter lower than the recommended pressure. If you didn’t realize already, this had catastrophic results. (I THINK YOU SEE WHERE I AM GOING WITH THIS,) who each had two totally different answers to what these tires should have been inflated to. But how is this divide even possible? My point exactly.

As a responsible business and off-road center, we would never assume to tell anyone to run a tire at any pressure other than the pressure stamped on the tire itself.  If we made this assumption, we’d be putting our customers at the risk for possible blowouts, excessive tire wear, as well as jeopardized performance, longevity, and safety. Low tire pressure can also be related to many drivability issues like the dreaded “death wobble” on solid-axle Jeeps. This can be a very illusive problem and is very often misdiagnosed. These are all issues that can be avoided if your tire is riding at the recommended pressure!

We know sometimes after your truck is done your buddy at work may say that you should run the tire at a lower pressure to get a softer ride and that guy at RMS doesn’t know what he is talking about – but he’s not us. Think about what you just read here and hopefully you will understand where we are coming from. Remember, it’s your best interests that we always have in mind first and foremost.

Okay, there are probably more opinions on how to fix death wobble than there are trucks with this dilemma. We here at the shop must get phone calls on the subject daily, and it usually is from people with Jeeps that have gotten a lot of misinformation on Jeep Forums.

We never have an issue with our own customers because from the very beginning of doing their truck we set them in the right direction so they will never experience it as long as they adhere to our proactive and preventative measures. Death wobble is preventable, sure in very few cases it can be a mechanical issue, but this is rare. The piece in question would have to be so loose that it would be obvious that it is the problem. However everyone is always looking for a mechanical problem when they call us, always overlooking the obvious. This is usually because of people on forums telling them how to fix this dreaded problem.

We had one person replace everything from a steering stabilizer, steering linkage, track bar, sway bar links and even a steering box and he still had the wobble. We had another customer come in from another shop with 4 stabilizers on his truck asking how he could put another on. We said wait just a minute! Who told you this would help and when are you going to stop buying stabilizer’s until you realize this isn’t the answer? He just looked at us in desperation and said can you help me the other shop just can’t seem to fix it and I have been back to them almost a dozen times.  This is where we try and teach new customers that you have to trust us, you came to us probably because someone recommended you to us.

 We have had so much experience with death wobble and have not had one case that we couldn’t correct. In almost all these cases 99 percent of them are tire related issues. Now this isn’t saying that there can’t be an exception to this rule but 99 percent of the time it is tire related. Now when we say tire related we mean how the tire was usually cared for. When we finish a job every customer is instructed how to care for your very expensive off road tires, starting with tire pressure. We always get into a debate over this subject; however, this is our reasoning on it. We always instruct you to run the new tires no matter what their load range is at the max inflation pressure. Now some call us crazy but when you listen to the reason why, you will understand where we are coming from.

 First of all your factory tires were picked and air pressure designated from the factory by the particular engineers that have taken the time to figure this out. We now have put on aftermarket tires of a different size, load rating and ply rating all dependent on air pressure to keep the tire cool and ply’s intact. Now say you have a tire that has a MAX pressure of 65 and you think it’s too high or you say I don’t need to run that, or the truck is so hard or the steering wheel jumps a little when you hit a bump because the tire is so stiff. If you decide not to deal with it then you run the risk of creating a problem down the road say in 3 months 6 months or even longer. That’s because it can take that long for the tire to degrade and shift a belt causing death wobble. The problem here is that the customer fails to make the connection between what they did six months before with the problem that’s occurring right now. This we understand, but try explaining this to someone who is getting so many opinions on how to correct this that it sounds like it’s too good to be the truth.

The way we see it first of all we will never assume the liability on a new tire and go on record saying you can drop air pressure to anything other than max pressure, because we know eventually it will cause belts to shift and cause wobble. The second reason which is even more important is it’s just not good business to do something just because the customer thinks it’s the right thing and make him feel all warm and fuzzy. This happens especially when the customer calls a tire manufacturer and they say to drop pressure which contradicts what we’re saying. What the tire manufacturer doesn’t understand is what we are doing is trying to prevent death wobble. What they are trying to do is create a better and softer ride for the customer. We understand this but the tire manufacturer never has to deal with phone calls about death wobble again because so much time has passed between the customer dropping the air pressure and the actual wobble starting, so they again don’t make the connection.

 A way to picture what’s happening to the tires belts is to take a hand truck with a large heavy object on it and push it over carpeting, what happens to the carpet in front of the tires on the hand truck, it starts to bunch up in front of the tires. This is what happens to the belts in your tires when they start to separate or shift. Once you hit a bump at a certain speed the belt skips over itself and goes into wobble. 

Of course there are times when there can also be mechanical issues as well, but we always do one correction at a time, and we always start with the tires. This insures that when we do fix it we know what we fixed. Usually the order of corrections are:

1. Overall tire condition such as age, wear etc.

2. Tires in need rotation

3. Tire pressure always goes to MAX pressure on tire sidewall

4. Track bar components check for play

5. Check for worn steering stabilizer a good working frontend only requires one unit

6. Check alignment, there should be no more than 1-3 mm of negative toe, camber and caster have very little impact on wobble

The following are issue that caused death wobble in very rare instances and were in extremely old and neglected trucks

7. Bad unit bearing assembly

8. U-joint in axle shaft frozen in one position so when customer made any steering input it didn’t want to turn with the knuckle and kicked back the wheel causing wobble. Very rare

9. Frozen brake caliper on one side causing a continuous drag on the axle.

10. Excessively worn ball joints, and we mean excessively.

Well this is just a start and we are sure there are people out there that disagree with us, that’s fine but they’re probably still dealing with DEATH WOBBLE.

We know tire pressure is something that a lot of people just don’t understand. We suggest that if you want a softer running tire with less plies and a smoother ride then drop rim size to a smaller diameter such as a 16” or even a 15”, then you can get into a “D” range in a 16” or a “C” range in a 15”. This will improve ride quality greatly and give you a pressure for the tire to run at anywhere from 35 to 45 PSI. However there is one problem, rim selection is substantially reduced and many people can’t find either the tire they prefer or the wheel they like in a 15”-16” diameter. This brings us right back to 17”-18”-20” sizes and back to the dreaded “E” rating in most of those sizes which of course again we recommend max pressure of 65 psi.

Life is full of compromises and tire pressure is no different, all we can tell our guys to do is follow our instructions. We have spent years dealing with issues like this so when we come up with solutions that work and work really well, we stick to them. However just like when you go to the doctor and he tells you not to smoke, drink or you should exercise, when it comes down to it we can’t force you to do what we tell you to do. The choice is yours. We can only try our best to lead you in the proper direction.

False: within reason a bigger tire does not use considerably more fuel than a stock tire. The problem is most people don't do two of the most common things they should be doing. First being, properly inflating the tire to its optimum pressure. Most people don't understand that newer & bigger tires are of higher ply ratings and when inflated to there optimum pressure usually harshen the ride slightly. These same people then choose to drop the pressure from say a required 65psi to say a more comfortable pressure of say 40psi. This choice does two very drastic and possibly dangerous conditions. The first being of course dropping gas mileage because of the added drag the tire is producing (friction). The second being, increasing the temperature of the tire and possibly delaminating the tire from the inside out and causing a catastrophic failure (blowout) at highway speed. We always check and make sure the tires are inflated to the tire manufactures suggested max pressure to insure both safety and optimum fuel mileage.

The second reason for seeing a drop in fuel mileage upon installing larger tires is not accurately calculating the difference in tire size with the mileage calculated on the tripometer. Most people when they fill up there gas tanks usually zero out there tripometer. This is a common practice, although when a larger tire is installed the speedometer along with the odometer and consequently the tripometer all will read less or slower. Thus accumulating less mileage per tank. You still traveled as far as you did before the bigger tires but you see the tripometer and think you traveled less between fill ups. In reality you went nearly the same when you add the percentage of the increase in tire size. For example if you normally go 300 miles to the tank and have say a 31" tire then lift the truck and put on say a set of 35" tires you have increased a total of roughly 13% . This percentage should be added to your new tripometer reading which will be somewhere in the area of around 260-265 miles which will give you a new figure of around 294-296 miles. Then you would take the gallons at the pump you just bought then divide into you mileage, thus giving you almost the exact same mileage you had before. There are many other calculations you can use this tire percentage increase for also. For instance gear ratio changes. Sure you can use a more complicated equation; however it will get you into the same ballpark. Then use common sense to choose a new ratio, for example if you have a 3:73 ratio and add 13% to that, you come up with 4:21 well they don't make a 4:21 ratio for my truck you say , ok well what are your choice's. Either use a 4:10 or 4:56 which is where you have to use some common sense. I would go with a 4:10. But some people may want to over gear for towing or some other reason, it's your choice. This is a lot easier then trying to figure it out with some long equation, and still not getting any different answer then the one we just came up with.

False. Tires these days just don't blowout for any reason at all. A tire will blowout for one of two reasons. Impact or heat. The first being of course the obvious, hitting or running over something to cause a blowout. For example a sharp object of some sort. The second being not as obvious at first, but low air pressure or overloading, which both cause the same result, heat build up. Heat is the biggest enemy to a tire. Heat can cause a tire to delaminate or separate from its carcass thus cause a rupture and catastrophic failure. Most of our customers when asked, rarely if at all ever check air pressure, however if you ask the same customer when they changed there oil they can usually tell you. Its just something that most people don't think of, if the tire looks ok they think its inflated properly. However knowing the exact pressure by just looking at it is just impossible. Even a trained eye cannot see air pressure LOL. The right pressure is so critically important that it should be checked as often a once every 2 weeks. The reason is you may have picked up a nail or screw and haven't noticed any significant pressure loss yet. However if overlooked your truck could be giving you clues of a low tire. One being a pull to one side or a vague steering feel, even a growl or squeal when turning. There are many indications before an actual blowout to look for. Tires of larger sizes are even more important to stay up on because of there sheer size they require more air and need that air to stay cool while driving. Low pressure on one of these tires can be devastating. A tire of this size if low will eventually start to delaminate and breakdown from the inside out where you can't see any clues of the problem until it blows outs. Then of course you blame the tire as being defective, which is the easiest excuse to use. When in actuality it simply wasn't inflated properly for some time. Another culprit of excessive heat buildup is overloading a tire. Overloading can be as easy as towing or carrying more weight then a tire was originally designed to carry. Even for short periods of time the amount a tire can degrade from overloading can be surprising. Tires build up friction when overloaded or not inflated properly, and friction builds heat. So please people show your tires the care they deserve. You spent good money on them take care of them and they will take care of you and keep you rolling safely.

As you may have noticed on newer trucks these days are that they are coming equipped with TPM (Tire pressure monitor) sensors. This will soon be required on all cars and trucks very soon. This is another indication as to how important tire pressure is. Another product you may or may not have seen is the little green valve stem caps. This indicates the presence of Nitrogen instead of compressed air inside the tire. Nitrogen stays cooler and migrates through the rubber of a tire at a slower rate then regular compressed air does. Contrary what people may know, but all tires leak air. Its what we call migration. Air is a gas and rubber is permeable, so the gas eventually will pass through the tire and thus drop air pressure. This is absolutely normal, ever see a car stored for a long time and see all the tires equally low in pressure? Well that's what happens over a long period of time, the air migrates through the tires body and subsequently losses pressure. So remember to please please check your tire pressure.

False: We must hear this all the time. It just isn't true, we have yet to ever see or work on a truck where the ABS system seized to function merely because of either a suspension kit or a larger tire. The system just doesn't work that way, in fact it just isn't smart enough to know you put a larger tire on the truck. Remember it's a system that humans invented. The ABS system works on a principle of rotational indifference. Basically it takes readings from sensors that are placed at each wheel, in turn those signals are transmitted back to the trucks main ECU. The readings are called tones, which are produced by a tone ring (relucter gear) found at each wheel. When everything is working properly the computer compares these tone signals and makes judgments as to what corrections to perform when you the driver perform certain functions (like applying the brake). If all is well no actions are taken by the ECU. However if conditions present themselves in the way of either icy or wet conditions and you apply the brakes for instance, you may create a lock up situation at one or more of the wheels. This will change the tone signals at one or more of the vehicles wheels. If this happens the signals or the lack there of are read by the vehicles computer and actions are applied as long as your foot is still applying pressure to the brake pedal. With these now different signals being read by the computer the ECU must take action thus comparing the speed of the other wheels in comparison to the lack of speed of the wheels that are locking up and when you apply the brake the computer want to see all the tone rings sending the same signal so it then activates the ABS pump to help keep the wheel that are locking up to keep turning so you don't lose control of the vehicle. Remember it still does not know what size tire you are running. Understanding how these systems work take a lot of the mystery out of them. In essence these systems are very basic in design; however it's the lack of understanding as in anything, which creates the fear that most people have. Now remember everything within reason also, if you are running say a 44" tire the system will still function but the whole truck has changed in a lot of ways but for the average person going from a stock tire to a 35-37" tire the truck will for the most part function as normally as an ordinary truck. Remember common sense, your driving something that most people don't understand and if you don't drive with more care and responsibility, you will always be the one to blame for any accident. The simple reason being others will always blame things they don't understand. For example I am constantly asked by ignorant people driving high end Mercedes, jaguars or any high dollar car, why I drive a truck like I do. My answer is simple but usually posed in a question right back to the person who just asked me this, "why do you drive what you drive and spent so much money on it"? their answer is quite humorous, they say they love what they drive. My answer to there question is " I feel the same way as you do". They usually make a funny face and walk away, I in turn smile and walk away.

No: Believe it or not, all tires may not be perfectly round, causing all sorts of vibration or tramping issues. However most all tires can be balanced, we get a lot of customers who have gotten tires from either mail order or from friends used or from some other source. Then they ask to have them balanced because of some vibration issue they seem to be having. When we put them on the high speed balancer we usually find and issue with run out or trueness of the tire. We alert the customer and explain to them that we can still balance an out of round tire but they will still have a vibration. They tend to look at us with a blank stare. They don't understand that balance is only one aspect of what makes a tire run smooth. If the tire has vertical or lateral run out it will never be vibration free. That's when they look like they just lost there best friend. We explain to them that the tire most likely always had this problem from the time it was new, and should never have been put on the truck. Lateral run out is when a tire wobbles as it turns moving side to side. Vertical run out is when the tire moves up and down when it rolls If the original shop took the time to check for run out they wouldn't be having a problem now. When we sell tires we only sell tires that are round and true. That's why we don't have customers complaining of tire issues, we don't sell out of round tires period. Even if it means having to dismount and order a new tire and possibly delaying a customer from picking up there truck on time. We know at least we have sold four true and round tires.

We must have this questioned asked more times than we can remember. Customers will always call or ask us to realign there truck, when actually all they really need is a tire rotation. You see larger tires show wear more significantly than smaller one. The reason being they have a bigger contact patch. When a truck is lifted the main reason is to mount up bigger sneakers, well when this is done the tire has more width than a stock size. This shows tire wear in the form of scalloping or feathering of the outside and or inside of the tire. Being the tire having increased width and now having an increased scrub radius it will wear more significantly especially if used around town, where turning is done more often. The best way to offset this wear is to rotate your tires more often. We recommend at least every 3000 miles or every oil change. If you do a lot of local driving you may want to decrease the interval to 1500 miles. This will only make your tires and your investment last longer. Now were not saying that you never have to have your truck realigned but you can save yourself some money by just not overlooking the obvious and rotate on a regular basis.

Ok this can be a very common issue with a lot of trucks that have ABS sensors built into the front wheel bearing or modular hub assemblies. Most trucks these days use a replaceable wheel bearing or hub assembly, which is replaceable not repairable. They are expensive to replace, however from a manufacturing standpoint very cost effective when building a new truck. That's why almost; if not all new trucks today use this type of wheel bearing assembly. It reduces the labor and the parts that need adjusting or replacing, and is a complete unit that just bolts onto the knuckle. Unfortunately they are not cheap to replace but in a manufacturing point of view fast and cheap to build a new truck with. Some of the issues with these units are that salt, dirt mud water all play havoc with the lifespan of these hub assemblies. They can build up corrosion at a very alarming rate. Then fail very rapidly. Checking for play in the wheel bearing is very important, there should be zero play when good. We have seen wheel bearings drastically degrade in about a week so check them often. A common sign of impending wheel bearing failure is a clue from the ABS system, the light will either come on or stay on or it will feel like it is activating for no reason at all. Especially when making turns and hitting some kind of shallow dip at the same time. It puts lateral loads on the wheel bearing and in turn. This lateral load if there is play in the bearing assembly will shift the reluctor gear the ABS sensor uses to send its signal to the computer. The reluctor gear looks like a straight cut gear with high and low spots on it. These high and low spots along with the magnetic ABS speed sensor create a tone that the computer translates into an algorithms it can understand. When play in the hub assembly is present these erroneous signals sent to the ABS computer will either trigger the system to activate prematurely or at least turn on the ABS light. Either way it can be a very disturbing experience. This can happen with or without a lift, but usually the lift and bigger tires, being the obvious changes are usually blamed anyway. However if you get someone who has experience with these problems and really wants to help fix it, they will understand that it is a common problem with these type of hub assemblies. We have seen this happen on many trucks without lift kits especially ones that are used in severe dirt or salty conditions where corrosion is high. In fact GM sent out a service bulletin to many customers in harsh weather states where corrosion is an issue. Thus stating that the ABS sensors were prone to corrosion build up and would be covered under the warrantee. However the truth in the matter is really, that the wheel bearing is the problem not necessarily the ABS sensor. The sensor is the casualty of the affected wheel bearing. Now comes the funny part, you bring in your truck with the ABS light on in the dash and bring in the letter they sent you. They tell you that the sensor will be replaced at no charge, however you are called and informed that you also need to replace the wheel bearing because they are also bad. Funny how that unfortunately isn't covered. Now comes another funny part, they replace the wheel bearing, charge you and never tell you that the bearing came already supplied with a new ABS sensors already installed.