Junk GoodYears, combined with tech's who more often than not not very good at balancing.
JMHO

 

I test drove a 2020 Chevy LTZ about 10 miles a few weeks ago. It drove and rode great but I never looked to see what kind of tires it had.

 

Hope it works out for you because that is a really good looking truck. I think powerhaulic is right.

 

As I said in the PM, the Goodyear tires are the main source of the vibrations. The Goodyear Trailrunners are notorious for vibration/balancing problems across many other brands of vehicles that use them as OEM.

 

This issue has nothing to do with tires. There is a steering calibration coming to fix. Should be available in about two weeks for service.

#iworkforGM

 

With the strike going this fix will be available in two weeks? Is it just a engineering fix or a parts fix?

 

Just test drove one last week and it was an awesome drive/ride, couldn't get the grin off my face with the new ride & transmission making the new truck throttle response feel more like the 2006 lbz I had but with all the amenities of the new ride and quiet cab and features... Truly an enjoyable experience, now I'm trying to figure out if it is worth cashing in some investments and buying it outright rather than financing the difference between the 2017 3500 SRW Denali and the new one. No GM incentives yet and no low interest rates...........at least here in Canada.

 

I have an AT4 and it does not shake at all.... drives and rides excellent at all speeds and with or without a load or trailer

 

I have about 3k on my 2020 now and I have noticed a small vibration. I took my rims and tires off my LML when I traded it in so I am taking it in on Friday to have them rotate and balance again plus do Fox shocks, Sulastic Shackles and a steering stabilizer to see if that corrects it for me. Again, mine was very mild and the ride overall has been great.

 

Fox shocks? wasn't aware anything was out for the 2020 HDs as of yet

 

Yup. Have never been a fan of Rancho. Had Fox 2.0s and Sulastic shackles on my LML. Was the first thing I did to it when I bought it. Made a huge difference in the ride. Some of the reps from the local dealership I use for mx told me countless times it road better than a stock new truck.

 

My 2019 had less than 3000 miles on it and the stock ranchos were toast. Put some Bilsteins on and never looked back, shoulda grabbed em before I traded … oh well!

 

When you get ready for some, let me know. I will get you taken care of.

 

If it was my truck I wouldn't touch anything about the suspension or tires until GM had made them right. Then if I wanted to "improve" something (big tires, off road shocks, heavy duty steering linkage, etc.) I'd go ahead with that but let GM fix it first.

Suppose there is a problem with the steering gear that need a factory update but you mask it with different parts elsewhere. Then years from now you or someone else changes out what masked the problem and it comes back. But the warranty is gone. GM gets off the hook for selling a bad part(s) and you or the next guy is stuck with a potentially costly repair.

I get the idea that many of you guys who have the newest trucks aren't particularly sensitive to cost but there is an issue here of what is right too.

At least we have mrmanners to watch out for us and get us the better parts when we want them.

 

While I don't doubt there maybe some issues out there, my truck had tire issues. The stock Goodyear Trailrunners are notorious for having balancing issues, not just on GM vehicles but many other vehicles. My vibration issue is gone since switching tires....pretty sure I didn't "mask" anything.

 

Putting 17-19 shocks is not the best idea. The 2020 sit 2 inches higher so your compression and rebound travels will not be centered properly. You will really limit your front rebound travel which does not have a lot of travel to begin with.

 

There is something that often gets blamed on balance but is actually something else. A tire can be built out of round or with a stiff spot.

Sometimes you can jack up a wheel and spin it. When you do you can see that it is not round. People actually make a contest out of making square wheels roll like they are round but that shouldn't be needed on a new truck. A tire that isn't round needs to be replaced.

A stiff spot in the tire is harder to find. It takes a special machine. Usually it is found by swapping tires around to see if a vibration moves from one place to another. That would be a good thing to try in this situation.

 

I have a 2020 and used the factory rims and run 35x12.50-20 Nitto Ridge Grapplers. Had them Road Force Balanced as I have for the last 30 years and even at 85 on the way to the ranch in NM in West Texas on I20 they are smooth as glass with no shake. Have over 5k now and the factory tires were only on one day but were smooth on mine.

 

Following this as well. I saw a couple guys have installed new Kings that apparently are made for the 2020s.

 

Thanks for all of the replies. Vehicle is still at the dealer. Last Friday, the service adviser called and said "GM is aware there is a problem, but they currently do not have a solution." Pretty frustrating.......

 

The solution is likely at least one tire to be replaced and the rest to be road force balanced or force matched to reduce the shit ton of road force they're likely at. I'd imagine a dealer out there has the required diagnostic equipment (PICO scope) to confirm it's a T1 vibration. Once that's confirmed, it's just time and labor from that point forward. It's not hard, it's just time consuming and they might not want to deal with it.

 

I've had smooth sailing since switching tires at 600 miles. I could literally put my phone on the steering wheel recording going down the road to prove a point. I do think these trucks are more sensitive to road conditions, I.E. transferring more road feedback to the driver, which could be seen as both good and bad.

 

I swear I bought Michelin’s and Bilstein shocks on mine and I can’t complain about my ride it’s the best riding truck I ever had.

 

Some tires flex exactly right at a specific tire pressure and road speed to go into resonance and shake the entire truck. It probably is tire brand specific, but test drive it to determine the exact speed at which this vibration starts and the speed at which is goes away. Then increase and/or decrease the tire pressure to see if you have shifted the resonance to a higher or lower speed. I've had passenger cars whose ideal tire pressure sent them into vibration at 55 mph, but it went away at 65mph. Its worth a try. Unfortunately, if I am right, the specific brand is not suitable for the truck's suspension. Yet, the factory/dealer buys them in such quantity that it is unlikely they will quickly determine an alternative tire brand.

 

Each vehicle has a vehicle speed range where it can be more sensitive to a first order tire uniformity. Ideally, the peak is outside the normal driving speed window.

 

So riddle me this.....

I'd imagine the reason you don't see it on the base trucks is because they don't have 20" wheels with the same tires. We have not witnessed this on any trucks that don't have the 20" Goodyear Trail Runner tires.

If this issue is on all NV8 (electric assist) trucks then why do none of the trucks with 18" wheels have a problem? I ASSume the steering calibration is the same in both trucks (2020 HD LTZ 4x4 with 18" wheels and 2020 HD LTZ/HC 4x4 with 20" wheels) because the steering gear is the same for 2500/3500 HD crew cab with NV8.

Also if you have a LTZ that came with 18" wheels and no shake, but then you swap wheels/tires from a 20" wheel truck with a shake, why does the original truck shake and the truck that you put the 18" wheels/tires on stop shaking?

Lastly, if the calibration is the fix then why are several people reporting that switching to a different brand of tire immediately fixes the vibration without getting the cal updated?

I understand the steering calibration might help some, but the tires are still crap. A couple of these trucks showed up with over 60 pounds of road force that increased as miles were put on the trucks.

GM should've never went back to Goodyear tires and they should still give people the option to upgrade to Michelin tires when ordering the truck, just like in previous years.

The slight shake of just the steering wheel isn't a huge concern of mine now that we got the ridiculous amount of vibration out of it. Now you can see it on the steering wheel, but you can't feel it. However when my truck (and the other 3 LTZ and High Country's) trucks first came in, the vibration shook the entire truck.

The other interesting thing is that lowering the tire pressure actually makes the shake worse. It's totally opposite of everything the field engineer, brand quality and us thought, but it's true. The PICO levels we obtained on my truck were actually worse when I went from 80 PSI to 65 PSI and they got even worse with a few hundred miles on the new tires. We had road force readings on the 2 tires we replaced go from under 20 pounds when we first mounted them to over 60 pounds in ~600 miles of driving the truck. One of them also developed a "thump" noise when spun up on the road force balancer. The thump noise corresponded perfectly to the area of the tire that had an excessive amount of the internal ribs molded into the tire. Even worse is that one of the tires was on the rear and the steering cal won't do a damn thing for a vibration from a rear tire.

I'm not trying to argue, but we've been dealing with this for several weeks and ~30 hours worth of labor so what we've seen (and documented) is slightly different than what engineering, TAC and the "subject matter experts" have been saying.[/QUOTE]

The 20" tire is standard on the custom trucks and available as an option on LT. They are building a rich mix to start the program with mostly at4, denali, ltz, and HC. These combinations all have uplevel steering gear and mostly 20" tire.

If you are getting high pico data, then obviously you have a first order tire issue that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately they have a ton of trucks sitting at flint for extended periods that I believe is leading to some tire damage.

I will stand behind the Goodyear tire. I firmly believe it is the best tire performance wise you can get on these trucks. It's the best riding, trailering, handling, and fuel economy tire. It's also very good for snow, wet, and noise. I will eat crow if it's bad for warranty.

#iworkforGM

 

I don't have any information on other wheel sizes, however I have driven multiple Super Duty trucks over the last 10 years. These new 2020 GM trucks have the same size tires as the Super Duty trucks. And as you know those super duty trucks generally come stock with the Michelin LTX AT2 tires. This wasn't rocket science on my part, I knew what tire sizes were available and I knew the Michelin tires had more than enough load rating. That being said, I'd have to disagree with the Goodyear tires having the best performance, best riding, trailering, handling, fuel economy, snow, wet, and noise. Personally there are a few Hankook, Firestone, Bridgestone, and Cooper tires I would put above Goodyear.

Regardless of what tires we all have the freedom to use, my own research has shown that the Goodyear Trailrunners have not performed well on multiple other car manufacturers. The fact of the matter is, I spent money after buying a new truck to replace tires that had vibration problems. Could I have had my local tire shop road force balance etc.? Sure, but researching the tire itself lead me to believe that it was going to be a pain to deal with. Does this mean I want everyone to abandon their Goodyear tires? No. Does this mean every Goodyear tire is going to have issues? No. But the old saying is, if it looks, sounds, and acts like a duck.... its probably a duck.

 

But the old saying is, if it looks, sounds, and acts like a duck.... its probably a duck.

Unless it's a merganser, which looks and acts like any duck but has a pointed bill. It quacks like a duck with a cold though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_merganser

There is no such thing as universal anything. No mater how good something is at a particular use or how happy someone else is with it, there is some use or someone else who will not like it.

It appears that Goodyear has come up with a lemon. That is all there is to it. I'm sure their ideas seemed good at the time and that the guys building the tires are doing their usual quality of work. It just turns out that there is a combination of circumstances that happens on late model GM trucks that doesn't agree with them.

I believe the reason GM is saying that they will come up with a calibration is because once a calibration is found that stops the truck from doing the ChaCha going down the street it will be cheap to implement. Changing all of those tires would be expensive.

I was working at Ford then Explorers were having blowouts right and left. Lots of those supposedly deadly tires wound up on mechanic's trucks. Just keep air in them and they were just fine. If it should happen that GM decides to replace these Goodyears you can bet that many of them will fall onto mechanics trucks as well. What is fit for the goose isn't always what is fit for the gander.

 

Here is a quick video I made showing the smoothness of my truck. Probably not the absolute best video, but should give you a generalized idea of what simply changing the tires did for me. Before changing tires there was almost a constant vibration or minor shaking of the steering wheel.

 

Just made the switch to the Michelin Defender LTX tires, and I'm happy to report the truck drives a 100 times better. Still a very slight vibration or minor shake after hitting expansions cracks/bumps in the road. The dealer said once a steering system calibration service bulletin is released, it should help even more. Just my opinion, but I would say the Goodyear Wranglers are 80-90% to blame for the poor ride quality from the factory.

 

I've heard great things about those Defenders, we don't see much snow around here but we do go offroad a fair amount and the AT2's seem to do very well in that area.

 

I am generally anti-French because I find the French to be fair weather friends and arrogant. However, when it comes to women and tires the French have it figured out. That's just my opinion but it is the only one I have.

By the way, Martinique is the only place where I have been that I have actually dealt with Frenchies on a personal basis and on Martinique I didn't find any arrogance at all. I guess I could be wrong about the French, but not about their women and tires.

 

I'd just like to thank all of you first adopters for going through this teething period with the new trucks so that those of us who have a little more patience (or a lot less money!) can benefit from your experiences.