Yokohama tires not happy

Thanks for everyone's input, I ended up rotating my tires, putting yokos up front and BS on the rear had no issues towing from TN back to Cleveland, towed just like it always had. So I am not wondering if there is not a defect in the yokos?? My tire guy took the Yokos back, and replaced them with what I originally had which was Brigstones Duravis M773 II. Thanks Harry

I ran Yokohamas on my old TV from 2004 up until just this year. No issues.

not scientific , but .............
you could try rotating the tires .
we have winter tires mounted on wheels and summer tires mounted on wheels .
many years ago when i was doing the seasonal switchover on one of the cars i experienced an uncomfortable " wandering " .
i was told to rotate those tires again .
that solved the issue ..

I'm pretty happy with mine now. At first they were "hair brushing" because the tread was so deep and the rubber so soft, it was like towing on a slime covered road. Felt very insecure. After about 1000 miles, the got a lot better. I have over 30K on them now and they are great. I'll bet they go another 30K!

I have the same tires on my 06 Duramax. When I first got them they did feel like I was on top of the road and not getting any traction. I lowered the air pressure and that seemed to help. Discount Tire said to put some miles on them and then readjust tire pressures. No problem since break in.

Ezbagr wrote:
One time I had 6 brand new tires put on my 2001 F350 Ford Dually and that thing was all over the road. Took truck back to tire store and they checked everything out and readjusted front end to no avail-they ended up getting me a different brand of tire and that took care of the problem.

Odd but true. Hated the Michelin LTX M/S on the Suburban, guys with Fords swear by them. Still running Michelins on DW's Magnum, I like the brand overall. Bridgestone Revo's on the truck for the last 2 sets and love them.

Yoko is a good tire, but just may not like your particular brand of truck, may run fine on someone else's rig.

Probably not what you wanted to hear after dropping big coin on new tires and hitting the road, but after you balance, align and adjust pressure, there aren't that many more variables, especially on rear tires.

Could also be they are not playing nice with the front. maybe the answer is to buy two more Yokos....but if that doesn't fix the problem you;re twice as deep in the hole...reminds me of that old Clash song, "Should I Go or Should I Stay?"

I had that happen to me once on my old chevy 2500.

I got new tires for the truck, had been running Michelin, 245/75/16 load range e, they were just worn down or sidewall cracking, can not remember why I changed.

but the new tires, same size and load range had much softer side walls, so they rolled around, I felt very unsafe and that was just driving, not towing.

I had tire dealer take them off and order another set of Michelins, when they came in, I checked the stiffness of the tire sidewalls as I had both tires side by side, the Michelin tires had a much stiffer side wall.

they drove fine,

I tried more air, everything, but soft sidewall tires will roll around on our old trucks.

I am a little over 600 miles today traveled without the TH and the tires are still squirrelly so tomorrow
I may rotate the fronts to the rear and see how it handles before I embark $500.00 then I get home I will deal with my tire guy.

I had that exact same thing happen on my Excursion when I got new Yokohamma's last year over July 4th week. They do break in after 500 miles or so, but it can be unnerving at times. It's rock solid now, but it felt like the back end of the truck was all over the road before they did break in.

There is a whole science to tires that this only touches the tip of


Anyone ever notice how racers (take Indy) pull their vehicle side to side
in extreme angles once they change or have fresh tires at the beginning?

That is to heat them up and flex the plys (cords or fabric) 'breaking'
them in, which should have had them broken in before the race (all spare
sets too)

Today's rubber compound (rubber is less than 50% these days...most at least)
and has to 'cure' before they develop their potentials fully

Both the compound and fabric (plys and cords)

Also the performance (slip angle the main) is in transition all the
time that tire is curing. Even in transition during the heat up of
a cured tire

Yokohama's are a bit softer than most and do require more curing or
break-in time. They are also more sensitive to PSI vs rim width.

My 1980 C10 Silverado has both Timberline (owned by Yokohama) and
Yokohama Geolanders. Both 33/12.5R15LT load range C's on 8.5" wide
rimes (or maybe 8" wide...can't remember). A bit on the narrow side
so they have much more sidewall bendback and more roll over during
hard maneuvering.

Max PSI is 35 on those 'LT' class tires

The slip angle between the Timberline and Geolander is very noticeable
with the Geolander having a smaller slip angle

Slip angle only on aspect of steering/tracking/etc. The TT (toss and
tuck is what I used to call it, but assume tire OEM's have a different
coinage).

TT is toss it 'that-a-way' and it will take some time (factored by the
rim width vs tire OEM recommendation and PSI) before the tire will
squirm/flex/etc to finally transmit the wheel change in direct (from the
steering wheel) to the tread...to the pavement

Then hang on while the tire settles down into that new direction and
provide feedback to the wheel, which then goes to the steering components
That is tuck to me

Load vs PSI vs loading vs wheel rim width has lots to do in the above.
Even tire RPMs

Check out the PSI vs load. There are several methods. From chalk to
masking tape to whatever. Some times when driven over wet, sandy, etc
will take note of how much the tread picks up sand/etc or tread
marks on dry pavement

Heat from flexing (rolling, squirming, etc) cures it, but note that
heat above a certain temp is any tires enemy