I just bought this truck a few weeks ago and I have a problem with it when turning sharp at slow speeds. The truck feels like something up front is binding/grinding and the truck slows down immensely when this happens. At first I thought the tires were rubbing but now I'm thinking it's something else as there are no signs of rubbing. The truck has 40,000 miles on the odometer and it's a 2008 with a Tuff Country lift kit (dunno how high), it also has 305/55/20 Nitto Terra Grappler tires, and a factory locking rear diff. This doesn't happen all the time but when it happens I can feel the vibration in the floor board and feels like something should be rubbing as it's not a smooth bind or vibration, almost feels like something is getting caught in the tread of the tire. I had my wife move the steering wheel lock-lock while I watched the tires to see if there was any possibility that it could rub anywhere. At the closest point there is about 3/4 of in. clearance in the wheel well but I could see if the truck was leaning there would be a pretty good possibility it could rub but at the speed I'm going when the truck does it there is hardly any lean and it feels pretty severe enough that if the tire was indeed rubbing then there should be wear marks on the plastic wheel well or something tore up and there are no signs of this. So I'm calling on the forum to help me solve this problem. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Sounds like its the wide profile tires you have on there............have you ever put a 4x4 in low on pavement and turned??.........does it feel like that??????....the only other thing I can think of is a front end problem......not aligned.....

 

no I have never put it in 4wd lo on dry pavement, I was thinking at first it was wheel bearings but it does it when turning left and right, and the binding happens on each side depending on which way I turn, I just don't think both wheel bearings would be bad at the same time. I was also thinking that the half-shafts are binding up some how when I turn but this whole thing is new to me.

 

I think he is on to something here. Have you driven on tire as big as these before? With the size and treads on there, it could just be the tire "sticking" as it turns. See if it goes away on wet pavement and or dirt.

 

This is my first time driving on any tire other than stock. The only thing is that it doesn't do it all the time? Unless it's only at that certain angle that I'm steering at. It happens when I'm doing about 5-20 mph on sharp turns and this only happens sometimes.

 

It also sounds like it's groaning almost like metal on metal binding.

 

Almost sounds like a bad wheel bearing. But dont know if you have 4x4 or 2x4?

 

It's a 4x4.

 

I'm thinking it's either bad wheel bearings or cv joints/axles.

 

Well after driving it some more and talking to my uncle back home who is a mechanic it is in fact tire rub. I dremeled some plastic off in the front part of the wheel well and grinded down a little of the metal clips. I also cleaned up the wheel well to see if the tire rubs any where else. I noticed it looked like it could have rubbed in the lower-middle part of the wheel well closest to the bumper so I might have to drill two small holes and run some zip ties and anchor it to the bumper beam to alleviate that problem. But hopefully what I did tonight fixed the problem.