Steering wheel shake. PLEASE HELP.

I have steering shake in my 2013 Tacoma Trd off road 2x4. Bought the truck with big mud tires on 20s. Decided to swap to street tires for a smoother ride and I’ve had intermittent steering shake ever since. Backstory: had the new tires( Toyo proxes 285/50r20 on 20x10 fuel maverick wheels) installed. Same rims that was on the truck just new tires. Also removed a shock lift out of the front to set the truck back to stock. I’ve had the tires balanced 6 times. Most recently with a road force/lug pate adapter as recommended by people here. Added comical sleeved lugs because those were recommended for my wheels. Still shaking. Next I bough a set of stock 17” Tacoma wheels thinking balance was the issue. They rode better but after maybe a week the shaking/vibes were back in the steering wheel just like before. I’ve had the alignment done 3 times. First time steering wheel wasn’t centered so I took it to the dealership for an alignment. They showed me the results saying everything was set correctly(steering wheel was still slightly off but the truck seemed to ride fine the first couple days). Couple of days later the skating was back so I went back to the dealership and was told my toe was off. They said something was bad causing my alignment to fall out of wack and suggested that maybe my lower control arms bushings were bad. Suggested I replace those and then get another alignment saying that it “might” help the shaking. Anyone have any good insight or input on this that can help me out. Could removing the shock lift boots have anything to do with it? Would control arms cause it to fall out of alignment and shake? Any input would be very much appreciated. Also I reinstalled the aftermarket wheels with toyos since the stock tires didn’t seem to help the issue or resolve the steering shake.

 

start by having front tires balanced

 

Sounds very frustrating! When does it shake? High speed would suggest balance issues but it seems like you have eliminated that possibility (unless you are accumulating ice or mud in the wheels repeatedly..). I've experienced "death wobble" related to caster geometry problems but only on a solid axle set-up.

 

From my personal experience, my vibes came from tires or the tire-wheel combo itself (being aftermarket wheels). Switched out to KO2's (from Wildpeaks) and all vibration was gone (good Toyota dealership, they worked on it for 6 hours - no shit).

Bummer is, you need a good shop to bring it to that works with you. I'd say it's balancing or the tires. You know anyone who has a 2nd Gen 2x4 that would let you try their wheels to see? Would take an hour tops.

 

Unless the stock wheels came with new tires, you are going to have a really hard time chasing the solution. You need to scrap your current aftermarket setup and go with a reasonable 8" wide rim and AT or P-metric tire combo. Then look into worn suspension parts such as WB, ball joints, U-joints and driveshaft angles. Is there currently a lift?

 

So, I’m back with an update:
I have replaced the following with no avail. Wheel bearings, uniballs and bushings on UCA’s, brake rotors and pads, needle bearing
(to ecgs bushing), lowered the front end a half inch, and tire balancing and rotation... I will admit that it is a little smoother and A LOT quieter (needle bearing or wheel bearing) but I still have a shake around the 50-60 mph range. Went to have it aligned and the tech came and got me to show me that I have a lower ball joint bad on the passenger side so I chose not to align and waste my money. Should have the new OEM LCA’s in the morning so I’m going to tackle that and report back.

Edit: I’m not 100% sure that the LCA balljoint is the problem either because it did not have a whole bunch of slack. But has slack none the less.

 

I think I posted on the wrong thread

 

move your rear tires to the front and see if you change anything.

 

Balancing with the best equipment is still only as good as the tech running it. Are you using a big box store or a small shop that trains their staff well?

That statement alone would cause me to not return there. If they are doing the work and can't tell what 'something bad' is...........

I've never seen alignment itself actually have anything to do with shaking, UNLESS there are very worn components in the system. But then it can't really be aligned.

'lift boots'? You mean dust boots? No, cosmetic items

Not a good move. Just makes diagnosis harder and it's an easy place to point fingers.