You may have heard at one time or another our competitors bad mouthing us, but on the other hand, you've probably heard our customers raving about us. So what does that say? Well, we guess it means that because we are doing a lot more business than they are, they're frustrated and that's their only way of letting it out. When we hear these comments, it makes us laugh, because we know that we do outstanding work that speaks for itself. The only thing we know for a fact, is that our customers leave real happy, and theirs leave mad and come running down to us! At RMS, we feel that there should be no reason to lower ourselves to use their sort of tactics to sell a job.

We sell ourselves on our service and reputation...

Common misconceptions:

 Leveling kits explained:

Bigger tires kill fuel mileage: True or false 

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.

Tire blowouts:

            Do tires blowout because of defects true or false:

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.

My ABS system will not function anymore: true or false

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.

Tire: are all tires round?

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.

I need an alignment:

            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.  

Why is my ABS light on?                     

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.