Tires: Steering wheel/tire vibration, uniroyal liberator tires, tire vibration

Question
I have a 2000 Dodge Dakota 4x2, which has about 57,000 miles on it. Recently it has developed a vibration that seems to come from the front tires into the steering wheel. I have approx. 17,000 miles on replacement Uniroyal Liberator tires from Walmart...(cough). Anyway... there had been a balljoint recall on my truck which I thought might have been the issue. I took it to the dealer and the upper ball joints, control arm and a brake hub were replaced. Needless to say, I got it back from the dealer with the same vibration. I then had the tires rotated and rebalanced at Walmart where I had purchased the tires. At that time there was some wear on the outsides of the front tires. The tires with the wear were moved to the rear of the truck but the vibration still remains.  Could this be an alignment issue? I am also wondering if I got a few bad tires. Any help would be appreciated as I am about to start banging my head against the wall.....lol.

Answer
Lisa,

If rotating the tires didn't move the vibration from the steering wheel to the seat, then the problem is probably not the tires.  In this case look at brakes engine mounts, etc.

But if rotating the tires did move the vibration from the steering wheel to the seat, then your problem WAS the alignment (the ball joints caused this)and that caused the tires to wear irregularly (the outside shoulder wear is the clue here.)  While you may have fixed the alignment, the tire wear remains.  In this case, leave the tires on for another rotation interval (5,000 to 8,000 miles) and the tires ought to develop a different and smoother wear pattern.

If this is the first time you rotated tires