Are Your Trailer Tires Balanced?

It seems like everything useful has been said (including some not-so-useful posts). Let's call this one Done.

Unless you know that the hubs/drums are in balance and the bolt pattern is concentric, you have no way of knowing the balance of your tire, wheel and hub assembly. I balance the assembly because I know that all of the variables must be taken into consideration. This discussion comes up repeatedly, and I have yet to hear of anyone that checked the balance of the hubs, and no, they are not balanced from new.

I am not against balancing tires for a RV. This question came up with me when I decided to change the wheels from steel to aluminum.

My experience is that none of the past Toy Haulers and trailers I have had came with balanced tires. Checking further I could not find one Trailer manufacturer that balances Travel Trailer tires from the factory. Forest River, Keystone, Lance, Airstream none come with balanced tires. It has to be more than just saving a few $$, Airstream sells for about $5000 a foot there not a big fan of cost cutting.

I have also contacted my wheels supplier to find out if the wheels I bought are Hub or Lug Centric. You must know to have them balanced properly.

This is a second statement from the Tire manufacturer. They sell tire and wheel combinations for all kinds of trailers including boats.


Good afternoon,

Balancing tires is done for ride comfort, and since trailers are pulled behind a tow vehicle, the bonus of ride comfort is typically minimal to the passengers inside the tow vehicle. Some people may want the bonuses of tire balancing for their trailers or tow-behind campers though and it can definitely be done with no negative effects when done properly.

The reason we don't recommend having ST Trailer Tires balanced is because most shops are not equipped to balance trailer tires, and won't know that they are unequipped to do so, so they will try it and only create problems. Passenger car tires and wheels are known as 'hub-centric', meaning the center point of their spinning is around the hub, this is what most shops are used to doing. Trailer tires and wheels are different, they are lug-centric. Balancing trailer tires requires an adapter for your standard tire balancer that will balance around the lugs rather than around the hub. Doing it this way will yield the correct results.

Add to the fact that our most popularly sold wheels are hot-dipped galvanized (for boat trailers), which have a thick galvanized coating giving them a very uneven surface, are almost impossible to balance even with the proper adapter. With the benefits being minimal in most cases, and some cases it is extremely difficult to get a good balancing job, we typically err on the side of caution and just don't recommend it.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks,


Loadstar

Thank You

RinconVTR wrote:

tomman58 wrote:
I totally agree with the previous poster 1L243.
"Travel trailers should be a no brainier...do you want your home goods, fancy cabinetry, and numerous other sensitive items subject to constant vibration at speed?" PLEASE....... try driving the USA... say around the 18 mile bridge in LA there is about 10 miles of roads that will empty your cabinets if not properly loaded. There are several other stretches I can think of like I75 in Mi just before the Ohio border or gladstone Mi the list goes on and on.

Try driving with a tire severely out of balance as most trailer tires.

There is a HUGE difference between rough roads and constant vibration. And take a look at what out of balance does to tire life. I'm no expert...so you do the research. The evidence is clear.

And for minimal cost, why in the world would you not opt to have trailer tires balanced when the option exists. To save $25 on your $400-800 set of new tires? "PLEASE."

This is not just a little out of balance we're often talking about...here's a set of Westlakes from my new camper last year of which I removed specifically to have balanced before a long trip.

I guess that's just not my experience after towing for 100's of thousands of miles. I do replace my tires generally after but about 4 years but that's me as tires can look new of a trailer but are not as dependable as new ones.

1L243 wrote:
What would be interesting is the next time your walking through a RV Lot look down and see how many of the new trailers come with wheel weights! I bet, none!

I'd venture to say TT manufacturers don't balance the tires on their new TT's simply because it's a part of their DNA to put profit first. If it's not an obvious, glaring problem, and won't develop into one during the warranty period, then why be concerned with it. Back in the 70's, early 80's, this worked well for American car manufacturers . . . until finally it didn't

Granted, complaints about out-of-balance TT tires are pretty rare here on rv.net. Not surprising to me. It's near impossible to tell if your TT tires are out-of-balance unless you have them balanced (or ride inside your TT while it's being towed at speed). However, just because you can't see, hear, or feel something in your TV, doesn't necessarily mean there's nothing out of the norm 20-30 ft. behind you.

I'd also venture to say, time has probably shown that vibration from unbalanced TT tires doesn't necessarily cause any immediate, dramatic problems. Why fix it if it ain't broke. That mindset works perfectly well for some folks. However, for those who tend not to take things at face value, and question why all car/truck manufacturers balance their tires, while most TT manufacturers do not, well . . . that mindset has the potential to work equally as well, too.

To each their own.

The info provided by 1L243 appears to be related to boat trailer wheels/tires and makes sense. I don't know that RV wheels would be subject to the same rationale about loaded/unloaded weight, where a boat trailer would be extremely light unloaded v. loaded.

When I recently had Sailun tires installed my tire guy even suggested balancing and used the lug-centric method. So, I remain in the balancing-needed crowd.

tomman58 wrote:
I totally agree with the previous poster 1L243.
"Travel trailers should be a no brainier...do you want your home goods, fancy cabinetry, and numerous other sensitive items subject to constant vibration at speed?" PLEASE....... try driving the USA... say around the 18 mile bridge in LA there is about 10 miles of roads that will empty your cabinets if not properly loaded. There are several other stretches I can think of like I75 in Mi just before the Ohio border or gladstone Mi the list goes on and on.

Try driving with a tire severely out of balance as most trailer tires.

There is a HUGE difference between rough roads and constant vibration. And take a look at what out of balance does to tire life. I'm no expert...so you do the research. The evidence is clear.

And for minimal cost, why in the world would you not opt to have trailer tires balanced when the option exists. To save $25 on your $400-800 set of new tires? "PLEASE."

This is not just a little out of balance we're often talking about...here's a set of Westlakes from my new camper last year of which I removed specifically to have balanced before a long trip.

I totally agree with the previous poster 1L243.
"Travel trailers should be a no brainier...do you want your home goods, fancy cabinetry, and numerous other sensitive items subject to constant vibration at speed?" PLEASE....... try driving the USA... say around the 18 mile bridge in LA there is about 10 miles of roads that will empty your cabinets if not properly loaded. There are several other stretches I can think of like I75 in Mi just before the Ohio border or gladstone Mi the list goes on and on.

I gleamed this from the web site of a large trailer tire supplier.


Question asked and answer provided by supplier

Should I balance my trailer tires?

None of our tire and wheel assemblies come balanced from the factory.

Although some customers do insist upon balancing their trailer tires most (98%) do not. Trailer tires have a tendency to "throw weights". Meaning the weights come off the wheels. This can happen for a number of reasons, but it is not uncommon for the weights to be thrown off when towing a trailer empty (the trailer bounces excessively b/c of the no load conditions) or when making very tight turns on tandem or tri axle trailers.

Furthermore, galvanized trailer wheels are not designed to be balanced. When the steel wheel is dipped into the vat of molten galvanized and then pulled out, some of the liquid zinc always accumulates on one end. Which makes galvanized wheels incredibly difficult to balance. But the galvanized coating does provide one of the best corrosion resistance to harsh environments such as salt water.

Most automotive centers are not equipped with the proper wheel balancing machine to correctly balance most trailer wheels. All of our trailer wheels are a lug centric design. Meaning, that the wheels are centered on the hub by the torque of the lug nuts. Most/many automotive wheels are a hub centric design. Many automotive centers use a computerized "cone" balancer which works great on hub centric wheels, but not on lug centric trailer wheels. In order to balance trailer wheels, an adapter must be used on the cone balancer to correctly balance trailer rims. Check with your automotive center to see if they keep the adapter on hand. Read the details about balancing lug centric trailer wheels here.

1L243 wrote:
Are your trailers wheels balanced? I don' think any of the trailers I have had had balanced wheels.

I just changed the wheels on my TH and was wondering should I balance the wheels or not?

ALL my Trailer tires 14" and larger are balanced.

Travel trailers should be a no brainier...do you want your home goods, fancy cabinetry, and numerous other sensitive items subject to constant vibration at speed?

There there is tire life. There's something about a balanced tire that lasts a lot longer than one is not. Simple logic, right? Well, I guess if doesn't make sense to you, then just Google it! Heck, IMO there is something behind tire balancing and the numerous blow outs we here of. Think about it...


And about shocks on trailers with leaf springs. I installed my first set ever on my TT and the difference is dramatic. I'd say it tows the same from a driver perspective, but from EVERY OTHER PERSPECTIVE the trailer is rock solid. No bounce what-so-ever. The trailer looks GLUED to the road when towing at every speed.