Blancing of Tires

FIRE UP wrote:

J-Rooster wrote:
Roy, I had mine computer balanced when they were put on new last Fall! My tire guy who I trust told me out of all the tires he balanced in his lifetime he only had one set that were true from the factory? Good Luck, Rooster

About 99.9% of the tires that are balanced out there are computer balanced. Now, if you talk with the folks at Discount tire, they have some fancy names for different ways of computer balancing but, it's still COMPUTER BALANCING.

Then there's the alternate methods. Equal, balancing beads, centramatics, etc. I did try the "Balancing beads" one time. Things just didn't seem right for the first couple of hundred miles so, I did an experiment. I took the coach to a company already mentioned in my previous post. Once there, they spun up the right front tire, while it was on the coach. It about shook the windshield out when he got it to speed. So, he stopped it, removed the tire/wheel (19" on a Fleetwood Bounder, 34V) and dismounted the tire from the rim.

There he found the bag of beads, NOT BROKEN DOWN! The bag was still intact. There was no indication that the bag was EVER going to dissolve, like it was supposed to. So, that was a no-brainer. I told them to break down all the tires and wheels and remove all the "Balancing beads". He then trued each tire and wheel, rears too (by placing them on the front hubs temporarily) and when it was all said and done, there was very little weight that was needed for all of them. That coach road like glass from that point on.

Due to better quality and practices, out of round tires are ever so slowly, becoming a thing of the past but, that's not to say, won't ever happen. But, the possibility of having 4 or, 6, completely perfect, flawlessly balanced tires, right from the factory, especially on the large tire scale (i.e. 19" , 22.5" 24" etc.)is extremely rare.

To the OP, tire wear, vehicle ride quality and more is always improved if and when, tires are balanced. How you choose to do it, is of course, up to you.
Scott

Wait, BAGS?! The guy who did my tires didn't use bags...he scooped a handful of beads out of a 5-gallon bucket & dropped them into the tire!