Forum Discussion

captpar's avatar
captpar
Explorer
Jan 21, 2019

Rear tires balance

Does everyone get their rear tires balanced ,or since they don’t turn like the steers it’s not needed. New tires being installed this week.
  • New question, I had a flat on a front last month on the road and had to replace tire. So I bought two new ones for the front. Now replacing the 4 old ones (6 years) with new Hancock’s AH 37s which replaced the hankook AH12 which is no longer available. The new ones up front are Yokohama’s. Wanted hankook which had proved to be an excellent RV tire but wasn’t available. Any problem with this?
  • I always balance all tires using equal , but was just interested in what others do.
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    The reason you balance has nothing to do with turning side to side (Steering) it has to do with bouncing up and down

    If you spin something it wants to spin around the center of gravity.
    Now let's take a perfect ring.. balanced. and spin it like a top It will relove around the geographic center. Which is also the center of gravity for it.

    Now put a 2 ounce weight on the ring and spin it. It now spins "OFF Center"

    And if that's a tire it bounces (And I might add exactly the opposite of how you think it does but that's not important)

    Loss of control Rough ride. Reduced tire life

    HOW TO BALANCE?

    Ideally I'd machine balance on a machine designed for it (not a bubble level but the high speed spinner machine) but for big (22.5) that's not practical at most shops Truck shops perhaps but not auto size.

    Belle Tire (Burton MI) put balance beads in mine. Rides smooth.
  • ALL tires should be balanced. Not doing so is plane foolish.