Should I Balance My New Tires?

2112 wrote:

TooManyTents wrote:
...
The question I would ask myself is "Why would I NOT balance the tires?" What is there to be gained by not balancing?

Because every trailer I have bought did not have the tires balanced. The only set of TT tires I have bought were in 2008 from a truck/trailer tire dealer. He insisted I was wasting my money balancing my trailer tires so I didn't. I have never noticed any imbalance issues on any tire I have owned, a total of 20 tires over the years.

My motorcycles are the same way but there is a dot to line up with the stem. But after some crown wear on the front tire they become unbalanced, I can feel it. The bike shop tells me balancing them at that point causes the front tire to wear out prematurely. I had one balanced and sure enough I was back buying a new tire after about 500 miles.

Discount Tires has the best price around for the GY Endurance so I'll have them install the tires. They charge $6 each for mounting and balance so balanced they get.

Thanks for all the feedback. It's always entertaining.

I've known guys that didn't get their bike tires balanced, and they're always surprised at how much more smoothly the bike rides when the tires are balanced. I've had a few tires not need anything, but most need some amount of weight to balance. Harley's usually don't get them balanced because A) the weights vibrate loose and fall off, or B) the bikes don't go fast enough to need balanced tires anyway.