Balance Question

Lynnmor,

Getting back to you. Thanks for explaining your static balance setup. I have had to do a similar method at work, just on a 10,000# rotary drum. We leveled steel plates on the floor, then rolled by hand the large drum with machined race rings that were friction drive wheels. The drum is 6ft dia x 25 ft long, and as we rotated it, we stopped every few degrees. We added weight to the correct location to balance out the system so no matter where it stopped, the weight would not start the drum from moving. When all 360 degrees worked, then we declared it was statically balanced good enough, It only rotated 30 rpm. But that big, 30 rpm gets your attention.

As I was reading through your write up, I thought, the grease is going to add friction, you took care of that and the grease seal and bearing preload if any and you took care of that too.

Then it came to be, that you balanced a wheel and brake drum to a specific axle location and lug pattern. And yup, you took that into account too.

Yes, I see what you are doing and it is a sound mechanical basic process that should yield good results.

I have the ability to reproduce what you did, never thought of doing it, even through I know the method. I do not trust the tire shops setup and then with the poor machining of the brake drums, even if tire shop balanced the wheel right, it, still won't work.

I use Dyanbeads in the my trailer tires to overcome the problem. http://www.innovativebalancing.com/ I have my own tire machine (think, 1970 vintage) but it still works well on trailer wheels or other zero offset wheels. As such, I use the larger truck beads and put them in the tire as I am mounting it.

I see Robertsunrus is using centramatics on the camper, https://www.centramatic.com/balancers.rhtml That is the more Cadillac approach. I bumped into them before and was planning on using them on the F350. Not a cheap way to go, but from everyone who has used them all they say is, smooth riding. I will see how they work out on the truck first, then figure out if they will gain me more then the dynabeads on the camper to help justify the added cost.

I will say this, anyone who plans on keeping a camper a good long time and tows long distances, trailer suspension and tire balance go a long way in keeping the trailer frame and entire camper from fatiguing. Shocks and a rubber equalizer if you are on double eye leaf springs along with a more true working tire balance helps the whole camper live longer. The double slipper spring setup with shocks also helps or rubber ride (torsion spring) axles if you have them in your size camper.

John