Should I Balance My New Tires?

wilber1 wrote:

LarryJM wrote:

wilber1 wrote:
If your TV will shake and vibrate from an unbalanced wheel, why would anyone think a trailer won't? Yes, back in the olden days when most cars had all drum brakes and solid rear axles, it was necessary to balance the wheels.

The tires on a TV especially the front are worlds different than a trailer. Just from the nature of the design with all the ball joints, bearings necessary for steering along with the entire steering mechanism which you actually hold onto via the steering wheel amplifies any NVH issues from out of balanced tire/wheel assemblies over a trailer that is a fixed rotating assembly with only a pair of bearings on the spindle.

It amazes me that anyone would even attempt to compare these two worlds apart situations .... they're not even in the apple and oranges category, but more in the grapes and watermellon realm.

Larry

It may not be as critical as in a steering system but do you not balance the rear wheels on your vehicles? A rotating mass that is out of balance will shake. It doesn't matter what it is. Just because you can't feel it in your TV doesn't mean it isn't there.

You don't really balance the rear wheels on purpose, but because they normally will end up on the front due to normal tire rotation. DIY tire rotaters (word???) do not typically re-balance their tires when they rotate them so just as a matter of routine every tire you put on a POV is balanced.

Again it's amazing how folks want to try and take what someone says so far off into the weeds. I'm not touting the "virtue" of NOT BALANCING a trailer tire, but am just pointing out the MINIMAL real positive side to doing so and I'm only trying to share my almost 40 years and countless trailer tires and probably close to 150K+ miles of towing with unbalanced tires w/o any actual downsides unless you consider saving several hundred $$$ over that time a downside. Balancing a trailer tire likewise has no downside, but I question if it even has a real upside to it overall.

Likewise I have seen several "red herring" declarations about this shaking and bouncing, but absolutely no real evidence to support those claims, but my experiences with my camera and "Xmas" tree "shake indicator" has demonstrated to my satisfaction just the opposite is closer to the truth.

Larry