Balance wheels on a fifth wheel

Going to take my unit to a truck place and get the wheels balanced before we start out on our six months on the road. The wheels were balanced before and I do believe it helps. Dave

LarryJM wrote:

jwmII wrote:
Hop in that trailer and have someone pull it and you down the road @ 55 mph. It is about the same quality of ride as riding on a roller skate at that speed. Rough!! Therefore It is my suggestion to make your trailer ride as smoothly as you can. This applies especially to a camp or RV type trailer. A run of the mill utility trailer, not so much.

I have a remote view camera inside my trailer that I can monitor when towing and you just might be surprised how little real "rock'n & roll'n" there is inside the trailer. Now it is not by any means rock solid and trying to ride in one would be very uncomfortable. Last year I had a small 4' X-mas tree with ornaments set up inside our trailer and when towing I was amazed how little movement there was on the hanging ornaments and with the tree in general. Now my trailer does have the torsion axles, but not shocks, etc.

One should be careful about making definitive statements that appear to be fact w/o any actual factual or documented evidence to support such positions since they often only show their serious lack of understanding of the issue.

Larry

I carry a 4' stepladder in the garage in my toy hauler. Leaning on the wall. has never fallen.

Update: Have been in touch with camping world. I was first told they put sand in the tires and didn't have a balancing machine, then after further inquiry I was told that was incorrect and they only put sand in drivable coaches and that they do have a balancing machine. Was also told all new tires are balanced. I had told them there were no wheel weights on any of the wheels. They insisted they were balanced and that unfortunately sometimes the weights sling off. Well, I have moved this fifth wheel a total of 10 miles since the tires were installed,so, all the weights from all the wheels must have slung off in that 10 miles, seems pretty unlikely to me. Anyway, done with camping world !!!

Several years ago I convinced myself I needed to balance my TT tires so I did.
Shortly after that I convinced myself I wasted my $$ doing so.

jwmII wrote:
Hop in that trailer and have someone pull it and you down the road @ 55 mph. It is about the same quality of ride as riding on a roller skate at that speed. Rough!! Therefore It is my suggestion to make your trailer ride as smoothly as you can. This applies especially to a camp or RV type trailer. A run of the mill utility trailer, not so much.

I have a remote view camera inside my trailer that I can monitor when towing and you just might be surprised how little real "rock'n & roll'n" there is inside the trailer. Now it is not by any means rock solid and trying to ride in one would be very uncomfortable. Last year I had a small 4' X-mas tree with ornaments set up inside our trailer and when towing I was amazed how little movement there was on the hanging ornaments and with the tree in general. Now my trailer does have the torsion axles, but not shocks, etc.

One should be careful about making definitive statements that appear to be fact w/o any actual factual or documented evidence to support such positions since they often only show their serious lack of understanding of the issue.

Larry

whether on a trailer or car/truck the balance beads are the best as they will balance the entire rotating assembly not just the wheel & tire.

I cannot imagine not balancing the tires, simply for the life of the coach. I'm probably one of few who has actually worn out trailer tires (90,000 miles, 2 1/2 years)and have always balanced them.

Hop in that trailer and have someone pull it and you down the road @ 55 mph. It is about the same quality of ride as riding on a roller skate at that speed. Rough!! Therefore It is my suggestion to make your trailer ride as smoothly as you can. This applies especially to a camp or RV type trailer. A run of the mill utility trailer, not so much.

ggardne2 wrote:
It is very common for trailer tires to not be balanced ... every camper I've ever looked at has been shipped from the factory without the tires balanced. If you do balance your trailer tires, most trailers center the rim on the lugs, not on the hub, it is important the tire dealer balances off the lugs in this case ... if they balance off the hub you don't accomplish much (or make the balance worse) as you will have balanced on a different center than the wheel runs on when installed on the trailer ... the dealer needs to use a pin plate adapter to balance these.

Yeah with the hubs not machine balanced balancing the tires can actually create more imbalance. Plus steel trailer wheels lug holes are production stamped and may not be concentric with the tire bead seat flange.
Having owned several boat trailers/one TT/three 5th wheel RV trailers and put over a dozen other GN/pintle and bumper pull trailers in commercial service using the same size tires/wheels and axles we RV with, I've never had a tire balanced on a trailer.
Now... I have had tires with tread belt separation issues that would cause vibration. I watch all tires for any odd wear issues which can be caused by worn suspension parts/loose bearings/alignment issues/bent axle or stub/etc.

Teeton wrote:
A balances tire saves on tie-rods, pins, ball-joints every part of the suspension and steering. And yes the tires last longer..

:h Must not have read what this thread is about since none of those concerns are really germane here.:S

I have never balanced a tire for a TT in the last 40 years and see no need to.

Larry