Centramatic Wheel Balancers

[bjbear]

Just installed a couple of sets of Centramatic Wheel Balancers. First test drive did not show that much improvement, but things were already pretty smooth as I just had new tires and some front end work (new ball joints, drag link and steering stabilizer) done a couple of weeks ago. We are heading out on a long trip (3000 km ++) on Sunday so we will see how it goes. Will report back after the trip.

[billyray50]

I will definitely keep centramatic balancers in mind. Have website in my favorites. Many members have posted positive feedback regarding using them. Since these Dyna trac tires came match mounted , 2 balance bags inside, and some sticky weights I will keep close eye on them. The managers at commercial tire shop told me just to rotate and do not balance the tires every 5000 miles. Also told me that the ride should get little better with more miles on tires. have a little over 2000 miles on tires now. my tires are Dyna trac PD 890 245s 16 ply tires.

[ZRX-Steve]

I recently upgraded to 19.5 Vision Wheels, and Sumitomo 16 ply truck tires. I had them force match balanced. At the same time I installed Centramatics front and rear. The ride is very smooth and refined. My wife noticed it immediately and unprompted. Later, as she's driven it she's made the comment that she's much more confident than she used to be on the 16's with E rated tires. The wife test means a lot to me. Since I made a bunch of changes / upgrades at the same time, I can't say how much the Centramatics helped, but they sure don't hurt.

[Wheelholder]

On semi tires, there is a line around the tire just outside of where the bead is. This line is supposed to be evenly spaced from the rim. At times , when they pop onto the rim, they do not seat properly. They will inflate, but are slightly out of round when this line is off.

[Bedlam]

silversand wrote:
NO ONE on this Forum has ever even mentioned or addressed the term "unsprung weight" as far as I know; this alone is impressive. Keeping Unsprung weight as low as possible (for reasons of performance/fuel mileage) is the reason why we keep with the lightest tires (OEM 245s) we can find in LR E range, and have not gone with massive and heavy 285s or 19.5 monsters. However, will transgress just slightly, and move to a 265 size tire 6 LBS heavier. That's about as far as I will go.

I upgraded from OEM to Rancho shocks after going to the 19.5's. Choosing the Vision over the Rickson rims was a cost as well as weight decision (the Rickson wait for an order didn't help either).

[billyray50]

mkirsch wrote:
I'm curious about that too... Wrong how?

I gotta imagine the tires weren't seated on the bead evenly all the way around, which was pulling them out of round, but wouldn't that be obvious to even the greenest snot-nosed kid at the chain store?

Exactly right my fellow upstate new Yorker!! Were not seated right at all. Which means tires were not mounted properly. Was not obvious with firestone and valley commercial tire company that deals with semi truck too. My first experience with this kind of wheel and tire too.

[silversand]

1. Because of the quality of tires being manufactured today, unless you own a Porsche 911 or a like vehicle it for the most part isn't needed on most vehicles.

....this has been my experience; of our four Michelin AT2s, 2 tires needed absolutely no weights whatsoever; the other 2 tires each had a weight so small, I wondered why they were ever put on.

Thanks for some very interesting discourse.

NO ONE on this Forum has ever even mentioned or addressed the term "unsprung weight" as far as I know; this alone is impressive. Keeping Unsprung weight as low as possible (for reasons of performance/fuel mileage) is the reason why we keep with the lightest tires (OEM 245s) we can find in LR E range, and have not gone with massive and heavy 285s or 19.5 monsters. However, will transgress just slightly, and move to a 265 size tire 6 LBS heavier. That's about as far as I will go.

S-

[mkirsch]

I'm curious about that too... Wrong how?

I gotta imagine the tires weren't seated on the bead evenly all the way around, which was pulling them out of round, but wouldn't that be obvious to even the greenest snot-nosed kid at the chain store?

[Reddog1]

billyray50 wrote:
... Sure enough when I arrived at commercial tire retreaders and told the two managers the situation regarding tires that valley tire told me they started laughing and told me that my tires were not OUT OF ROUND and that the tires were most likely MOUNTED WRONG...Sure enough these guys were right!! Told to bring it right into the bay and 2 techs proceeded to deflate and remount all 4 tires!!Showed me the bead was wrong on all 4 tires. ...

What was the indicator that the tires were mounted wrong?

Wayne

[billyray50]

Finished tires goopy soap and all!!

[billyray50]

UPDATE*** Well after Leaving firestone yesterday went to Valley commercial tire here in East Syracuse, N.Y. Did the spin test with each tire just off ground and the 2 techs that were doing my tires said that the driver side left front and left rear were out of round. Also found out that one of the lug nuts on the left front vision wheel was they thought cross threaded and they could not get it off!!Also another lug nut from vision seemed wobbly going on with air gun. My local Firestone that mounted tires is most likely to blame. Going to have to address that problem Thursday morning at my daughter in laws Uncles shop. He is trustworthy and has done my front brakes before. Well Valley tire told me they do not do truing and sent me to Commercial tire retreaders which was only 3 miles away. While the 2 guys at valley tire were nice guys but I got the feeling they were not well trained. Sure enough when I arrived at commercial tire retreaders and told the two managers the situation regarding tires that valley tire told me they started laughing and told me that my tires were not OUT OF ROUND and that the tires were most likely MOUNTED WRONG...Sure enough these guys were right!! Told to bring it right into the bay and 2 techs proceeded to deflate and remount all 4 tires!!Showed me the bead was wrong on all 4 tires. These guys were A+!! They asked me to take for a test drive it and it was perfect!! Told me to just rotate these Chinese tires every 5000 and NO BALANCE!! Also one manager told me that there was no way I was going to get 90,000 miles out of these Dyna tracs like wheelrack boasts which is a bummer if true. Told me to get a better make tire down the road. So any of you TCers with 19.5s that think your tires are out of round check the mounting first. Learned a lot yesterday regarding 19.5 commercial tires on a SRW truck.

[Wheelholder]

I have been told if you need more than 10 oz to balance a tire, it cannot be balanced properly. Just think if you need that much weight to balance the other side of the tire, you most likely have a problem with the tire.

This advice was given to me concerning semi truck tires. I would think on a smaller p/u tire the weight used would go down considerably.

[NRALIFR]

Bill-

Just read through this topic and wanted to give you a heads-up on one drawback to using any type of inside-the-tire dynamic balancing media: after installing the product if there is a percieved balance problem, the tire cannot be spin-balanced without removing the balancing media first. The beads or powder will throw the balance machine off every time due to the way it moves around inside the tire. They can be trued if they're out of round without removing the balancing media, but not machine balanced.

Of course, no amount of any type balancing will be able to compensate for a physical defect of a tire or wheel, so that should be checked and ruled out.

:):)

[billyray50]

Well firestone just told me they cant balance tires. Largest stick on weights are only 13 ounces. Told me it would make tires worse. Going to stop by a commercial tire shop i found on google here locally.

[billyray50]

Well i hope firestone can get them right. When i had them mount wheels and tires in Dallas they asked me if i wanted to check balance and i told them to hold off thinking with them already match mounted and 2 balance bags in each tire that i would see how tires do breaking them in. Probably should have had them check balance too. at firestone in syracuse

[JumboJet]

billyray50 wrote:
Update on 19.5 vision and Dynatrac PD 890 245s. After 2000 miles I still have bad vibration after reaching 50 mph. Going to take it to Firestone here in Syracuse, N.Y. tomorrow morning. Since I have lifetime alignment and balancing will let them take a shot at it.:? Hope for the best. I am looking at some commercial truck places too here in central new York area. I stopped at a truck shop near Ohio on way up 2 weeks ago and was told they do not have any weights that small and do not work on 19.5s tires. Trying to find places that do the truing process if need be too. I will say there is a big improvement in sway and handling than my stock wheels and Nitto Durras 285/75r/17s.

I am sure you will make use of your lifetime alignment and balancing, but when I had my Michelin XRV 19.5" tires mounted, I told the tire shop "No balance" required. I use Centramatic dynamic balancers. I never had a vibration or shimmy in 70,000 miles. I did have Continental tires on Rickson wheels that Rickson had mounted and balanced and left the Centramatic dynamic balancers when I ran them.

If your tires are out of round, I hope they don't shave off the life of your tires truing them.