A question of balance...

[bcdiesel]

I've heard both sides about whether to balance trailer tires or not. I figure having experienced the highway intense vibrations of an out of balance tire (by 2 ounces) on my small wheeled Honda Odyssey, I can only imagine the vibrations that must go on in the trailer and axles with 4 larger and heavier out of balance tires. Today I took my tires off and down to the shop for balancing. I was surprised by just how far out these almost new tire/rim combos were. One tire took 19.5 ounces to balance. The others were all between 8 and 14 ounces.

While I probably won't feel any difference towing... I'm sure the trailer, axles and springs will endure less abuse as a result.

The worst offender with 19.5 ounces stuck on (and yes he rechecked balance after putting on the weights):

[jh.xsnrg]

19.5 oz is a crazy amount. When I worked in a shop we would always unmount the tire and move it around the wheel when we encountered a high amount of needed weight. Typically it happens when the tire and the wheel are both off balance and the heavy (or light) parts of each are aligned. Changing them to not be aligned drastically lowered the weight needed in most cases.

[Steven@147]

I'm with you, I need to get the tires balanced on our RV soon, with towing from In. to Tx. and the little we've towed the RV, they still have quite a few miles on them.

The new tire we just had to get put on our truck, I noticed the red dot on the tire was correctly aligned with the air valve stem. Should have been the yellow dot aligned with the valve stem but there is very little weights on the rim so I figure it was the right place to balance it. Could have just been a coincident. Whoever mounted the tire knew what they were doing. The dots on the tires are supposed to help the installer correctly align the tire on the rim for minimal out of balance issues, so I've been told and read. I notice not all tires have a dot on them. Even if they did have a dot I'm not sure the average installer would know what it means.

[Bradnailer]

I agree, RV tires need to be balanced. Once I have time, I will take our RV to a local tire shop and have them balanced.

[JKellerJr]

I used the balancing beads when I replaced the westlake's with the Sailun's. The overwhelming opinions I was getting was that it was better option on heavier tires

http://innovativebalancing.com/

[WhittleBurner]

We have the balancing beads also and have been happy with them. They are not a good idea though if you have tire sensors as they will plug up the sensors.

[JKellerJr]

We have the balancing beads also and have been happy with them. They are not a good idea though if you have tire sensors as they will plug up the sensors.

The place I bought mine from said that TPMS shouldn't be a problem but I don't have one so I cant confirm that. Maybe it depends on the brand/type used

[BeerBrewer]

Hmmm......I never heard of "balance beads" until today. If they truely work, it sure beats taking the tires off one at a time an hauling them down to the tire store. Unfortunately none of the tire stores near me have a large enough parking lot to accomodate my truck and trailer, so my only option is to do one or maybe two tires at a time. So using "balance beads" would be so much easier for me.

Concerned about the clogging issue mentioned above, I emailed TST and asked if they knew of any issues with "Balance Beads" Below is there reply.

"The only time balance beads seem to be an issue is when you take the sensor off the wheel, the hiss of air can cause a bead to get stuck in the valve stem and make the tire keep leaking. With the flow through sensor, you are leaving the sensor o the tire, so it shouldn’t be an issue."

So do "Balance Beads" really work?

Thanks

Bob

[BeerBrewer]

While searching for info on "Balance Beads" I came across this video and Centramatic Balancers (http://www.centramatic.com/)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtD6Mi3RTfg

These are about $50 per tire but they do look like they work.

Thoughts??

[WhittleBurner]

We have had them for 2 years now. Tires are wearing even and things in the trailer stay in place when traveling. We have been happy with them. We do also have a air hitch which helps with the ride of the trailer.