Tire Balancing

[DHenry]

While I was replacing the shackles on our Montana I took the tires to have them balanced. Two of the tires took over 3oz. of weight to balance and the other two took 1.5oz. of weight. I am wondering why the tires are not balanced before they are installed on the Montana at the factory.

[bigmurf]

$$$$$

[Montana Sky]

I agree with you Doug, they should be balanced. When I picked up my coach, the first thing I did on the way home was stop by the tire shop and had the wheels balanced.

[DHenry]

It cost me $56.00 to balance 4 tires. As many tires that Keystone buys I would think they could negotiate balancing to be included in the price. It took the guy all of 10 minuets to balance all 4 tires.

[Longwell]

$56 for 10 minutes? ($336/hour?) Now I know what I'm going to be doing at the rallies when we hit the road - lol. No workamping for me - lol.
Larry

[bigmurf]

Here is a neat item.

http://www.balancemasters.com

another

http://centramatic.com/

[LonnieB]

Looks like I need to raise my prices, I've been doing it way to cheap .

bigmurph, those things really do work, but they are kinda pricey.

[dscott]

Thanks for the info,I will have mine balanced before I head south for the winter.

[ols1932]

Keystone doesn't balance them because of the overall cost when you consider how many units they manufacture. Sure, they could probably negotiate with the place where the get the wheels and tires mounted. Having said that, I have never expected tires to come on a new unit balanced and I've always gotten them balanced myself. Cost of the lifestyle. Yes Lonnie, you may be doing it too cheaply but it probably retains customers.

Orv

[CmdrDewey]

The first time I took mine to a tire shop and asked to have the tires balanced the manager tried to talk me out of it. He said those tires don't need to be balanced. It made no sense to me so I had them balanced anyway. I still think it is a good idea but maybe that is one reason why Montana doesn't do it. The tires are all pre-mounted and then installed as part of the manufacturing process so it really wouldn't cost as much since there is no removal and re-installation.

[sreigle]

Doug, trailer tires must be balanced with a lug-centric balancer. If they center the wheel using the wheel center hole, like they do on your truck wheels, then they will show out of balance when they may not be. I had this same problem. Keystone even replaced all five of my rims. This was on our 2001 2880RL. Same problem. Way out of balance. Then I found out it takes a lug centric balancer. When they did that, they took very little weight.

[DHenry]

So now I am wondering what a lug-centric balancer is? I took my tires to Les Schwab and the guy put it on a computer type balancing machine that spun the tire and the computer showed where to place the weights and how much weight it needed. After he placed the weights he spun it again to check and the computer showed it balanced. Is this the proper way to have the trailer tires balanced?

[VanMan]

I don't think so - that lug centering thing bolts the wheel through the lug bolt holes rather than through the center hole. You may have paid $56 to "unbalance" them. BTW, Larry's calculation of $336/per disregarded the price of the weights. The high price is probably due to the escalating price of lead !!

[skypilot]

Doug: VanMan is correct -- the tire shop has to use the adapter that used the wheel lug-bolt holes instead of the center hole. Yes they were balanced as mounted on the machine but had he released the center (hub) pressure, moved the wheel/tire assembly at all, then retighted the hub to check balance he would most likely find the tire to be out of balance again. The reason I say most likely is that there are a few trailer wheels out there that are hub-centric. I don't know what identifies them (can't find a source right now that tells me that) but I have found several vendor sites for wheels that indicate our sizes in hub-centric form.

Now - why is this important -- (I know - nobody asked but I have to tell anyway): Some wheel centers are not exactly centered on the wheel (or are not exactly circular either it seems). When they are balanced hub-centric the wheel could be out-of-round (think of taking a metal washer where the hole is not exactly in the center.) As you twirl it on a pencil or paperclip you see one side 'bounce'. To a wheel balancing machine, the shorter side is light and needs weight. So you add weight there. Now, when you mount it on the actual axle using the correctly positioned lug-holes, that side that got the weight is 'heavy' and you get some bounce. The first time I had the wheels on my mountaineer balanced I remember seeing about 5 or 6 ounces used on one wheel alone - the tire 'kid' was telling me I had a bad tire. Luckily the manager returned and he knew immediately what the problem was and taught the yound man (and myself) how to properly balance the metal wheels on the Montana. My current rig has alloy wheels that are hub-centric and he likes to use the 'glue-in' weights on the inside --- to keep the outside edge clean and unscratched..

In any case, hope this helps and answers some questions.

[DONnANNIE]

For clarification - are you saying you should use Lug Centric for steel wheels and Hub Centric on the alloy wheels?

[skypilot]

No, not at all -- just saying that you can not say all trailer wheels are lug-centric because there are some that are hub-centric; same applies to steel wheels - there are both types made. I didn't ask if there was something on the wheel that identifies it -- perhaps LonnieB or some of our 'Tire Guru's' will chime in. I learned about it, as I mentioned, when I went in to actually get mine balanced and then have done a bunch more reading on the topic since. (Now the Tire Manager did tell us that 'most stamped steel wheels' are lug-centric but again, that is a generalization.) I just did a 'Google' search for hub-centric and came up many pages of articles on hub vs. lug-centric; quickly scanning I didn't see anything that tells how to tell the difference. so guess I opened up another can-of-worms!

[richfaa]

When we had our tires replaced as a matter of course the shop was attempting to balance our tires..they could not and suggested that our rims were out of round all of them.. Not so..they did not know about camper tires being Lug eccentric and few regular tire shops have the adaptor Doug I would guess that all your tires are badly out of alignment and those weights need to be removed...You need to find out for sure... (we have the OEM steel wheels)

[lwcdg]

I guess it matters where you are. Our tire shop knows about trailers and has the equipment and knowledge to balance correctly. Maybe it helps that the folks ask at the counter. What type of vehicle, car, truck or trailer? When you ask the correct question you get the correct answer. I never knew there was a difference until I asked. They then explained their question. This was years ago when I was in my teens. How time flys.
Chuck

[skypilot]

I was doing some more reading and it 'appears' that any wheel can be balanced 'lug-centric' but it is so much easier to use the center hole and that cone shaped adapter so most shops do it that way without questioning. Looking at a few 'electronic' wheel/tire balancing machines (also web search), they all come with lug adapters as standard equipment -- not even an option. I'd almost bet that many shops put those away when they got the unit and may not even know they have it (it they can even find it) .

Again, this is strictly from reading about 10 to 12 different web sites in the past day. Got my curiousity up.

Something else -- Sure increased my respect for people like LonnieB who have their own shops. So dang many choices, varieties, and little items to keep up with. Kudo's to you all!!!