Problem in Goshen - Page 2 - Montana Owners Club

Mrs. CountryGuy · 05-31-2009, 02:58 AM

Great report Randy,

You have been to Lippert College of Extended Learning, we were told many of the same things, specially the Alaska thing.

Now get on the road and enjoy that unit! Hope you enjoyed your stay in the Goshen area while you were there!

8.1al · 05-31-2009, 05:38 AM

So Randy, where did you get your alignment done?

Leaseit · 05-31-2009, 05:48 AM

Charlie, i tried to find someplace in Northern Indiana that could do axle alignments on 5'ers and no luck. So after talking to a couple of local truckers and tire dealers, they all came up with Bud's as the best place to get it done..
Fear and suspision after reading the reports on our forum, but not much choice, i went over and talked to Erwin (Service Writer) and let them do the alignment. Maybe they have read our forum and taken customer service classes, but they do alignments for a couple of manufactuers, so let them do the work.
I am not sure, but between Erwin coming out and crawling under the unit to show how much camber loss and during the work the alignment tech did show me the start point and the ending final alignment, i figure maybe they did a good job and know what there doing.

8.1al · 05-31-2009, 01:19 PM

We'll keep our fingers crossed

Mrs. CountryGuy · 05-31-2009, 02:12 PM

Just for the record, Al (CountryGuy) and I never said they had poor customer relations/service. They were as polite and nice as could be.

But, they did not do half of what we paid them for, and the half they did do was a hack job.

I agree with Charlie, we will keep our fingers crossed for you.

sreigle · 06-01-2009, 05:20 AM

I know Carol and Al had problems with Bud's but our experience was the opposite. The even loaned us a car to spend the day doing whatever while they did our alignment. They did a good job on our alignment. That was before Carol and Al's experience so maybe it has to do with one particular alignment person being a problem. Who knows.

Randy, when you had that tire balanced that required all that extra weight, did they use a lug centric balancer? If they used a hub centric balancer I'd bet that's why it took all that weight and I'd also bet your tire is not balanced. It has weights but is not balanced, if that's the situation. These trailer rims do not use the hub hole for centering the rim on the wheel. They are not guaranteed to have the hole exactly centered. So, if they used a hub centric balancer then the rim was not centered on the balancer. Close, but not quite. It takes a lug centric balancer to be sure you get a good balance on these rims.

If they used a lug centric balancer, then never mind.

Mrs. CountryGuy · 06-01-2009, 07:58 AM

Steve,

Ole Al and Carol were not the only members here at MOC that had trouble or less than stellar results at Bud's. We know of at least 2 others.

SIGHHH

8.1al · 06-01-2009, 01:35 PM

I even gave Bud's 2 chances and they failed both times. At least they didn't twist the axles so much that they had to be replaced like Al and Carol's.

Leaseit · 06-02-2009, 04:48 PM

Steve, thank you, now i understand. If i were to bet, it was a hub centric machine. They used a inner centering ring. Reason i know is i ask whats that for.(I inquire about a lot of things) They balance truck trailer tires and use it to center the wheel i was told. then after balancer came up as balanced, he loosed the hub and moved the tire, then ran it up to check balance. I guess as a check, but it came up balanced then.
So, i will take that tire off again when we hit home base and find some place that has a lug centric balancer and get it balanced just to make sure it balanced right.
This is good information steve which i didn't know. Maybe someplace that should be posted, like on the forum home page, maybe under one of the catagories relating to tires.
Thanks Steve.

Randy

sreigle · 06-04-2009, 10:57 AM

Randy, many of the larger tire stores have lug centric adapters for their balancers. We had three balanced in Independence, MO at a smaller tire shop (Shamrock Tire) I use occasionally. The tire guy wasn't familiar with it so the manager came out and showed him how to use it.

In Santa Fe, NM we had two (different) tires balanced at Discount Tire. Their tire guy knew immediately what I wanted and where to find the adapter. He did say they rarely have anyone ask for lug centric balancing except for trailer tires.

Those two times are when we had the Missions replaced by Tireco. Two in Santa Fe and three in Independence.

The center ring you mentioned is for hub centric balancing as you surmised. Since I'm not an expert in this area maybe Lonnie or Glenn can confirm.

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