is what I was told, when I returned my newly purchased tires back to the tire dealer. I checked the invoice and sure enough, I was charged for high speed spin balancing, but found no balancing weights on the rims. "Most people only tow at low speeds, so balancing is not necessary." "In fact, you only need to have your tires balanced on the steering tires."
Well I don't buy this at all. They balanced the tires at my request and at no extra charge, since I already paid for it the first time. I have had no luck finding anyone who can balance an entire hub assembly in the Cleveland area, so far.
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CP 9 miles off Exit 399, I75.
2003 GMC 2500HD 4X4 D/A Ext. Cab
Propane Powered Honda EU2000i
Lots of Hot Sauce! Air # 283
I was told the same thing on my first couple of trailers, but I insisted and they balanced the tires.
My current Goodyears are quite well made; there are only a couple of very small weights on them. The wost I have had were the 13" Carlisles on my old Scamp. They ended up with quite large weights.
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John W. Irwin
2005 Classic 28 "Sabre-Dog III"
2004 Silverado 2500HD Duramax/Allison
WBCCI Region 9 Webmaster, #9632
Man oh man, where were you guys when the great debate over Wheel balancing was a hot issue?
There is a thread that I am certain that Hex can point you to, that addresses the wheel balancing issue.
"to balance or not to balance" that is the question.
It is true that most SOB do not balance tires and some on this forum will argue that the same is true for Airstreams BUT,
An equal amount if not more will argue that if the trailer wheels and hubs are not balanced, there is a very good chance that an Airstream will suffer damage that cost many times the cost of balancing the running gear.
My take is this, Airstream dealers have made many coins repairing damage that was incurred due to imbalance of the running gear and the dealerships are very adamant that the Airstream running gear HAS to be balanced.
Just check this forum on instances of doors opening while enroute, panels shifting, wheel hubs melting down, bearings departing the hub, and blow outs leading to major damage to skin, levelers and plumbing.
It is your Airstream!
Smily
__________________ Ken Smillie
My 1994 36' Classic MH is for sale See it in the classifieds
There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the running gear on ANY vehicle or trailer that is used on the highways MUST be balanced. What has me curious though is that this issue is seldom brought up about SOB trailers on other forums. They seem to be more concerned with who has their diesel juiced up the most, than anything else. But since we folk that own Airstreams are concerned with the finer points, may be the reason that Airstreams last decades and SOB's last years.
I seem to remember back in my teens when hanging out in gas stations was the cool thing to do, some stations did have a device to attach the wheel on the vehicle to balance the entire assembly,while still on the vehicle. They used an electric motor with a friction wheel to spin the tire. Looked like a much simpler device than what is used these days.
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CP 9 miles off Exit 399, I75.
2003 GMC 2500HD 4X4 D/A Ext. Cab
Propane Powered Honda EU2000i
Lots of Hot Sauce! Air # 283
As I kid, I pumped gas and hung out at the local garage and I remember them spinning up the tires and adjusting the weights that where sticking out the center of the device attached to the wheel.
The truck tire center has a device similar, but they have a strob type light that shows the wheel coming into balance.
All four of my tires were in balance off of the trailer and 1 was way out on the trailer. The other 3 were out, but not as bad.
I wonder because SOB's use leaf springs and such, that they don't have the same sensitivity to balancing as we do?
you got it wrong moejoerv (it's some other brand).
John, you've piqued my interest in having the trailer tires balanced on the trailer, can you or Pick explain how they do it? I'm going to need new rims and tires on the '55 and no way am I going to drag it around without balancing. Your method sounds like a good median between just balancing the wheel and tires and what Andy recommends. When calling to find a center, should I just ask if they can balance wheels on the trailer, or is there a special term?
Thanks!
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Jason & Veronica Jablonski
1955 Commodore Vanderbilt/Liner 30'
I've found only truck tire centers have the equipment to balance the tires on the trailer.
How they did mine was: using a floor jack, they raised the trailer as if to change a flat tire. Then they had this electronic device that they put behind the tire and another hand-held device which worked like a strobe light. Then they put a machine in front of the tire that spun it very fast. With the hand-held strobe, you could actually see the wheel out of balance. He would move the strobe around to some point where the wheel was in-balanced. After the tire stop spinning, he put on the proper weights and then repeated the process to confirm that the wheel was now balanced.
I know this process is different than what Andy does, but I haven't found anyone as of yet that has the equipment that Andy has. As a matter of fact, every RV shop that I've called, just sends out their tires to a local tire center and has them balanced off of the trailer.
Jabba, I recently had the tires and wheels spin balanced on the trailer after replacing 2 tires due to old age. You would be amazed at how out of balance they were before balancing. It was discovered that several of the cast hubs were so out of balance, that we almost ran out of weight on the rim. It would help if you can find someone that can dinamically balance the hubs without wheels. This will make it easier to balance the wheel and tire with less weight. All this xtra work will make everything run smoother with alot less wear and tear on the whole trailer.
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