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Old 03-26-2003, 11:14 AM   #1
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Tire balance

I have been reading (always causes problems) about balancing the wheels on an A/S. We need to balance on the A/S so the whole thing is in balance not just the tire. Are there many shops who can do this, I have only seen shops where they balance the wheel and tire off the vehicle.
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Old 03-26-2003, 12:42 PM   #2
 
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This a wild guess, but, did your hear this from Inland RV by any chance?
If not, you will soon.
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Old 03-26-2003, 01:07 PM   #3
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Re: Tire balance

Quote:
Originally posted by Melvin P. Thorpe
I have been reading (always causes problems) about balancing the wheels on an A/S. We need to balance on the A/S so the whole thing is in balance not just the tire.
Melvin,

Take a wild ride on this thread and the threads within. You will find all you would like to know about wheel balancing for your Airstream.

http://www.airforums.com/forum...=wheel+balance

Jack
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Old 03-26-2003, 01:08 PM   #4
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A buddy of mine with an alignment & tire shop I frequent here locally has a machine that can spin the tires while still mounted on the trailer. He said he uses it mostly on high performance cars. It uses a strobe lite of some sort. I tried to get him to do my A/S but this gadget has a big a/c electric motor and plugs in with a huge twistlock plug. Of course my A/S won't fit into his shop and the cord is too short to reach outside so unless I want to pay to rewire it for him or rewire it myself I might as well forget about it.

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Old 03-26-2003, 05:44 PM   #5
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No comment required for those that disagree.

It's your money and trailer that gets abused, not mine.


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Old 03-27-2003, 08:58 AM   #6
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Spin balance questions for Andy / advice for Chas

Hey Chas all you gotta do is spring for an extension cord. Show the dude your receipt and if he is worth a dung he'll give you that much off the service. Course he keeps the cord and starts spin balancing Airstream & other trailer tires and retires rich (like Andy will some day). You get a yearly deal on your balances.

Now what I am wondering is whether on a tandem you need to spin the tires/wheels/drums a particular direction for balance?
Seems you could only insert the spinning device from the opposite side of the front and rear tires. i.e. there would not be enough room to put the spinner behind the front tire due to presense of the rear tire. Of course you could remove the rear tire, but would that have any effect on the balance of the forward one....probably not and this paragraph is probably moot. Never hurts to ask though.

Also I suppose when you are spinning the tire/wheel/drum trio that all the adjustment weights are attached to the wheel rim and none to the drum. Even though it is the drum that may be out of balance.
Does this mean to keep balance you would need to clock and always use same lug hole onto same lug stud when replacing tire/wheel?

And for those of us with Airstream aluminum custom wheels can the weights still be attached? Bet they look like hell.

I am hoping that Inland Andy will address these questions as well.
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Old 03-27-2003, 10:45 AM   #7
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Yeah,

I guess I could make a longer cord for it but as it is I am not losing much sleep over it. So far I can't remember hearing from anyone here on the forum that has actually had their wheel, tire & hub assemblies balanced, either off their A/S like Inland says or on it like I am talking about. If I get bored I would like to be the first so maybe I will give my buddy a call and see if I can get it hooked up.

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Old 03-27-2003, 05:21 PM   #8
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Wheel balancing

There are different ways to balance the running gear on an Airstream trailer.

One of the ways, and the reasons why, are explained in our web site. inlandrv.com
Click on "Andy's photo's" and go to "wheel balancing."

Lead weights cannot be mounted to a drum. Stick on weights are used on "Mag" wheels, and are place on the inside so that they cannot be seen.


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Old 12-29-2003, 11:26 AM   #9
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When weights are stuck on the Aluminum Wheels where do they go?
Would we be able to see them from under and behind the tires/wheels. We looked and saw nothing. Or are they up inside the wheel so that we need to remove it to spot them?

Is it feaseable that our tandem could have had the wheels balanced and recieved no weights? The old tires were replaced with new Marathons and old ones were probably at least 10 years old.

Unbelievably we later noticed that the stems were not even changed. Von noticed that there were no caps on the stem threads.
They charged 18.00 per wheel just for mounting. On top of the 54.00 per wheel for servicing/cleaning/checking hubs and brakes.

We furnised our own tires so we could get a road-hazard and we now assume they were taking their not selling the tires out on us.
This is from a very highly reccomended and successful RV service shop.

In fairness we did not tell them to replace the stems but we did discss balancing and mentioned we preferred the static whole hub style, they only did the dynamic and we do not remember telling them to not use that method. Should have gotten it all down on paper of course, but we were ordering over the phone and had the tires drop shipped to them. At least we should have been asked about stems we think. When we saw the extra 18 dollars for mounting we assumed that balancing was part of that.
Stupid us! Unless we find some new stick on weights. Need to know for sure before we write the shop who will we guess fail to right the slop!
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Old 12-29-2003, 03:25 PM   #10
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Sue&Von.

Stick on weights would be readily visible, from either the outside surface of the wheel or the backside surface.

Replacing stems, should have been mandatory.

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Old 12-29-2003, 03:29 PM   #11
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tire balance

Sue&Von I live in MB SC, and the local tire store mounted and balanced my Goodyear Marathons and Mag wheels free. (I did buy then from the same store ,but from the price they charged you ,I had to have come out ahead) PJ You may want to try them in the future
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Old 12-29-2003, 08:15 PM   #12
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Sue & Von,

Just my two cents - your shop is the norm rather than the exception. Andy is probably the only shop in the country that is thorough enough to be checking the hubs. Most shops will look at you like you are from another planet when you mention balancing hubs, wheels and tires. It is a slower process and they don't want to buy another machine.

Hubs should be your last concern. A 10 or 12" diameter hub will not generate the centrifugal force of a 15" dia. wheel or 30" dia. tire.

Alloy wheels are generally much better than steel wheels for radial & lateral runout. If they haven't been abused (curbed, dented, etc.), they should be a very minor part of the balance equation.

Trailer tires are a different story. They are not built like high performance speed rated tires and most trailer tires will need at least some balance weights.

There is nothing wrong with dynamic balancing particularly if you have high quality alloy wheels. (A good balance technician can do a great job even with a steel wheel) The odds are pretty high that the Marathons needed some balance patches.

And last, If your Marathones are Load range D, I think they should have had new metal valve stems.
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Old 12-30-2003, 07:21 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally posted by wingfoot
And last, If your Marathones are Load range D, I think they should have had new metal valve stems.
An interesting comment. I've heard that the metal valve stems are required on tires whose max cold inflation pressures exceed 65 psi. My 2001 Safari had rubber stems, my 2004 Classic with the same Goodyear Marathon tires have metal stems.

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