wheel balancing

I've seen both issues, I'd agree that moisture is most likely the reason. For us, we do all of our own tire work and we have an air dyer on our compressor. I'd probably shy away from equal if there were any doubts on the vendors air quality.

I've seen issues with valve stems, but the issue has always been the wrong valve core, they didn't use the one that came with the Equal. I have not seen that issue with the Equal valve cores. Again, not relying on a vendor helps keep the quality control in check and not everyone can count on other peoples work.

You are right, Equal is not for everyone, I should have mentioned the downsides. There is nothing wrong with weight balancing as long as it is checked periodically.

 

Cowpie1: Very impressive! Would you mind to take a minutes to share? What brand tires are those? What are wide based drive tires and size? What is your drive tire rotation program? With mileages like that why would anyone consider caps unless they bust a lot of tires like we do. Thanks!

 

If any of you ever decides to go with sleeves on your drives make sure you put liberal amounts of copper anti-seize on them when you install. I definitely would not trust some tire jockey to take the time to do it right without watching over their shoulder or better yet DIY. Otherwise they will probably go on dry and be hell to get off there. I put them on 1-7-14 and today had them off for the first time since. One wheel was kind of a booger to get off where one of the inner drum sleeves had started to corrode and seize. After wiping them off some were corroded and some looked clean as a whistle. Probably a good idea to check them once a year and put more of the copper stuff on.

 

Micheline XZA3+ up front, Michelin XDN2 Wide based 445/50R22.5 on the drives. Steers on for first 100K, then rotated and balanced every 50K thereafter. They are directional specific tires, but that is not an issue after 100K. The drives get rotated every 100K. While I had no problem running caps on previous trucks with standard drive tires, I am not into caps on wide based tires yet. I don't want to mess with the results I am getting now. And even any money saved by using wide based caps, one mess up and the cost would exceed if I had just stayed with virgin wide based. throwing a cap or a blow was much more cost manageable with standard tires. A much tougher pill to swallow with a wide based tire. And I am not a fleet, so if I got caps, they would be on casings other than my own. I am not shutting down 2-3 weeks just to have my own casings capped. And it is impractical to have the casings capped and then have them sitting around for 3 years or more waiting for the present set to wear out on the truck. They would deteriorate in storage.

 

I have a buddy that has a 4 new centramatic balance rings for 22.5 drive tires that he doesn't want & I can get cheap, but I run 24.5 drive tires. Is there any reason why the 22.5 balance rings wouldn't work on 24.5 wheels? I guess my only concern is weather or not a guy would be able to get to the valve stem of the inside dual.

 

Don't bother putting centramics on your drives they're not going to balance anything. They're sandwiched between the drive tires there's no way they could balance anything. Put dynamic balance beads in your drives or just run them not balanced at all.

 

I have a snap on wheel balancer so my plan is to spin them up & if the inside dual needs say 6 ounces & the outer needs 8 ounces I would mount the inner & outer 180° from where each needs the weight, that way the balance rings wouldn't have make up for to much weight if that makes sense.

I don't see why having the balance rings mounted between the duals is an issue, can you tell me why? And if it is an issue could a guy run balance rings for a steer axle on the drives so its sandwiched between the drum & inner dual?

 

If the drive wheels are balanced, then the centramatics would take care of balance changes over time. I prefer the balancing beads in drive tires, and you would not have to balance the wheels at all. More cost effective in the long run. Steers, yes. Drives, go with beads.

 

Well, just think about this picture. You've got a 4 ounce rock that's lodged in a groove on the inside dual tire, and it's about an inch away from the corner of the sidewall. How is that centramatic going to counter that rock when it is sandwiched between the drive tires about 7 inches away from the rock? Does that make sense? Now if you have counteract beads inside that tire they automatically go where they need to so they counter out that rock. That's why I think centramatics on drive tires are worthless.

 

I was thinking... how can 1 centramatic balancer in between 2 wheels balance both wheels at the same time? but forget about what I just said... I have 4 balancers for all drives 22.5 for sale!
yes I'm serious