Steer tire balance

I tried only once the Centramtics when I had set of Kelly’s put on. Long story short, I removed them thinking they didn’t do any good, found out later it the Kelly tire that was out of round. By then I had thrown the centramtics away. Regardless like @AModelCat says, I’ve never used and type of balancing thingy since then and haven’t notice any difference. Only thing I do use on the steers are 3 lugs that “Center’s” the wheel perfectly on the hub, I can’t remember what those type of lug nuts are called but are tapered on the inside lip which centers the wheel as it’s tighten.

 

In my mind . . .

(Dark, twisted, odd, and demented )

95 Pete. Bud type? I guess this means the rims are centered on the hub by the lugs - vs. . . . 'Hub piloted' where they are centered by that little ring on the hubs. I'm not a mechanic so please all correct me.

You'd work from the center out. The rim has to be perfectly centered on a perfectly round thing. The brake drum also needs to be perfectly round. This would change due to wear over time too.

The Centramatics are about a third to a half way out from center to 'rubber meets road'. A few ounces of rolling metal beads will correct minor imperfections, but not overcome major ones.

What if the tire is out of round? Like having everything perfectly round then putting an egg shaped object right at the outer spinning mass? Many here ask about cheaper tires. I get it - they're expensive. But if you err from what you know, or quality (I know, it changes), and then wonder why the shimmy has hit you . . . .

OK - so throw in a few ounces of balancing beads or golf balls right at the outer edge of the spinning thing. Will that correct major issues overlooked at the center? Not a physicist. Can't tell you.

So - my approach - in all wheel positions -

Balance tire on rim. Repeat if needed. Break off bead and rotate 180 degrees of needed. If no joy - replace tire (even if new).

Use lug centering tool if not stud piloted.

Centramatics.

Run and monitor tread depth and wear. How many actually keep a record of this? It's tedious, but helpful.

Like I said - I'm picky about ride quality, and there's many other factors that come into play, but I'm not happy with a truck I can't steer with one finger, with no vibrations at all.

All this is a waste of time most likely for trucks that rarely reach highway speeds for much time, but I can't stand vibrations/shock/bounce/off set steer in my truck.

Last time I had my drives replaced, the idiot loudmouth kid balanced them. The same kid I watched mount a super single backwards and have to be corrected. 5 miles out, I felt the vibration in the seat. Called back and talked to his boss.

"I'll pay for YOU to rebalance all 8 - if I'm wrong, it's on me - if not - on YOU"

He agreed. 7 out of 8 were out of balance. He rebalanced, repositioned weights - problem solved.

 

That mechanic was full of it. Been running beads inside tires for years and no damages to the rubber or rim.

 

He was a guy in flesh, not an internet character, and most likely had seen more of those than you and I combined.
As a matter of fact, I bought two bags from his boss that day and he brought them over with the tires and I decided to hold off throwing them in. I found him credible but the point is my steers were well balanced in the first place and the idea of centramatics rings to smooth any minor imbalances to be developed later, I find more elegant.

 

I have no idea and could be wrong but I don’t know if the centramatics have enough weight to cause that at a low speed??
Maybe it was a bent cetramatic or some other defect with it?

Just a thought

 

I've run them for years in my own tires and never seen that before.

 

No way it could have been bent enough to cause the issue without it being blatantly obvious. I'm not the only one that had a similar issue. Either way, I wouldn’t try them again. No need since balancing has always worked fine. I was foolish to fall for the marketing nonsense instead of sticking with what I knew already worked. Why fix what isn't broken?

 

I tried the beads one time and hated them, if I hit a big bump or something the front end felt like it was coming apart it shook so bad, these were on hancook steers that got replaced pretty quickly because I hated them to, so maybe it was just the tires causing all the problems. I went back to balancing and my truck is pretty much been a highway princess since then since I quit pulling an end dump around and have never had a problem, I think twice I have had to get steers rebalanced. I want to try the centramatics on the drives next time though, I was actually just looking them up and came here to read reviews

 

The plus side to what I think the centramatics have is that as your tires wear or if a chunk of rubber gets taken off etc that they should always keep balance where weights wouldn’t adjust like that

 

Starting to look a lot like a synthetic oil thread, but I'll bite anyway...

I been through many of these "solutions" except the balancing beads. The two things that have made the most improvements for my stuff:

1. Centering sleeves, on worn/corroded/beat up Conmet flange centering hubs. I've used Tru-balance. Downside is they're sized to center brake drums too. If you get different drums on a brake job, there's a chance you have to take them off to get it together and down the road, then order another set and install them later. They also add a complication when getting tire service since 99% of tire jockeys don't know what they are or how to not crush them when mounting a wheel. Solid upside is the rim and brake drum are perfectly centered, leaving only a bent rim or bad tire to cause runout.

2. Correct bearing preload. In my opinion, all the balancing tricks I've tried over the years haver really just masked wheel shake from loose bearings. I have done one of my trailers with the Dr. Preload system and the results removed any bit of buyer's remorse I may have had when purchasing the tool and matching spindle nuts. Some shops have the tool and offer this as a service, which may make more sense if you just have one truck/trailer or don't do your own hub service. I'm finishing my second trailer later today, in fact. Alternately, the bearing manufacturers all have a preload procedure, using a torque wrench, published in a pdf you can download. 99% of shops I've used and watched during the work, never follow that procedure. The Dr Preload faq shows even doing it by the book tends to run on the loose side. Outside of all that, preset hubs are the devil. They're never right, and it's easy enough to throw away the spacers and set preload correctly.

I do get steer tires spin balanced for peace of mind more than anything, so not a total non-believer on the merits of it.