tire balancing

I read an article somewhere (cant remember now) about golf balls in your tires.... The pictures said it all... golf balls came out almost square and had beaten up the tire casing so bad it was unusable (as mr. h said)... While i do disagree that a new tire does not need to be balanced, i do agree that hub piloted wheels dont fit as they sould at times... I do use the types of balancers that Blackw900 and Mr. H have stated.... plus i use http://tru-bal.com/ which center the wheel and drum on hub.... never had a problem using an "air cannon" to mount tires (tho there not always needed) and most quality tires have a bead line that can be measured to the rim edge to show if tire is mounted on rim properly... Ive also run equal powder in tires before and results were ok, but even with the "special" valve cores powder will tend to clog core and hold it open causing loss of air...... that usally happens after checking tire pressure.... sometimes have to blow air into tire to clear stuck core.... and if yor air supply has any moisture can cause equal to clump up and throw your tire off balance... INMO equal is not worth the trouble, and i dont use it anymore...... AS for recaps ive run michilen caps on michilen single casings with no problems.. on 8 positions, same truck (drive and trailer).... Its all about a good quality retreader, casing quality, and how YOU take care of them..... If a tire that is mounted correctly and centered on hub correct, but is still out of round... the tire can be shaved down to regain trueness.... this process is done on the truck and most quality shops have the equipment to do so.. Shaving a tire only removes tread from the high spot or spots so there is no loss of real tread depth... Shaving is usualy a last resort to solve a problem..Once shaved an tire can then be balanced..... You dont hear of people having tires shaved much anymore as the quality of tire that most mfgrs put out has improved greatly over the years... on a side note.. I'd be willing to bet that a good O/O with a well maintained truck could notice 6oz and pitch a fit untill it got fixed lol........

 

Yes, Les2, thanks, I forgot to mention proper rotation aswell. I also forgot to mention maintaining proper tire pressure. Again, it seems to be the same combination of problems when guys come in, bad mount, low tire pressure.

Coal Bucket, I am glad to hear you have good luck with recaps. Most of our customers don't. We don't sell or install them. Of course, we don't see the truck if everything is fine too, so I guess I am a little biased against them. Trust me, I have seen some terrible recap jobs, and I guess it isn't fair to say they are all bad. You have to understand my side, I had a customer two weeks ago had recaps installed by someone else, had a vibration that he wanted us to fix. We put the truck up on jack stands and ran it in the shop. You should have seen how bad those tires were. Out of 8, only 3 were good! This was on the midnight shift so the customer did not see it. We told him, he came back the next week really mad at us because he "installed 8 new drives" and the shake was still there and he wanted his money back. Again we look at the truck, out of the 8 tires he only changed the 3 I said were the worst, the other 5 just got moved around to different locations and the new 3 were just used recaps that were no better than the ones he just took off! Again, it becomes my problem because of what someone else does! You can see why a customer and mechanic can get frustrated due to low quality tires! But I didn't know about the tire shaving thing. That would have fixed most of this guy's problem! I will remember that and try to find someone around here that does that to help out our customers. Thanks!

 

heavyd... your right, i should have said that some caps are good -not all-.... Ive seen many guys try to run those yellow sea brand or other junk cap on a junk (china) casing with horrible results.... I usually run only my casings and have a very good relationship with my tire co. .. They cap at the same location that i buy from for all my tires virgins or caps... Trust me, i understand your side... I imagine its not easy dealing with customers who know it all or dont take your advice......The only reason i tried runnin capped x-ones was my salesman said they would stand behind them 110% and cover all costs if i had a problem... Worked for me but , may not be for every one.... As far as the shavers go from what ive seen first hand, heres how they work... truck gets jacked up and placed on stands machine is slid into place and knife depth set .. then theres an electric motor that turns the tire slowly while cutting off high spots... The way its done should tru the tire to the truck, ive always been told that its a last resort effort after making sure all else is good....Although i didnt see one in their online catalogue im sure they sell them....www.myerstiresupply.com ... They sell everything related to tire service.. Good luck dealin with those pita customers who dont listen!

 

Probably didn't have enough golf balls, maybe 12 per tire were needed
When someone touts golf balls during a BS session, I like to put on my serious face, comment that bricks work better, then walk away.....

 

They have a neat video on there web page. I might give them a try on the steers.

 

golf balls work near perfect when a tire is spun on a balance machine. problem is when the tire is mounted on a truck it has a less than round area where the tire meets the road so basicly they do nothing but bounce around.

 

do not put anything but air in your tire, Golf Balls what are you nuts.... You should try a shotput instead. Get real if a tire is out of round have it trued, like when its new and stop wasting your time and money on truckstop ####. Next is stop hitting curbs, even backing or driving over a curb slow damages your tires.

The golf ball #### ends because your tire are not round when going down the highway, the heavier the load the more its true.

I cant believe this #### id still going on, water, sand, golf balls....

 

So are the centering pins from tru-balance good enough (this lasts apparently?) or are the centering sleeves that stay with the wheels, better?

 

The best luck I've had was when the tires were spun-balanced on the truck, then mark the wheel in relationship to the hub then take the wheel off, install a centramatic then reinstall the wheel.