wheel centering tools

Tru-balance.com, been running them for years and increases tire life and reduces vibrations. just like they claim. a little pricey, but worth every penny!

 

Sorry it took so long to get back but here's the info, They are GLP sleeve nuts

GLP part # GL-2906: single steel wheel

GLP part # GL-2919: aluminum steers, steel/steel drives

GLP part # GL-2928: super single wheels, aluminum outer with steel inner on the drives

GLP part # GL-2939: Dual aluminum drives

 

http://tru-bal.com/

 

[video=youtube_share;DnSlRrEjZpA]http://youtu.be/DnSlRrEjZpA[/video]

I'm ordering these..

 

I installed "option B" Tru-balance on my steers today. We'll see how they do. Had to take centramatics off cause the ID of the mounting holes were too small to slip over the sleeves. I'm gonna ream those to size later and re-install. I can definitely tell my steers spin true-er but the tires are still a tad off. I attribute this in part due to the dipstick that mounted my tires and didn't put the paint dot to the valve stem. That was the last time anyone but me will ever mount my tires. Still not sure which painted dot is supposed to be placed at the valve stem though. These are Goodyear G399's and they had 3 different colored dots. I heard on Michelin's red dot to the valve stem. Does anyone know for Goodyears? I may break them down and remount. Want to drive it first and see if my 40-45mph shimmy is gone.

 

My balance masters still worked with the option b centering sleeves for the steers.

 

I personally do not want the rim perfectly centered on the hub. All tires have a certain amount of run out and are marked, same goes for wheels. The divot on the wheel marking the high spot is often impossible to find after a few years, but a dial indicator should be standard practice for finding it, as well as to verify that the wheel is not bent out of spec. Wheels are only 0.10-015" normally, much more than 0.020" and it should come off. Tires on the other hand are usually at least 0.080" and as high as 0.120" A tire should be mounted on the wheel so these offset each other, but the rim run out is never enough to offset the wheel run out. The run out dot on the tire does not get mounted toward the valve stem, it gets mounted at the divot on the wheel. Once you mount the tire correctly, you still have around 0.060"-0.100" run out to deal with. If you mount the tire with the high spot up, gravity will hold it down against the centering pads. This can offset another 0.020"-0.030" run out.

Unfortunately, very few people mount tires this way. They just mount it on the wheel any way and bolt it on the truck any way. Even a cheap dial indicator can do the job. You'll also need some centering sleeves to center the wheel on the truck to check run out.

Here's a link showing how to properly mount tires:
http://www.trucktires.com/bridgestone/us_eng/load/general_pdf/Balance_Low_Vibration_Storage.pdf

 

Ok, I understand now why you wouldn't want them centered if the wheel is checked with a dial indicator and the tire mounted properly according to what that indicator tells you. Ok, the "play" on the hub/studs is there for a reason and I didn't know that. And no-one takes the time to check the wheel/tire and do them correctly this way. Of course I didn't know that then, what to check and how, and already have the wheels centered in the here and now and they are doing a great job. Best driving truck I've ever had. Almost all of the shaking/shimmy is entirely gone. I can just barely feel something, really doesn't even concern me what little is there. Compared to my arms shaking holding onto the wheel before, now they aren't.

 

Unfortunately you're right, it is rare that anyone checks them. I do almost every time, unless a tire needs to be changed in an emergency and the truck has to go out now and we have nothing mounted and ready to go. We have a small fleet and extra wheels, so we usually have tires mounted and ready to go, which maks it easier to do it right. The only thing we need to do is to make sure the red dot is up when we bolt them on. On drives this can be difficult, but we try to match up tires with the red dots close.