POLL: Balance your trailer tires.

[John E Davies]

EDIT: I changed the wording of the second question slightly to also indicate that you intend to balance them. 02/08/21

In 2017 I stopped the second day of my delivery trip to have all five of them high-speed spin balanced. I could not actually tell that anything bad was going on, but they all took more than a few ounces of lead. At least then I knew that any imbalance of the very heavy LT truck tires was not contributing to shaking the trailer and her contents.

Do the new Ollies come with balanced tires? Look for wheel weights around the rims, inside and/or outside. If they are not there, get them fixed, because this isn’t very good. One wheel with no weights might be Ok if the others have them, or it might have slung it off.

If yours WERE factory  balanced, please add a comment so that we can see about when this change occurred. Thanks,

 John Davies

Spokane WA

 

Edited February 8, 2021 by John E Davies

[Landrover]

2 minutes ago, John E Davies said:

In 2017 I stopped the second day of my delivery trip to have all five of them high-speed spin balanced. I could not actually tell anything bad was going on, but they all took more than a few ounces of lead. At least then I knew that any imbalance of the very heavy LT truck tires was not contributing to shaking the trailer and her contents.

Do the new Ollies come with balanced wheels? Look for weights around the rims, inside and/or outside. If not, get them fixed, because this isn’t very good.

If yours WERE factory  balanced, please add a comment so that we can see about when this change occurred. Thanks,

 John Davies

Spokane WA

 

JD 

may be we can combine my post with yours tire rotation wheel weights

[John E Davies]

15 hours ago, Landrover said:

may be we can combine my post with yours tire rotation wheel weights

It is dead simple to add a Poll to a thread YOU started, just put one at the top of this thread, and add “POLL” at the beginning of the title to catch the eye. IMHO if you put too many questions in one poll it just becomes confusing and harder to interpret the results. Keep it preferably just two or three pertinent questions, and ask the member to answer only one of them. That way the graph shows a true percentage distribution, which doesn’t happen if people can answer many questions. I would prefer not to intermingle the threads, for this reason.

.John Davies

Spokane WA

Edited February 8, 2021 by John E Davies

[NCeagle]

11 hours ago, John E Davies said:

In 2017 I stopped the second day of my delivery trip to have all five of them high-speed spin balanced. I could not actually tell anything bad was going on, but they all took more than a few ounces of lead. At least then I knew that any imbalance of the very heavy LT truck tires was not contributing to shaking the trailer and her contents.

Do the new Ollies come with balanced tires? Look for wheel weights around the rims, inside and/or outside. If they are not there, get them fixed, because this isn’t very good. One wheel with no weights might be Ok if the others have them, or it might have slung it off.

If yours WERE factory  balanced, please add a comment so that we can see about when this change occurred. Thanks,

 John Davies

Spokane WA

 

I can't vote because I'm in a bit of shock.  I ASSUMED the tires would be balanced - why wouldn't they?  I just ran out into the freezing cold and checked and unless they are magically balanced rims, there's no lead anywhere on any of them.  

So this is now on the top of my list.  I really do find this hard to believe.  My answer to the poll is "They were not balanced and I'm shocked.  I'm going to have them balanced ASAP"  😞

[Patriot]

A fairly good article on whether to balance or not. The article does point out the challenges to keep trailer wheels balanced. It also talks about tires aging out before the benefit of balancing tires might ever be realized.  

Before hooking up your Ollie and running out to your local tire shop it might be worth a call to see if they can perform a balance on your particular wheel. There are adapters needed for trailer wheels, some shops carry and some don’t. I did check with my local Discount Tire Store and yes, they will balance a trailer tire @$10 per tire. Likely $40 well spent.

An interesting read.

https://www.natm.com/blog/trailer-tires-to-balance-or-not-to-balance

Edited February 8, 2021 by Patriot

[NCeagle]

47 minutes ago, Patriot said:

A fairly good article on whether to balance or not. The article does point out the challenges to keep trailer wheels balanced. It also talks about tires aging out before the benefit of balancing tires might ever be realized.  

Before hooking up your Ollie and running out to your local tire shop it might be worth a call to see if they can perform a balance on your particular wheel. There are adapters needed for trailer wheels, some shops carry and some don’t. I did check with my local Discount Tire Store and yes, they will balance a trailer tire @$10 per tire. Likely $40 well spent.

An interesting read.

https://www.natm.com/blog/trailer-tires-to-balance-or-not-to-balance

I'll check around to see who can balance a trailer wheel.  I agree on the $40 well spent.  I'm definitely doing it to reduce vibrations and help everything around them (like hubs, bearings, nuts coming loose).  Harmonics and resonance are for music, not travel trailers!  😉 

Oh well, I wish Oliver had gone a step above the rest and done it (or offered to do it for $) - what a pain and additional expense having to do this after the fact.

[BillATX]

My (2021 Elite 1) tires appear to be balanced.  They have the weights on the inside of the rim.

It appears that Oliver does recommend balancing our tires.  From the Owners Manual:

1.5.6. TIRE BALANCE AND WHEEL ALIGNMENT: To avoid vibration or shaking of
the vehicle when a tire rotates, the tire must be properly balanced. This balance is
achieved by positioning weights on the wheel to counterbalance heavy spots on
the wheel-and-tire assembly.

[ScubaRx]

5 hours ago, NCeagle said:

I can't vote because I'm in a bit of shock.  I ASSUMED the tires would be balanced - why wouldn't they?  I just ran out into the freezing cold and checked and unless they are magically balanced rims, there's no lead anywhere on any of them.  

So this is now on the top of my list.  I really do find this hard to believe.  My answer to the poll is "They were not balanced and I'm shocked.  I'm going to have them balanced ASAP"  😞

The way this poll is constructed makes our answers a little ambiguous. Oliver has not always balanced the tires on their trailers. The tires that are currently being installed arrive at the factory already balanced, but the poll provides us with no way for one to tell if the trailer was delivered prior to or after Oliver started providing this needed task. I would suggest adding the hull number or, at least, the year of production.

Out of curiosity, what year/hull number do you own?

 

Edited February 8, 2021 by ScubaRx

[mountainoliver]

Hull number 208, 2017. Wheels were not balanced but I requested that they be balanced during my pickup inspection. I guess technically they were balanced when the trailer actually left the factory!

[John E Davies]

32 minutes ago, ScubaRx said:

The way this poll is constructed makes our answers a little ambiguous. Oliver has not always balanced the tires on their trailers. The tires that are currently being installed arrive at the factory already balanced, but the poll provides us with no way for one to tell if the trailer was delivered prior to or after Oliver started providing this needed task. I would suggest adding the hull number or, at least, the year of production.

Out of curiosity, what year/hull number do you own?

 

Mine is Hull 218, early 2017. I don’t know any way to post a Poll question that allows you to specify an exact time or model. Having a whole bunch of questions - “was it a 2018? Was it an elite? -  just confuses the heck out things. The more questions you add, the weirder the results become. Ideally it would just be two questions. Can you suggest a good way?

When I was building the Poll, I actually considered adding Answer 4: “I don’t care“, but I realized the first question probably covers that one. It indicates that the owner knows that they are not balanced but won’t do anything about it...

That is really why I asked for follow up comments, to see when changes were made, if any. So far it looks as if it is a total crap-shoot (roll of the dice) whether it was done before delivery, or not. There is not yet any pattern that I can see.

John Davies

Spokane WA

Edited February 8, 2021 by John E Davies

[BackofBeyond]

I assumed my tires and wheels were balanced - as they had the requisite lead weights in the appropriate places. (I guess one could call Oliver and ask?)  In the 15K miles they have rolled around - the tires are wearing very nicely, and the trailer rides very smoothly at higher speeds. I rotate them with the spare, and a spare- spare, all were balanced as delivered. (July 2018 - #359)   I expected the tires were balanced to Oliver - by the supplier.  I have no reason to pay to get my tires/wheels balanced. If I did - Oliver would need to reimburse me for the cost and time - but they don't - because they were good at delivery...

I'm gonna find something else to think about - 

RB

Junior Old guy in training.

Edit - If Oliver did not balance - and they do now - when did they make the change. Inquiring minds and all.

Edited February 8, 2021 by BackofBeyond

[bhncb]

I spoke with Jason Essary about the tire/wheel combo during my late 2018 LEII pre delivery inspection. He commented that they obtain the assemblies balanced, nitrogen filled, and inflated to 80 psi from their vendor. Further, that RVIA required them to specify 80 psi on the loading label. I suspect OTT mfg doesn't ever put a tire gauge on them.

[NCeagle]

2 hours ago, BillATX said:

My (2021 Elite 1) tires appear to be balanced.  They have the weights on the inside of the rim.

It appears that Oliver does recommend balancing our tires.  From the Owners Manual:

1.5.6. TIRE BALANCE AND WHEEL ALIGNMENT: To avoid vibration or shaking of
the vehicle when a tire rotates, the tire must be properly balanced. This balance is
achieved by positioning weights on the wheel to counterbalance heavy spots on
the wheel-and-tire assembly.

I'm going to open a ticket and get a response from OTT.  Mine are not balanced so either they just started in 2021 or mine are supposed to be balanced and it was missed.

[NCeagle]

1 hour ago, ScubaRx said:

Out of curiosity, what year/hull number do you own?

Hi ScubaRx, Hull 688, a late 2020 model.

[bhncb]

It is possible that a tire and wheel can be in balance without adding any weights. If the tire is match-mounted to the rim, whereby the lightest spot of the tire is aligned with the heaviest spot of the rim (usually the valve stem), a modern quality tire could very well be within a 1/2 ounce of being out of balance. In this situation, no added weight would be necessary to achieve an acceptable static (ie: single plane) balance. A dynamic, two plane, balance is rarely necessary for tires with an aspect ratio of 75 or greater especially on trailer applications. Any quality installer will as a matter of course perform match mounting in order to minimize added weight. These same quality installers with also always use a pin plate balancer adapter no matter the wheel type and/or application. This is the only way to insure a wheel assembly is mounted true on the balancer shaft.

Before calling out Oliver, another point worth mentioning is that the wheel style currently (2020-up) being used on the LEs may not allow for clip-on weights.  For these, stick-on strip weights would be necessary and may not be as visible to the untrained eye. If present, they would be positioned on the rim, near the centerline, and should be visible looking through the spoke openings. 

[NCeagle]

27 minutes ago, bhncb said:

Before calling out Oliver, another point worth mentioning is that the wheel style currently (2020-up) being used on the LEs may not allow for clip-on weights.  For these, stick-on strip weights would be necessary and may not be as visible to the untrained eye. If present, they would be positioned on the rim, near the centerline, and should be visible looking through the spoke openings. 

Point taken - I should not be jumping to conclusions.  However, there are no weights of any kind on my wheels.  Maybe all of the them are match mounted and didn't need balancing - I did not realize that was possible.  It does say in my owner's manual that they should be aligned and balanced though.

[ScubaRx]

Just for everyone's information. Oliver does not balance the tires themselves. They buy the tires already mounted and balanced. I spoke with the plant manager today and he stated that's the way they have done it since he came in 2017. Scott Oliver states they have always been balanced. I'm not convinced they've been doing since 2014. Mine were not as it was the first delivered Elite II, but I've had it done during the intervening years.

Since this issue has likely not existed in the last 3-4 years, I think we're beating a dead horse.  Like BackofBeyond:  "I'm gonna find something else to think about..."

[NCeagle]

35 minutes ago, ScubaRx said:

Just for everyone's information. Oliver does not balance the tires themselves. They buy the tires already mounted and balanced. I spoke with the plant manager today and he stated that's the way they have done it since he came in 2017. Scott Oliver states they have always been balanced. I'm not convinced they've been doing since 2014. Mine were not as it was the first delivered Elite II, but I've had it done during the intervening years.

Since this issue has likely not existed in the last 3-4 years, I think we're beating a dead horse.  Like BackofBeyond:  "I'm gonna find something else to think about..."

I did get the same response on the ticket I opened about Oliver ordering the tires mounted and balanced.  However, it's not really a "dead horse" for OTT yet as they also said that it's an ongoing issue since Oliver is the only one that asks for balanced tires and the vendor keeps forgetting to balance Oliver orders.  So my wheels are not magically matched and balanced with no weights.  Oliver has offered to pay for the wheels to be balanced but this one bugs me because I can't do it myself and if it's a known thing it should have been caught in a quality check if there is one.  

[Landrover]

5 hours ago, ScubaRx said:

The way this poll is constructed makes our answers a little ambiguous. Oliver has not always balanced the tires on their trailers. The tires that are currently being installed arrive at the factory already balanced, but the poll provides us with no way for one to tell if the trailer was delivered prior to or after Oliver started providing this needed task. I would suggest adding the hull number or, at least, the year of production.

Out of curiosity, what year/hull number do you own?

 

2019 hull 484 tires were balanced either by the mfg or Oliver not sure which. I suggest high speed balance and not a static balance bubble balance.  I don’t think any tire shop does bubble balance any more. That was done when the wheel was fist invented. 

Edited February 8, 2021 by Landrover

[Mike and Carol]

I don’t know if they were balanced when I picked up my trailer.  I did have them balanced within a few months with added metal stems and TST TPMS sensors.  Just had new tires installed and did the same - balanced with TPMS sensors mounted.  Mike

[SeaDawg]

Oliver may be one of the few manufacturers that actually  specifies balancing.

I would be more concerned about under-inflation,  than balancing. I'd be careful  about pressuring down, too far.

Flexing is more severe when underinflated. Imo.

Do I  balance my trailer tires, when I replace them? Yes. Where i go, (local shop) it's included in the price of mount-- spin balance. Does it make a difference,  since they're not drive tires, I don't really know.

I don't pay for it at Walmart, for the boat trailer. It's extra. And, I have to carry the rims in.  Those tires die by age. 

A tire expert, I am not.

I  buy the best tires  I can find, and watch tread for unusual wear, keep tires inflated,, and call it done. Since 2008, I've never seen unusual wear. (Scalloping, etc.). 

I've missed much of this thread working on my latest project,  a 1927 Singer sewing machine.  Remarkably, it still  gives me beautiful stitches. And, the head and cover, were built to last. I'm looking at youtube restoration videos.

I think, 90 years in the future, someone will be doing youtubes on restoration of my Oliver trailer. Like my 1927 Singer, it is truly built to last. Imo.

My personal opinions. 

Am I an Oliver fanboy/girl? Maybe. I have appreciated the camping experience I've had with my trailer. I  do not hesitate to point out improvements that we've made.  Or, problems we've encountered,  along with solutions.

It's what makes the Oliver better, imo. When we work together. 

 

 

 

 

[SeaDawg]

Mike's post reminded me. Our tpms adds weight to the stem. If you add a tpms, you may (at least slightly) change the balance of your tires. 

Edited February 8, 2021 by SeaDawg

[bhncb]

3 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

Mike's post reminded me. Our tpms adds weight to the stem. If you add a tpms, you may (at least slightly) change the balance of your tires. 

I seem to remember at least one manufacturer of external  TPMS sensors recommending that a 1/2 ounce weight should be applied 180 degrees opposite the valve stem to counteract this additional weight.

[BackofBeyond]

15 hours ago, NCeagle said:

....... since Oliver is the only one that asks for balanced tires and the vendor keeps forgetting to balance Oliver orders.  So my wheels are not magically matched and balanced with no weights.  Oliver has offered to pay for the wheels to be balanced but this one bugs me because I can't do it myself and if it's a known thing it should have been caught in a quality check if there is one.  

I can't let this go - it's just not in me . If indeed, a supplier, and Oliver, freely admit - tires/wheel: specked and costed out to be delivered balanced, pressure set to 80psi, and filled with nitrogen (as mine were)  are not 100% delivered as such - the system is broken.  I mentioned a second level verification in another post - Oliver -if true- should have immediately added the check, written corrective action  to the supplier, demanded IRR with breakpoint.  And on...

OK- this is not a safety issue - on the face of it - it is just - what it is - an error in the product.

But, I don't know if the claim is accurate - so, I'm just riffing. But what I do know, because I've been there, and I've seen and read of various repeat quality problems - Oliver needs a more robust Quality reporting and problem solving process.  What is somewhat startling -  is that Oliver manages to deliver a fairly consistent quality product - one believed to be higher than industry norm.  A miss here and there - well that happens..............

Seems second rate - just imagine if it was a plane - the supplier forgot to torque a bolt in the engine turbine - and - well you get the point. But Oliver's aren't airplanes -  no - they are high priced RV's - second only to Airstream in premium pricing. Value and quality -  delicate proposition's to keep alive.

And still I like my Oliver EII.

RB

My apologies to the moderators and any Oliver fanboy's 😁😁

 

[topgun2]

12 hours ago, bhncb said:

I seem to remember at least one manufacturer of external  TPMS sensors recommending that a 1/2 ounce weight should be applied 180 degrees opposite the valve stem to counteract this additional weight.

One of the at least one is EZE Tire TPMS.

Bill