POLL: Balance your trailer tires.

[John E Davies]

45 minutes ago, Ray Kimsey said:

three of the tires were pretty good and only needed about an ounce, but the street-side rear needed a whopping 5 ounces. Probably explains why I was seeing a lot of issues with screws coming loose.

5 ounces of imbalance is not good, but it is actually acceptable for a heavy LT tire if it can be corrected with weights. A hopping wheel and tire will also wear out that shock absorber and the wheel bearings much faster. Did you have them check the spare? Even if you don’t rotate it wth the others, it would be good to know it was OK for a (possibly long term) emergency.

https://blog.tirerack.com/blog/make-driving-fun-2/how-many-wheel-weights-are-too-many-

The Cooper tire is about 32 pounds, the wheel is maybe 30 pounds? 62 pounds total, so 1% would be 0.62 pounds, or about 10 ounces of weights allowed, maximum. Who says math is no fun? If it took more than that amount, I would have them dismount and reposition the tire. If that won’t fix it, there is most likely something wrong with the tire itself.

John Davies

Spokane WA

Edited February 23, 2021 by John E Davies

[Ray Kimsey]

35 minutes ago, John E Davies said:

5 ounces of imbalance is not good, but it is actually acceptable for a heavy LT tire if it can be corrected with weights. A hopping wheel and tire will also wear out that shock absorber and the wheel bearings much faster. Did you have them check the spare? ...

John Davies

Spokane WA

I didn't have them check the spare. I will probably remove it and have it checked sometime soon and if it is mounted like the other 4 and is better (needing less weight), I may just replace the bad one with the spare and use the current one as the spare. Does that sound reasonable?

[John E Davies]

1 hour ago, Ray Kimsey said:

I didn't have them check the spare. I will probably remove it and have it checked sometime soon and if it is mounted like the other 4 and is better (needing less weight), I may just replace the bad one with the spare and use the current one as the spare. Does that sound reasonable?

If it makes you feel better, do that, but the “bad” one isn’t really bad. 😬 I personally would not bother. 

John Davies

Spokane WA

[NCeagle]

On 2/23/2021 at 2:16 PM, Ray Kimsey said:

Follow-up on the results of getting my tires balanced:

So I took my Ollie (#676, October 2020 with the Cooper tires) to get the tires balanced this morning.  The outcome was three of the tires were pretty good and only needed about an ounce, but the street-side rear needed a whopping 5 ounces. Probably explains why I was seeing a lot of issues with screws coming loose.

I just returned from a camping trip and I'm now having my tires balanced as well.  I've chosen to take them off one at a time and send them in to be balanced by my son (who is a mechanic), so it will take me 5 days to complete - he has a small car and can only fit one tire at a time.  🙂  I had the first one done yesterday and my son said it was "pretty bad" - although it wasn't as bad as the one Ray found - it only took a little over 3 ounces.  I'll report back on how the other 4 tires are (in a week) but I'd say based on what Ray has reported back and what I've seen with my first tire, balancing is going to make a difference.

[Patriot]

On 2/21/2021 at 7:44 AM, Patriot said:

Ray, my local discount tire shop will perform the wheel balancing as mentioned in my earlier post for $10.00 a tire. I find it easier to just take Ollie to the tire store, point out where the lift/jack locations are and have it done right there. They hand torque lugs on every wheel they install to wheel or factory specifications. I will likely purchase their insurance plan which allows mounting and balancing for the life of the tire (at any time) and full replacement if they cannot fix the tire if it goes flat. The plan allows for replacement of the tire with no prorate on mileage. I have always had this on our trucks and cars. I will double check, but feel sure it’s offered on trailer tires as long as they sell the tire. 
We have done business with DCT for years and our experience has been excellent. Hope this helps.

I fully subscribe to DCT Core Values -

@Ray Kimsey @rideandfly @topgun2
Just a follow up to this post. I took our Oliver to discount tire yesterday and was disappointed to learn that none of the tires including the spare were balanced.
I had all of the rubber valve stems replaced with higher quality short steel stems. I decided to purchased the certificates for all (5) tires to repair/replace if they cannot fix the tire. This also includes lifetime balance and rotation. (receipt)

The techs did a great job and hand torqued all lugs to specs. While having the work done I was speaking with a friend who owns a 2019 OLEll and ALL of his wheels were balanced by Oliver’s tire manufacture. He visually checked for me. 
Not sure why our all (5) of our tires were not balanced? They are now. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. 
 

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Patriot

[NCeagle]

Finally finished having all 5 of my "new" (11/20 Ollie) tires balanced.  The first one took 3.25 oz as I mentioned in a previous post and that one was the worst.  The other tires required the following: 1.25 oz, 1 oz, 1.75 oz, and 3 oz.

All in all not too bad given the size/weight of the tires.  I think this indicates pretty high quality rims and tires being used by OTT. 

Now I hope OTT added "make sure tires / wheels are balanced" to the quality checklist so future owners don't have to go through the hassle of getting it done post-delivery.  🙂

[rich.dev]

I had centramatics on my Airstream and was extremely pleased with them, tires were 6 years old and no uneven wear at all. They automatically find the heavy side of the wheel to neutralize the imbalance by perfectly adding weight (oil and beads) to the light side, even when the heavy side changes (which does throughout the life of the tire), centramatics change with it. Here's a good YouTube video of how they work.