Another TT Tire Balancing Question

[Mookie58]

Last weekend we attending a seminar on Safety and Towing for our new TT, offered by the dealership where we purchased it. We have been to several seminars there and found them to be helpful and informative, even though there are a few shameless plugs for their services and accessories department. The seminar talked about balancing tires on a TT and how it can be a benefit in that your TT will have a smoother ride resulting in less shaking and movement within the trailer as it goes down the road. The seminar was given by a master RV mechanic, who I assume knows his stuff. Sounded reasonable to me, so I did some searching on this Forum and found many posts from people saying they do balance their TT tires for the same reason.

So I call the dealer to request that all 4 tires be balanced before we pick the TT up in a few weeks. The service department tells me that because of the suspension on our trailer, balancing the tires is not needed. And now I'm baffled - so I ask the seasoned experts on this Forum if this could really be true. Can the suspension on a TT be so forgiving that it could even out the effects of poor tire balance? Our TT has the Dexter EZ lube torsion axles with the Rubber-Ryde suspension, and rides on Goodyear Endurance tires.

 

[Oaklevel]

Well you will get opinions both ways.

I had my old tire dealer that recommended trailer tire balancing on all trailers. Since moving my new tire dealer thinks I'm crazy for balancing trailer tires (but he did it).(At a $).

Me not familiar with your trailer but I personally like to balance.

 

[BehindBars]

Does this dealership even have equipment to balance wheels? If not, they would have to sub out the service to a local tire shop, hence them giving you an excuse for not doing it. It is common for me to have even tire stores refuse to balance trailer wheels. It will be an uphill battle, but I suggest you get it done somehow. (I do).

If a trailer suspension could truly be designed to remove the need to balance wheels, why hasn’t the automobile industry caught on? Sounds like rubbish, to me.

 

[llr2800]

The torsion axles do seem to ride smoother. If buying tires I would have them balanced.

I have not removed existing tires to have them balanced. Of course I had china bombs on both trailers and only planned on keeping them one season. Not sure in your case if I would do it or not, however it would not be at the dealer. I would remove the tires and take them to a tire shop and have them done.

 

[sailorsam20500]

Balancing probably does help. With that said. I didn't balance mine until I replaced the tires and haven't noticed any real difference. The tire dealer I went thru automatically balances all tires as part of their price...

 

[D W]

I read the initial post and I'm still laughing. The "seminar" was given by the dealer for one reason, and one reason only. It was designed to upsell products. They throw a bunch of informational crap at you and hope something will stick. The technique is called HOOK, STORY, OFFER. In this case they got a little bit over their skis with tire balancing.

I don't know of any suspension system that negates the requirement for balancing tires. I balance all my tires. An unbalanced tire will place undo torsional stress and vibration on the wheel parts as well as the tire itself.

 

[NMWildcat]

This is one of those questions with multiple correct answers.
Balance trailer tires if it makes you feel better. Don't balance if you are so inclined. Either way works.
I have balanced trailer tires in the past, but haven't balanced in many years for several different RVs. I haven't noticed any difference.
We have dozens of trailers of all types (including highway) on the farms, none of them have balanced tires.
Do what feels right for you. Folllow the advice of a trusted tire expert. Doesn't matter what anybody else thinks, they are your tires.

 

[Larry-NC]

Independent

The torsion axles do seem to ride smoother. If buying tires I would have them balanced.

The wheels on the torsion axles are independent, unlike the leaf spring+equalizer scheme. I would expect the ride to be smoother and maybe less reactive to wheel balance issues.

 

[Mookie58]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. And for DW's amusement, we are headed to another "seminar" this Saturday. I also wondered if the dealer has the equipment to balance a tire, and will ask on Saturday. I just assumed they did after hearing about how many tires they go through in a typical spring prep season. I think at some point soon after we get the TT home I will have the tires balanced by a local tire shop.

I know you don't get something for nothing, and of course a dealer seminar is a good example of this. These are run by the technicians and mechanics who work on the rigs, not by the management, so we hope what we hear is based in reality and not profit margins. But the things we did buy after learning that they would be valuable to us were purchased elsewhere, usually on-line. For newbies like us we learned the importance of a surge protector/power management system and having a decent volt-ohm meter in the toolbox along with some spare 12V fuses. I did decline the solar eclipse protection package however.

 

[Chuck_S]

"Balancing" (note the quotes) lug-centric trailer wheels on a hub-centric balancer designed for passenger cars can make the balance worse.

-- Chuck

 

[BehindBars]

"Balancing" (note the quotes) lug-centric trailer wheels on a hub-centric balancer designed for passenger cars can make the balance worse.

-- Chuck

Bringing up that ugly topic is almost like trolling. It has been discussed ad nauseam in many other tire balancing threads.

 

[Chuck_S]

You are correct!

And posting "yet another" ad nauseam question on this topic is superfluous.

-- Chuck

 

[TitanMike]

"Balancing" (note the quotes) lug-centric trailer wheels on a hub-centric balancer designed for passenger cars can make the balance worse.

-- Chuck

Wrong. Even trailer wheels have a center hole that the balancer uses for centering the wheel as it balances the wheel.

Center holes and bolt circles are concentric. The center for steel wheels is formed from a single die and added to the formed rim. Runout is closely controlled in the process. Alloy wheel start with the casting having the center hole finished and IT becomes the reference for drilling of bolt circle and final machining of the bead surface.

How do I know? I guess the 15 years working for the largest manufacturer of wheel balancers in the US might be a clue. I followed that with 17 years working for a tire company dealing with equipment and training of their use.

The big issue in balancing ALL wheels is the operator. Many, if not most, are too lazy to just follow the balancer manufacturers instructions to use a "back cone/spring" mounting proceedure and just stick a cone in from the front of the wheel. The rear of the hole is either radiused (steel) or chamfered (alloy) so no burrs or sharp edges (which get dinged easily) interfere with the seating of the "back cone".

 

[BehindBars]

Wrong. Even trailer wheels have a center hole that the balancer uses for centering the wheel as it balances the wheel.

Center holes and bolt circles are concentric. The center for steel wheels is formed from a single die and added to the formed rim. Runout is closely controlled in the process. Alloy wheel start with the casting having the center hole finished and IT becomes the reference for drilling of bolt circle and final machining of the bead surface.

How do I know? I guess the 15 years working for the largest manufacturer of wheel balancers in the US might be a clue. I followed that with 17 years working for a tire company dealing with equipment and training of their use.

The big issue in balancing ALL wheels is the operator. Many, if not most, are too lazy to just follow the balancer manufacturers instructions to use a "back cone/spring" mounting proceedure and just stick a cone in from the front of the wheel. The rear of the hole is either radiused (steel) or chamfered (alloy) so no burrs or sharp edges (which get dinged easily) interfere with the seating of the "back cone".

Thank you for the explanation. Please keep your post handy for whenever the hub-, lug-centric topic again rises from the dead.

 

[NMWildcat]

Bringing up that ugly topic is almost like trolling. It has been discussed ad nauseam in many other tire balancing threads.

For once, I have to agree with you.
After you have participated in any forum long enough, you notice they consist mainly of a handful of topics with exactly the same responses. These are repeated almost daily.
I don't know who contributes more to this phenomenon, the folks who ask questions without doing any research first to find the many answers, or the folks who provide the same answers almost daily...

 

[Muggs]

I do not tow a TT but do tow an open race car traiIer behind RV. I always balance trailer tires. Why would you not? I live in rural area and can guess which cattle/utility trailers do not bother to balance by amount noise. Transferring such vibration just seems a waste and can likely cause other things to loosen or fall off.

Techincally with no shocks to dampen bounce from trailer tires, is an accepted practice to not balance for many. I do it myself when change tires so cost nothing more than time.

I guess is individual choice. In travels I have seen TT with one axle bouncing pretty heavily, not as common as ulitity trailers but have seen.