Balancing tires on a tow behind trailer

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Al C

Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2012
Posts
15
Location
New England
Hello All:

For the first time I have to replace the tires on my tow behind camper. It's a tandem axle, weighs about 3000 lbs dry. Do the tires need to be balanced like a car tire? I don't see any wheel weights on the rims of the tires that are on the camper now. I've never had to do this before so have absolutely no experience to fall back on. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
 
Read up on Balancing beads and install them.  You will be ahead of the game.  If you see no wheel weights the tires may already have them inside.
Marvin
 
Many people & shops do not balance trailer tires, but I always thought it was worth the modest cost. You don't often see a trailer tire bouncing because of severe imbalance, but it does happen occasionally. It's mostly a tire wear concern, since stability is not as crucial as it is on a car (especially a car steering tire).

They may not recommend balancing beads in tires a small as that trailer likely has. Weights are what is typically used.
 
We've all ridden in cars where a tire is out of balance. Not a smooth ride. With that, I've always balanced my trailer tires. Seems so I read someplace where the balancing beads are only effective in BIG tires like Class A's and over the road truck tires.
 
Many dealers will say "Trailer tires do not need to be balanced"    They lie

Balanced tires give a nice smooth ride, now, of course you are not riding in the triler (You should not at least) so vibration won;t bother you but... IT WILL BOTHER THE TRAILER, and everything in it,,, Screws work loose (Many RVers have a few screws lose. The kind you tighten,, usually,,, with a #2 Square or Robson bit).

And balanced tires will last longer.. So will the wheel bearings, and as stated, everything else

So have 'em balanced.
 
Anything that rotates at high speed should be balanced.  Trailer tires are almost never balanced on a new trailer, the reason being it would cost a few bucks.

I balance my own and can tell you that the cheap brake drums are an even bigger problem than the cheap tires.  For many years now, axle manufacturers have not been balancing the drums, the reason being it would cost a few bucks.  Knowing this, I balance the tire, wheel and brake drum as an assembly.

If you have the tires balanced, the lug holes should be used not the center hole because that is how it is located on the hub.  You might have a better balance, or you may not, depending how bad the drum is and how true the wheel runs.  Many have their tires balanced and it gives them a warm fuzzy feeling, but they have no way of knowing if the assembly is spinning smoothly.

I'm not a fan of beads, there is no way of knowing how much to add and the assembly would have to re-balance itself after every stop.
 
lynnmor said:
Knowing this, I balance the tire, wheel and brake drum as an assembly.

I take it that you remove the brake drum and mount it to the wheel. Then you balance the entire assembly using the center hole. Is that how you do it?  If that's the case, when disassembling, you'd have to mark one of the studs to the mating hole so the studs/holes end up back where they were when you balanced the assembly. Is that how you do it?
 
Rene T said:
I take it that you remove the brake drum and mount it to the wheel. Then you balance the entire assembly using the center hole. Is that how you do it?  If that's the case, when disassembling, you'd have to mark one of the studs to the mating hole so the studs/holes end up back where they were when you balanced the assembly. Is that how you do it?

Exactly.  I even go farther than that, I also find the heavy spot of the drum and mark it.  Then I mount the heavy spot of the tire opposite the heavy spot of the drum to minimize the wheel weights needed.
 
I ran beads in the last full dress Harley I had. They did a better job than having the tires balanced by machine and using stick on weights.
 

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