Tires and wheels on a Jayco 24RBS not balanced ????

[Homer1959]

Guys, this 2014 trailer will be delivered to me with trailer king tires mounted on aluminum wheels, however it looks to me that these combo arent balanced at the factory, I've looked at other brand of trailer and tires and its the very same thing....how they can get away with that ? It can be dangerous to have wheels jumping up and down on the road in my opinion

 

[Rene T]

I always had mine balanced. How long does a vehicle tire last if it's not balanced? My opinion is that the same thing would happen with a trailer tire/wheel.

 

[Foto-n-T]

Trailer tires take a beating whether they're balanced or not.  I think that most folks do have theirs balanced at installation but unfortunately that doesn't last very long if the trailer is being hauled around.  I started running balance beads in all wheel positions both truck and trailer a few years ago.  Although to do it right you'll need to have the tires dismounted to install the beads you'll never have to worry about tire balance issues again and with any luck your tires will last longer.

 

[kdbgoat]

Although to do it right you'll need to have the tires dismounted to install the beads you'll never have to worry about tire balance issues again and with any luck your tires will last longer.

Not necessarally true. Some such as Dyna Beads and others can be installed through the valve stem as long as you don't have an internal TMPS sensor. Having used balance beads myself on my Harleys, I can say they work very well and is a lot cheaper than having the tires balanced (and probably balanced wrong) by a Harley shop. A normal tire shop should be able to do trailer tires though.

 

[kjansen]

I'm not sure any trailer comes with balanced tires.  Look at the showroom floor models.  I have always taken mmine in to have balance at a local tire shop.  None of my boat trailers come with balance tires either.

 

[Homer1959]

I really cant understand the reasoning behind that, it pretty basic, if a car manufacturer can build so many cars a minutes with the wheels balanced , it shouldn't be rocket science for TT.

Thanks to remind me about the beads, its a good idea.I never tried that but its going to be the right occasion

 

[lavarock1210]

You will also find the brake drums are not balanced.  Another good reason to use balance beads.  They take care of the tire and brake drum.

I have been using the beads for 5 years on my trailers and truck and they work great.

 

[FastEagle]

Newer tire/rim balancing technology is coming on the market daily. Look on your tires for red & orange/yellow dots. If they are there look on the rim for a small dimple lined-up with the red dots. Other colors may be lined-up with the valve stem.

Does your trailer?s owner?s manual mention tire balancing? It is normally the responsibility of the tire installer to insure vehicle and tire warranty requirements are met.

One of the most used OEM tires is the Power King TowMax - often referred to as ?BlowMax? - has their warranty information available in a PDF on the internet. There is no mention of tire balancing in their warranty. However, any form of balancing beads or other internal materials for tire balancing voids the warranty. That disclaimer for balancing substances also holds true for a lot of the LT tires such as Michelin.

FastEagle 

 

[Foto-n-T]

There is no mention of tire balancing in their warranty. However, any form of balancing beads or other internal materials for tire balancing voids the warranty. That disclaimer for balancing substances also holds true for a lot of the LT tires such as Michelin.

Interesting info, I'm wondering exactly "why" the tire manufacturers would disallow balancing beads?  I'm curious as to what your take is on this.  The trucking industry has been using balancing beads for some time now with excellent results.  I run DynaBeads in everything including my bike and other than being able to feel a "bounce" on the front wheel of the bike sometimes when leaving a stop, I love 'em.  By the way the bounce goes away immediately when I hit about 5 mph.

 

[Homer1959]

I will certainly take a look, nothing is simple today ;-)

Newer tire/rim balancing technology is coming on the market daily. Look on your tires for red & orange/yellow dots. If they are there look on the rim for a small dimple lined-up with the red dots. Other colors may be lined-up with the valve stem.

Does your trailer?s owner?s manual mention tire balancing? It is normally the responsibility of the tire installer to insure vehicle and tire warranty requirements are met.

One of the most used OEM tires is the Power King TowMax - often referred to as ?BlowMax? - has their warranty information available in a PDF on the internet. There is no mention of tire balancing in their warranty. However, any form of balancing beads or other internal materials for tire balancing voids the warranty. That disclaimer for balancing substances also holds true for a lot of the LT tires such as Michelin.

FastEagle

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

A few years ago I wanted to install Dynabeads in my SUV tires, which are BIG  (265/60R18) but Dynabead refused to provide them for any passenger car or light truck. They said that smaller tires may not balance out properly and they couldn't be responsible. I argued that my SUV tires were larger than many of the sizes used on smaller motorhomes (and which Dyna approved), but no-go.  Now they are promoting them for pick-ups, oversized offroad tires and trailers.

I'm guessing there were some possible risks in smaller tire sizes and companies are nervous about possible lawsuits. Especially when they haven't tested what they may consider "new technology". Lawsuits get harder to pursue if the company sticks with old-line methods. Even though this balancing tech is well-established, lawyers are mostly ultra-conservative.

 

[Wi1dBill]

Owned leased semi trailers and drove a dump truck for several years and never balanced the rear tires.  Only had the front balanced on the dumps and semi tractors.  Sold hundred of equipment trailers before that.  Never balanced a tire on any of them.
 
In a car you will feel an unbalance wheel.  On a trailer or a dump truck, unless it is way out... won't feel it. 

On a trailer, more likely a failure will occur due to age/ dry rot or road hazard rather then a balance problem.  It boils down to cost/benefit.

Think adding shocks or air bags would do more to eliminate bouncing of the trailer.

WildBill

 

[Foto-n-T]

On a trailer, more likely a failure will occur due to age/ dry rot or road hazard rather then a balance problem.  It boils down to cost/benefit.

True a lot of TT/5th wheel tires will definitely rot of the rims before the tread goes away but there are those of us out there who tend to wear 'em out too.  My main reason for balancing the trailer tires is to cut down on vibration that tends to lead to finding screws etc. laying on the floor when you walk in the door.  My favorite was finding one of the blades to the ceiling fan on the floor with the two screws that should have been holding the thing on beside it.  Even though you can't feel it up in the tow vehicle, out of balance tires on the trailer can have some pretty significant effects on the rig itself because of the vibration.  As most of us are aware, the suspension components of most TT/5th wheels is not exactly state of the art.

 

[lavarock1210]

Why do you think the plastic spring bushings on trailers fail so early.

It makes more sense to me to treat the problem and not use band aids.

Balance the tires before adding shocks and air bags.  A tire that is not balanced will give a shock a good work out and will result in early failure of the shock.

Balancing is much cheaper than a set of shocks.

 

[Homer1959]

Here is some news on the subject. I've questionned the wheels and tire suppliers for Jayco and a major one in the RV industries, Tredit Tire & Wheel.

Here is their position on trailer wheel balancing. I'm dont want to argue with anybody here but there is an opportunity for them to make few more bucks on their wheels combo by balancing them and even they refuse to do it


The standard for trailer wheels is not to balance. ST tires do not wear like passenger tires, so the balancing isn?t required for any additional longevity.



The other part about balancing is that these wheels are lug-centric and not hub-centric. That is, the wheel is centered and balanced based off the torque of the lugs on the axle, unlike automotive where it is centered by the hub bore and held in the middle. This allows for changes in balances and makes it difficult to zero in on a balance. Also, many other styles of trailers are now going to aluminum wheels, so there are landscape trailers, utility trailers, cargo trailers, etc. . . that consistently have different loads that will cause wear and tear on tires that a balance isn?t going to change. Many assume balancing will even out any vibrations, but again most of these problems stem from uneven loads.


So what do you think of that, there must be some truth since none of trailer . big small industrial or not arent balanced from the factory ...anyway thats what I had for you guys

 

[FastEagle]

Centramatic balancing. Expensive but works well for all RV trailers.

FastEagle

 

[cpaulsen]

Have always balanced all my trailer tires.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I'm struggling with that response from Tredit - do not see how loading affects tire balance. It affects wheel track (alignment) at the suspension shifts, but balance is balance regardless. However, it still may be true that balance has little positive effect on trailer tire life.

Also, small (i.e. light) tires don't suffer much from balance issues and a lot of what Tredit is talking about is probably 8" or 12" wheels with relatively skinny tires. Small diameter, low mass, tires/wheels simply don't generate a lot of force even if a bit off balance. With larger RV trailers, though, some of the tires are substantial, 16" wheel and wide, and have a bigger effect (more energy).

A badly out-of-balance tire is going to shake things, but I think that is pretty rare on trailers. Rare doesn't mean never, of course. I've seen a very few that were obviously way off balance. The lack of shock absorbers on most trailers is probably a much larger factor, though.

 

[Homer1959]

Beads or centramatics the working principle is the same at the end, beads runs in the tire, centramatics is  beads running around in a tube outside of the tires , seems to work well, good report on many forum including on goldwing motorcycle , but man oh man its expensive compared to all the other balancing system available.

Centramatic balancing. Expensive but works well for all RV trailers.

FastEagle

 

[longhaul]

I made a living pulling (over a dozen and actually wore several sets of tires on each trailer out) various sizes of trailers with tandem/tri axle and tandem dual wheeled trailers. Made my first for hire pull in the early '60s. Never heard of balancing tires on a trailer till I became member on a RV website. I've also owned one TT and three different 5th wheel RV trailers all tandem axles.
  Non of these trailers (RV/private/commercial) came with tires that were balanced.

Tredit  makes some good points.

Other points are a trailers leaf springs are only 26" long which acts as a giant damper. Leaf springs on the rear of our trucks are 70"+ long and very flexy so sure the tire/hub will need to be balanced. And of course front springs are coil springs which needs a big shock and balanced tire/wheel/hub assys.
Tires we see jumping up and down on a RV trailer or loaded equipment trailer has a tread/belt separation issue or was severally flat spotted from brake lock up.

Other issues are steel trailer wheels which come with stamped lug holes which usually are not concentric with the tire bead seat flange.
      Stamped steel trailer wheels can have lateral run out issues also. Sure the machine can spin and the tech can add weights to eliminate imbalance issues but once its mounted on the trailer it may roll like a wobbly egg.

  I watch my tires on my trailers for abnormal tread wear. The type of wear pattern on the tread can indicate a braking or toe or camber or worn suspension parts problems.

My current 5th wheel trailer has over 45k miles on the second set. Ran the first set for over 55k miles. Non were balanced and tread wear was flat across the tread with no cupping or no odd wear patterns.