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Old 05-03-2014, 03:09 PM   #1
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Tire Balance

I went to an old reputable tire shop in town. Bought a few tires from these people over time, never any problem.
I just had a new tire installed on the spare rim on the back of the trailer. I asked about balancing and he said:

Trailers don't require balancing because they are so many feet behind the tow vehicle that you'd never feel any shake or shimmy.

I thought that answer was wrong in so many ways. You folks tell me.

Maybe I might not feel it when towing but if those tires were out of balance then the wheel would be bouncing all over and preventing the tire from tracking properly on the road. Even the electric brakes might not do what they are meant to do when needed.

Not to mention the erratic bouncing could chew the surface off the tread over time. Plus in this day and age, with gas prices so high, we want a smooth uninterrupted tow for the trailer to be less work for the tow vehicle.

I might just take all 3 tires in for a proper balance

Your opinions count...thanks
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Old 05-03-2014, 04:11 PM   #2
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Never balanced any of my trailers and never noticed any issues. Never had cupping or any other wear issues and never felt anything. Granted, most of them have been race trailers but they were the same kind of tires. I do put the red dot of the tire even with the valve stem, which may help especially with steel wheels.


I've had empty utility trailers bounce down the road, but that's usually caused by flat spots from sitting for a long time, not lack of weights.

Just my experience. I think if I pulled a ton of miles, which I don't, I would probably do it for the sake of the springs and bearings.
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Old 05-03-2014, 05:26 PM   #3
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I have seen a lot of trailers without wheel weights.

Personally I balance them, I don't see the reason not to.

An out of balance tire will shimmy or tramp whether on a car or trailer so I might as well make it as smooth as possible.

My other thought is that these Chinese tires are a crap shoot no matter what, so if I take care of them the best I can then maybe they will last a little longer.

Don
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Old 05-03-2014, 06:40 PM   #4
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I have see the arguments for both sides, some balance and some don't.

When I put new tires and rims on my Sunny, I had them balanced since it just seemed to make sense to me.
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Old 05-03-2014, 08:30 PM   #5
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I never tried them but the set of tires I just put on my Sunny I put in balancing beads. We'll see what happens.
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Old 05-03-2014, 09:52 PM   #6
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I'm in the camp of balancing them when used on the camper. I my case I did not have a tire dealer who has a hub for his spin balancer to balance off the lug holes. So I went with DnyaBeads. And in this case the poorly out of round brake drum gets balanced along with the tire and rim.

See here on HenryJ's post, I added too and how I did mine.

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f7...ads-12355.html

If you are wanting longevity, balancing does help. The camper will not self destruct with out them, but it will run smoother, help the bearings, tires and take vibration as much as it can out of the trailer frame.
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