Do you need to “balance” RV trailer tires? This is a question I see occasionally. The answers range from “Never” to “Always”. In my opinion, I think the reason many do not balance them or they say they don’t need to be balanced is because balancing costs the RV manufacturer money, and we all know just how price-sensitive the RV manufacturers and dealers are.
The issue is that with many ST-type tires being designed and sold at the lowest possible cost, it is possible that the quality might be less than optimum.
One thing that can be determined when balancing a tire is how uniformly the tire components were assembled. In my 40+ years as a tire engineer, I have seen tires where a component was left out of the tire. I have also seen where half of one of the steel belts was left off.
Uniformity check
Regular passenger and LT tires are almost always run through a uniformity check at the tire manufacturing plant. This is a quick check on one aspect of the tire build process.
But uniformity checks cost time and money. I can see some people thinking, why bother? No one will be riding in the trailer so they will not be bothered by a poor ride. But the process of “balancing” can discover quality issues in the tire and even discover the occasional mis-mount of a good tire on a wheel, or even discover some issues in the wheels.
If you have a 15″ tire or smaller and need more than 3 oz. to balance, or if you have a 16″ or 17″ tire and need more than 5 oz., or have a 19.5″ or 22.5″ tire and need more than 7 oz. of weight, I would suggest that there may be a problem and that it needs to be discovered and “fixed”.
A final comment on balancing. Sometimes the problem with vibration is not the balance, but the tire and wheel being out of round, as I demonstrated in THIS post when I “balanced” a cement block.
Roger Marble
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Thanks Roger! I always learn something from your blog posts.
Vibration with a trailer wheel you may not feel in the truck, however the trailer suspension sure does. And this cause wear to it.
After a year of driving on a set of new 3500 truck tires I discovered on one tire they had added 15.5 ounces of weight!!
I raised a stink with this nation wide business and they gave me a new one.
RE needing 15.5 OZ to balance. I have a couple of blog posts on tire balance and this one has a link showing how I “Balanced” a square cement block https://www.rvtiresafety.net/2024/03/do-i-need-to-balance-my-rv-tires.html
It amazes me how many tire shops do not know that tires are marked for proper position. That little painted dot on the sidewall is suppose to be in line with the valve stem. That dot is the lightest point on the tire.
Proper position assures the least amount of balance weights that have to be used.
Thank you, Roger! 🙂 Have a great weekend and safe travels! 🙂
“Road Force Match Balance” machines are few and far between.
The one shop in the city near us that has one rejected 3 tire out of 7 for our Buick because too much weight was called for.
i have often had them do my truck tires too.
The “match” feature means they match the high spot of the rim with the low spot of the tire.
both can be out of round.
I have had the little chinese made tires balanced on my Aliner Popup, and the Goodyear tires balanced on my airstream trailer. why would anyone not do this?
When I had new tires put on my toy hauler, I asked to have the wheels balanced. I was told they never balance trailer tires. I insisted that it be done. All four tires did indeed need balanced. The owner of the tire shop now suggests to people to pay the extra for balancing.
Most of the tires he sold for trailers were for small utility or construction trailers. Few were ever pulled at highway speeds.
I wonder how many tire failures are because of out of balance tires and wheels. The vibration does have to take a toll somewhere. eve the wheel bearings can be affected.
Any tire regardless of what it is on should be balanced if it will be traveling faster then 25 MPH. I balance all my trailer tires including my cement mixer. I have not had any tire problems.