Can’t “balance” your tires? Bad ride? I can’t count the number of times I have seen someone post about the “bad ride” they had in their motorhome. They took the vehicle to their RV dealer but were told they could not “balance” the tires. Or they were told that the tires were balanced and the ride “is what it is.”
“Bad ride” can be from a number of factors
The ride can be affected by a number of different contributing factors:
1. One or more tires may be out of balance.
2. The tire may not be properly mounted to the wheel.
3. The wheel could be out of round.
4. The brake drum/rotor may be out of balance.
5. The wheel may not be mounted to the hub correctly.
6. The tire may be out of round.
7. The tire may have internal structural “uniformity” problems.
Many times people jump to the conclusion that the tire must be “out of balance” and they want to ignore all the other possibilities.
Back in November 2011, I covered a number of possible contributing factors when I answered the question of “Do you need to balance your tires?” Many people who just focus on “balance” should review that blog post.
Balancing a cinder block
In that old post, I said it was possible to balance a cinder block. You might consider reviewing that post as it has some good pictures of the other conditions that can give poor ride.
I have used this comment a few times in my RV Tire Seminars, but I bet few believed me. Well, here is the proof.
This first shot is of my “bubble” balancer and my test cinder block. Yes, the balancer is old (from the ’70s), but I have balanced hundreds of tires on it.
I even used it to balance the tires on my Camaro race car. I had no vibration issues on the banks of Daytona, where at high speed (149+) vibration would quickly become apparent if the tires were out of balance.
First, I confirm that the balancer is adjusted to a near-zero level of out-of-balance itself. We can see the bubble is very near to perfect balance, with it right at the center point.
Next, I loaded the cinder block onto the balancer. I chose not to try and pile standard wheel weights on the block, so I just grabbed some hand wrenches. After moving these “balance weights” around, I ended up with a very acceptable level of balance. (Look closely at the center bubble.)
I do hope this clears up some of the confusion on “ride” versus “tire balance.”
A reminder about “cold inflation”
Just a reminder about “cold inflation.” When inflating tires, we do not adjust for expected future temperature changes. Inflate tires to your goal inflation, which you learned after learning your actual load on each tire aka “4 corner weight.” That means the load on each position: right front, left front, right rear, and left rear. (If you have a tag axle, then you also need right tag and left tag.)
If you have not learned your corner weights, then I suggest you at least get individual axle loads and assume a 2% axle end-to-end unbalance. This means you need to take the truck scale printout for each axle and assume that one end has 52% of the total on that axle.
This 2% adjustment may not be enough for all RVs, as we know that some axles have been found to be 1,000 lbs. or even 1,500 lbs. out of balance side-to-side. But we are trying to catch as many out-of-balance coaches as possible.
If this 52% calculation presents problems with finding the correct cold inflation pressure, this suggests that you really need to find a scale where you can weigh each end of each axle. You can check the RVSEF website for the locations where they are weighing coaches.
Roger Marble
MORE ON RV TIRES
- Do you need to balance RV trailer tires?
- Do your RV tires say ‘MAX PSI 80 psi’ or something similar? Don’t take it literally
- I don’t calculate my tires’ PSI daily. Why do you?
- My RV tire pressure is showing a significant increase. Is this OK?
- Is the tire pressure too high?
- Should you adjust tire pressure when temps get colder?
- Do not adjust your tire pressure for ambient temperature
- Understanding what temperature change does to tire pressure
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If you have tire questions, check out Roger’s Blog as well as his posts on RVtravel.com. There are hundreds of posts covering everything to do with tires.
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RVT1227
Good article about balancing motorhome tires, but should also include travel trailers.
Even though you cannot ‘feel’ a trailer out of balance, the constant vibration of an unbalanced tire can do damage to the tire itself, uneven wear, bearing and hub damage and even suspension damage.
Also, as far as air pressure, all the tires on the trailer should have the same or very close pressure, especially on dual axle trailers. Low pressure on one tire will cause it to drag.
Most tire shops will tell you they don’t need balanced.
Bob, I didn’t mean to exclude trailers. “Spin- Balancing” is good for more than just checking “balance” but is good for finding Out-of-Round tires. The example above of my “balancing a cinder block shows that you can have a very out of round tire be in balance. Out of round can effectively give you some serious vibration.
Thank you for the discussion, Roger! Balancing a cinder block is both an amusing and instructive demonstration. Thank you, have a great day, and safe travels!