Newbies don't forget to balance your tires

Sharon_is_SAM

I think that a lot of people are not aware that the 3 T@B tires with a new purchase are NOT balanced.  I find it strange that this is not done at the factory and as a result we hear stories of uneven tire wear early in the life of the tire.   Tires on a newly purchased vehicle come balanced, right?  In addition, I will bet the dealers do not know/consider/share this info.  It would be helpful if nuCamp included a note in the manual regarding the need to balance.  Is there any info in the manual?  Moderators:  have they started balancing at the factory?

I read the RV Travel newsletter and I wanted to share some info here from Wilson Beach -  a Director of the Tire Industry Association:

"In Beach’s view, a balanced tire is one that runs cooler and smoother, and will have a far greater lifetime than an unbalanced one. “It’s money in the bank,” Beach told us. But are all tire shops ready to balance your trailer’s  “rubber donuts”? That depends. Some trailer wheels are not designed like the typical car or truck wheel, with a nice round hole in the center for the bearing cap to protrude from. If your wheels don’t have a center hole, some shops won’t be able to balance them unless they have an adapter that uses the lug holes to hook up.

That lead to an interesting point: Beach says that in reality, the truest “center point” of any wheel is not the center hole, but rather the center indicated by the lug holes. To get a truer wheel balance, it’s best to go to a shop that uses an adapter and balances wheels based on the lug holes."

So, I think the T@B tires have a center hole and balancing should be straight forward.  Newbies just need to remember to ask the dealer to perform this or have it done upon taking ownership.  We included balancing on all 3 tires on our purchase agreement.

Sharon

Cyclonic

Trailer tires can be balanced but it is not common practice to do so as they tend to bounce around a lot more and knock the balancing weights off the rims.

That said, I do have my trailer tires balanced and have not had a problem with losing the weights.  I due have a problem with excessive wear on the driver side tire, but I think this is due to the position of the water tank on that side and the off balance nature of that positioning.