Road force balancing (1 Viewer)

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Feb 28, 2016
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I’m going to get my tires road force balanced. Road force balancing is we’re they put weight on the tire and look for uneven sidewall and various other things. To those who’ve done road force balancing what should I expect? This is gonna be my first time.
 
Expect the worst, hope for the best. ;)
It also tells you how much runout in your wheels/tires.
Road force is really mostly useful if you can't otherwise find vibrations
 
Expect to pay more than a standard spin balance. Make sure its at a good shop with a nice machine. It really is sort of a last ditch effort, but FJs dont like heavy tires much so it can work. Has for me before. In the long run they were just bad tires.
 
Instead - do what actually works: have them do the normal Toyota prescribed "Precision Balance" - which is a LUG CENTRIC balance (which works 75% of the time) rather than the CONE centric balance (which fails 99.97% of the time).

Or - find someone that knows how to use a balancer, how to set the wheel on the balancer, and will do a 1/4 ounce or better balance.

Then, once the balance is done, do not let them mount the wheels IF there are weights on the rim that are 180 degrees apart as that is 100% proof they screwed up.
 
Finding a shop with the proper cone is step one. Most don't have lug centric machines.

Most shops have a range of cones adaptable to most wheels but yes not many have lug centric adapters. I use the lug centric adapters at my job (not in replacement tire industry).

here is what I use.

093B1BCF-9036-42F8-A7D0-435379BC6598.jpeg
 
My last tire balance fiasco: And this weight group was after they said my stock tires were defective and replaced them for free. But several attempts to get the new tires balanced, I finally got luck and the service manager at a Toy shop had a great tire mechanic. That was 5 years ago and the tires are just now starting to feel like they need a slight weight adjustment.

IMG_4907.JPG

You can see the many ounces of weight on opposite sides of the wheel. A sure sign the wheel was not held plumb/perpendicular to the balancer shaft. All four of the "new" tires had this: driving was so much funnn nNN n n NNN nn n nNNNDDNn nnDN n n NDN Nn.

After a "good" mechanic did the balance, there is maybe 1/2 ounce total on each wheel.
 
Most tire guys are just slamming work. There's actually skills involved in balancing.
Cone balancing is fine most of the time.
Random things require adapters.
Most balances are bad because the tech does not care.
I used to work with guys who would never end check their spin. Guy sent an audi out with tires ALL balanced 180° out..... Just lazy bulkshyt.
 
Discount Tire guys NEVER check their spin.

People like to sing praises about Discount Tire all the time and they are a great company to buy tires from but training of their employees can be a hit or miss depending on which store you go to.....but no matter what the "tire techs" or whatever they are called now never check if their spins zero out. They get pressured to be quick so a lot of corners tend to get cut.
 

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