Yipee we balanced the tires...

[countrygirl]

It really was not hard to do...took very little time to remove take to Tire Kingdom and then reinstall. Tire Kingdom charged us a whopping $ 0.00 to balance them. (We are very regular customers with a lot of rolling stock) It is nice to have done this and know it is not that hard.

I had been meaning to do this...but the deciding factor was a post of Leon's that said...your toilet paper would unroll if your tires were not balanced. Our roll of toilet paper did this on one occasion

[Freedom]

Flatten the roll just a little bit and it won't unroll.

[countrygirl]

One reason it went so fast was that I used my new aluminum 3 ton floor jack from Costco:

http://tinyurl.com/2fcs9y

This made it very easy for me to jack the camper up so that Tom set the jackstands in place.

We also used a 12volt impact wrench from harbor freight. The lug nuts were on really tight...it was as though the studs were coated with tar. We thought maybe they were stripped by whoever put them on but they were not stripped. We had the tires balanced and when we installed them we put white lithium grease on the studs and it was much easier to the the nuts back on. We finished up with our torque wrench at the required 90-95 lbs.

We were amazed at how out of balance the tires must have been...because of the size of the wheel weights that they had to install. We always thought the TM pulled very smoothly and look forward to seeing how it pulls now.

[wmtire]

when we installed them we put white lithium grease on the studs and it was much easier to the the nuts back on. We finished up with our torque wrench at the required 90-95 lbs.


Sounds like you did a great job, Countrygirl. I really like the jack from Costco.

I'm just curious about using the grease on the wheel studs. We were always instructed NOT to use any kind of lubricants, etc. on wheel studs-- as that would give you a false torque reading. Some of our torque charts have this printed on them.

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=107

http://www.autocarepronews.com/default.aspx?type=art&id=85043&

http://www.harscotrack.com/bulletins/01-005.pdf

[countrygirl]

We use the grease because the studs and back of the rims were already starting to rust and Tom said he would rather re-toque the the lug nuts than to have them rust on and be tough to take off in the event of a flat on the side of the road.
We park th TM on our driveway so it should not be a problem. Thanks for the links; that's good info.

[Freedom]

In mechanics school and in the Air Force schools we were always told,"NEVER LUBE LUG NUTS OR STUDS!" Ask Bill & Lisa what it's like when a wheel falls off.

[countrygirl]

I plan to take them off and clean everything with greased lightening...and then reinstall. This time I might take some pics and also time us...ya know like in the movie the Christmas Story. Glad I posted that we did that...now we know to fix it.

[wmtire]

I plan to take them off and clean everything with greased lightening...and then reinstall. This time I might take some pics and also time us...ya know like in the movie the Christmas Story. Glad I posted that we did that...now we know to fix it.

Sharing information and knowledge is what it's all about. I wouldn't have known about the jack, without reading your post.

BTW, Guido (in the movie "Cars") is the one to beat for pit-stop time. He's my idol. ;)

[countrygirl]

Hey WMtire...would it be better to soak the lug nuts in gasoline and then take a brush to them? Can we do that to the posts and other metal?

[wmtire]

Hey WMtire...would it be better to soak the lug nuts in gasoline and then take a brush to them? Can we do that to the posts and other metal?

Personally, if it was mine, I would just take a rag and wipe off all the grease I could from the studs and lug nuts. I would then spray them down with some degreaser, and then rinse them off with the water hose. After everything dried, if it all looked fairly good, I'd torque it all back down and not give it another thought.

Professionally, I can't suggest something like that because of the envrionmental regulations we labor under about getting grease/oil/gasoline on the ground or water drains. :rolleyes:

[countrygirl]

Well it did not take long...we waited for a while because it was drizzling rain...then we decided to take care of it...

We cleaned the posts, and the brake drum area and lug nuts as well as inside the holes on the rim (where the posts go) first with greased lightening then with gasoline and then with greased lightening again. We got it all off.

[countrygirl]

Ha...I must have been typing as you did...your post made it before mine though...we were careful and did not spill any and had something to catch it if we did...I put the old gas into an old gas can an will drop it off next week for disposal.