Balance those wheels!

I took both wheels off my 2004 3124KS yesterday and carried them in for balancing today. I was promted to do this when installing a lift kit yesterday and noticed that the door side tire was very low. Turns out the valve stem was bad. The street side stem was replaced a few months ago. I went ahead and took both wheels off and had high pressure valve stems installed ($3/each). Not sure why the factory doesn't provide this. One wheel took 4.5 ounces and the other 2.5. I'm very happy that I had this done before leaving on a four week trip out west in early August. If you haven't had your wheels balanced, I would strongly recommend it.

Just did the same thing. We purchased our TM used and after reading some of the problems with the stock 14" tires, I opted to do as much as I could. Took all three to the local store and had them inspect and put new stems on as the old ones were cracked. One of the tires was delaminating on the inside so I had them toss it. The others appeared in very good condition. I was surprised to see that not one of the three tires had any weight on them at all prior to taking them to the shop. Is this common or did the previous owners just not have the tires balanced?

Originally Posted by FightinIrish

Is this common or did the previous owners just not have the tires balanced?

In my business observations and experience, most trailer manufacturers (whether utility, camper, boat, etc.) DO NOT balance the tires. A majority of the manufacturers just buy the tire/wheels as assemblies either from a tire distributor or manufacturer. They will just bolt the tire/wheel assembly onto their trailer. These trailer manufacturers most likely will never own tire mounting/balancing equipment.

[jumpstreet]

Since tires is your business, do recomend TM owners have thier tires balanced even though this may not be the norm? Are yours balanced?

Posted by us recently on another forum:

Bill (Moderator) mentioned this (wheel balancing) to us and we clarified it with Ed Lytle (TM Service Manager):

Wheel balancing issues are rare, but they do occcasionally occur with very unhappy results. Ed Lytle confirmed that TM does not balance the tires at the factory, but MOST IMPORTANTLY if your TM is damaged by vibration cuased by out-of-balance wheels, IT IS NOT COVERED BY THE WARRANTY and recommended having the wheels balanced if you live a long way from the dealer (164 miles in our case).

As we prepare to take delivery of our new 3326 King, I brought up this issue with our dealer. They said that wheel balancing is not part of the PDI (pre-delivery inspection). Not only that this dealer said they don't even have a spin balancer. They did, however, say that they would charge us 1/2 hour of shop labor to drive the TM to their tire shop and have all 5 wheels balanced. We would also pay the tire balancing invoice w/no markup to the dealer. We felt that was fair.

Small price to pay for some peace of mind on this issue.

w/r,

Shandysplace

Originally Posted by jumpstreet

Since tires is your business, do recomend TM owners have thier tires balanced even though this may not be the norm? Are yours balanced?

I actually learned about the unbalanced tires being a problem here on the trailmanorowners forums after I subscribed. The wise members here had figured this out and were recommending that the tires be balanced before I ever joined up. They made a believer out of me. I totally agree with their assessment and yes, my tires are balanced.

I recommend checking out the tires, tires, tires, forum. We have had some great discussions there.

That probably helps explain the 60mph speed limit too, huh?

[Patriot]

I had my 2007 2720 tires balanced and stems replaced before we went on a 2500 roundtrip from Houston, TX to Cleveland, Ohio last July. It did give me peace-of-mind.

Patriot