Tires on a new 2008 TM

I finally got around to pulling all three tires on our 2008 3124KS and taking them up to have them balanced. Only two of the three could be balanced. The third tire was so messed up they couldn't even balance it.

I took it the tire to the TM dealer and they are investigating what needs to happen to get it taken care of. I'm supposed to call them Monday to see how to resolve and will post a follow-up with the outcome.

My recommendation is to check your tires' balance (as many others on this forum have recommended) before you do too much driving.

Phil

Originally Posted by P and B

The third tire was so messed up they couldn't even balance it.
Phil

Phil, can you expound on what "messed up" means a little more? Was it the tire/wheel requiring too much weight, the wheel being bent, the tire being separated, etc.

Thanks

Bobby,

The tire hadn't separated. It was brand new (maybe 1000miles on it). I'm no tire expert but it appeared that the rim was off. That said, when it was on the balancing machine I observed both vertical and lateral movement and it was substantial. The owner asked the guy if enough weight could be added to compensate and the mechanic said he didn't think so. Since you're in the business, you probably know all that can go wrong. For all I know it was several things. The only thing I know for sure is that the other two balanced fine with a couple of small weights. Wish I could add more but I'm afraid I just had to rely on the mechanic's assessment. I put the two good tires (one of which was the spare btw) on the axel and put the out of round tire in as the spare until I can get some disposition from the dealer. It will be interesting to see how they handle this i.e., whether I get caught in the middle as the "scientist" who has to figure out whether it's the rim or the tire, or whether they just send a new wheel and tire that they know is good.

I read somewhere on the tire forum that someone said TM was now balancing the tires at the factory. We have an early 2008 (bought it last fall) and ours weren't pre-balanced so, if they started doing it, they must have just started. Also, my tires are "D" rated. I know I've read where some folks had the "C" rated versions and changed them to the D's but I don't remember if they were the 14" or 15" wheels.

Phil

Thanks for the answer, Phil. When a tire and/or rim is extremely out of balance, there are several steps that can be undertaken to diagnose if it is the tire, or the rim, or both.

It would require removing the tire from the wheel, and checking the wheel alone. I doubt you would get a busy tire shop to do that, especially since you didn't buy the tires or rims them in the first place.

Sometimes, you can do what is called match-mounting. You determine the heavy/light spots in the tire and rim, then match the heavy spot in one to the light spot in the other. This is very time consuming. Sometimes if you get the heavy spot in a tire mounted to a heavy spot in the wheel, it gets way off balance and requires a lot of weight to compensate.

Some new tires will come from the factory with yellow and red dots on the sidewall, which helps in this process of match mounting when the tire is initially mounted. Some wheels will have a small dimple in it, to help identify the heavy spot for match mounting purposes.

The up and down movement in the wheel interests me. Most of the time, wheels are mounted on a tire balancing machine, using a tapered cone thru the center hub of the wheel. If this center of the wheel isn't machined perfectly round, then your entire wheel will be off-centered on the balancing machine. I have seen burrs and such on the center holes before, which causes everything to off kilt.

They make balancing adaptors that mount the wheel to the balancer using the stud holes in the wheel (just like you will have it mounted on your trailer). Here again, this is a time consuming process and many tire shops wont have this adaptor. That one adaptor costs over a grand.

Let us know what the outcome of this matter is, or if there is a different second opinion from anyone.

Thanks

Bobby,

I will surely let everyone know what happens but I doubt we'll know exactly what the problem is with the wheel/tire since I'm guessing it will just get replaced. I'm also anticipating that I'll have to get rid of the old one ;-(

Phil

Looks like TM is shipping me a new wheel. The dealer made it a point to tell me that they were doing the balancing so the rumor that TM is now balancing them appears to be true. That's good since it took me several hours to pull the tires, drive them to the tire place, have them balanced and return to remount them. This will be a nice time saver for future TM owners.

The dealer said that TM told them that I'm only the second person to have a funky tire/wheel. I don't think we'll find out what's wrong but they are going to take it back- possibly to do some forensics on it.

Other than having to deal with the whole thing in the first place, it looks like I'll end up with three good wheels anyway.

Phil