nyelectrify

Any shops in the ny area?

3boystoys

I remember a lot of shops did this in the 70's then "computer" spin balancing became the norm.

Thetowguy

No one is paying attention. Road force balancing is not better than on car balancing and vice a versa. If anything they should be done in combination. Road force balancing is probably the best way to balance a tire and match the wheel to the tire. This takes care of high spots on the tire and those spots on the wheel as well as variations inthe sidewall. I took Hunter course on this actual machine. On the car balancing though it addresses wheel balancing also addresses and takes into consideration the vehicle's suspension. There are always imperfections in the hub and rotor assembly and or imbalances. This is also true for the rest of the rotating assembly. The imperfections may be in materials or workmanship or it may not be spinning true. No matter how well you balance the wheel and tire I'm the best machine it is not always enough. Of course there is always the issue of maintaining your front end meticulously to avoid having any play in the suspension which can cause vibration on the most perfectly balanced wheel. In closing, neither is better than the other as they address two different issues.

TrackAire

Although balancing the wheel on the car sounds brilliant to match the tire/wheel to the hub/rotor/bearings, what happens when you rotate the tires?

I always thought vehicle manufacturers balance their tires on the car....but everything is new, round and tight to begin with. I'm worried that a substantial amount of weight might be needed to "fix" a front end vibration because of a bad hub or rotating assembly but once you rotate that tire it is going to be way off balance in its new location. Any thoughts or experience regarding this?

Thanks,
George

Vetteman Jack

I remember in the early 70s watching a tire tech balance wheels using something similar. There was an attachment placed on the face of the wheel and he would touch some rings that would somehow tell him how much weight and where the weights should be placed. Never fully understood exactly how it worked, but he could get the tires balanced perfectly.

croghanrt@yahoo.com

There were 4 chrome wheels. One to increase weight, one to subtract weight, one to move the weight left and the last to move the weight right. By gently touching the wheels while the tire was spinning you could move the correct amount of weight to the correct location and all the vibration would suddenly stop. There was a small plastic window that showed the amount and location for the weight. Normally you would put half the weight on each side of the rim to prevent dynamic unbalance. This might seem low tech today but it balanced everything, rim, tire, hub and drum/rotor. Not even the mighty Hunter GSP9700 (today's best) can do that.

Pounder

back in the day the Cadillac Dealer I worked at had one, the front end guy worked in the bays next to me. Had him do all my cars when I was there and I will tell you I thought he was a god, very smooth !!!

f6john

I worked for a tire shop in 1972 that did the spin balance on the car but no strobe light was used. I only tried it a couple of times while there and can't say I really got the hang of it and it took me longer to get it right than the older techs. The shop also had a tire truing machine that blew my mind at the time. People would come in and buy a new set of tires and then we would put them on the machine and start shaving off rubber. One customer who just bought a new 72 Lincoln brought it in and we shaved his tires too, he swore it was the best ride you could get. I,m thinking the equipment was Hunter brand not sure about it though.

TrackAire

Ha, that brings back memories. The old bias ply tires we're the roundest thing back then....tires have come a long way. I remember there was a tire truer that a lot of servicemen use to take their tires to back in the 70's on Travis AFB. Tons of rubber shaved away on a brand new tire but they swore the tire wore longer and was much smoother than before the tire shaving.