alpine003

almost this time around too

KNS

I didn't notice the date either... The original post is over four years old.

Sneaky Pete

This timing is about right......and 2 years later this pops up again. I just had my wife's done a few weeks ago at Tire Barn. $15 / each. Can we wait another 2 years for the next update?

jordanturbo

Do you know what road force balancing is? The reason that most places will charge more for roadforce balancing is that the tire has to be mounted and dismounted twice. tire and wheel combination can be mounted and balanced in a single go.

To roadforce balance you mount and inflate the tire, then run it on the balancer the first it will tell you not only where the balance is out like normal balancing, but it will tell you how to optimally mount the tire onto the rim to compensate not only for balance, but also for the wheels being ovaled damaged or out of true. Once you have this info, you have to dismount the tire again and remount it on the rim where the balancer told you before rebalancing it a second time, this time adding weights

My shop charges $30 to mount and balance any passenger car or minivan tire, $35 to mount and balance any larger SUV or Truck tire, and $50 to Roadforce Balance

I will mount and balance to a standard that will satisfy 99% of consumers for one price, if someone wants me to do the job twice, yes I will charge them more.

Byprodriver

There is no need to remove the tire again, simply deflate the tire, knock the bead loose & spin the tire on the wheel to the optimum position. Also no need for a RoadForce balancer. All that's needed is basic machines & a trained & non- apathetic "tech". If the tire/wheel combo has excessive up & down "hop" runout, spin the tire 180 degrees on the wheel & rebalance.
Once upon a time tires & wheels came with marks to indicate where to mount the tire to align the high spot with the low spot.

jordanturbo

This is true to an extent, but there are a couple flaws in this.

1) Over half of tires are still marked from the manufacturer, but the problem with this is that they mark the tire in the heavy spot not the high spot, they also assume that the valve stem location is the light spot in the rim. This is fine for static balancing but not so great for dynamic balancing. This is the reason that manufacturers are not marking tires as often.

2) Most tire and rim combinations where roadforce balancing is beneficial are the same combinations where just breaking the beads and spinning the tire is near impossible. Have you tried spinning a run flat tire? what about 90% of tires that have a sidewall profile of 45 or below? It is nearly impossible. Those soft sidewalled, and high sidewall profile tires that are easy to spin on the rim are ones that are affected least by roadforce balancing.

KNS

I am familiar with the proper way to "Roadforce Balance" as in mounting and dismounting, etc. Many shops won't do that but are still selling the "Roadforce" term and simply balancing the tire to a more finite degree.

Balancing isn't rocket science. I had one installer tell me that the majority of consumers will never feel the difference if their tires aren't zeroed out on the machine but they simply leave it at that. It saves them time. Some cars are more sensitive to even the smallest imbalance in a tire and must be zeroed out (as it should be in the first place).

To take it a step further with a car that has vibration issues, the tire and wheel should be "matched" and the only way to do this is mount, check, dismount and remount - as you mentioned.

My original post was that some shops are selling the additional expense but not really "matching" the wheel and tire. My wheels in this case were checked and were perfect in every regard prior to tire mounting.

Byprodriver

There are always exceptions to every rule, thats where properly training techs comes into play. How does properly clocking the tire on the wheel inhibit dynamic balancing? Nothing is perfect but better is better.

RoadForce balancers lead to unskilled users in my experience as a consumer.

jordanturbo

Realistically most vehicles wont feel a wheel out of balance until the total weight is out over 1oz. For many truck tires there is no real point in balancing them perfectly to 0oz, when some of these wheels require 3-6oz per side trying to get it perfectly to 0oz is a waste of time, it will never be felt and trying to organize that much weith on a wheel is a PIA.

My Coats balancer will balance a wheel just as accurately as my Roadforce balancer, but it wont "road force" the wheel, We use both machines to balance and will charge the same, but if someone wants to actually have a road force balancing done we will check it, spin the tire, re balance etc but we will charge additional for it. If the tire is pretty well matched up to begin with we wont charge extra since we aren't spinning it.

If someone is charging for it and not going through the process of spinning the tire and matching up the wheel and rim, just using the roadforce balancer to balance, then yes I agree it is a scam.

When the tire is marked, it calculated the lightest point in the tire, on a single plane, not factoring the difference between inside and outside. This is fine for static balancing (or dynamic on a single plane, which is basically the same thing) as it does not factor in balancing on the front and back side (dual plane). But in dynamic balancing where it measures balance on the front and back side and the tire is not, the whole matching up the dot to the valve stem is not as helpful. It may help a bit with dynamic balancing, but not as much old school static balancing.

I wouldn't say that technology like roadforce balancers lead to unskilled technicians, When I started in tires 12 years ago, I was taught to mount and balance using pry bars and spoons. I learnt how to balance using a bubble balancer. I can line up the dot with the valve, and static it on a bubble balancer, but realistically no matter how hard I work at it, I will always be able to get a more accurate balance when I have a road force balancer, can spin the tire to exactly where it needs to be, and have a laser aligner telling me exactly where to put the weights.

I still have a bubble balancer that everyone knows how to use. I think most decent tire shops that dont hire random kids off the street (aka walmart) will train their techs how to mount and balance using all possible techniques, in case of a loss of power, certain types of rims and tires that aren't compatible with other types of equipment. for example, the Corghi tire machines are excellent tire machines, but you cant mount Ram 20 wheels on it since the center clamp will crush the plastic cover. You have to use a traditional clamping machine, so I make sure I have both styles of machines and that my guys can use both. If someone wants me to use a bubble balancer I will, chances are it will be balanced well enough that the customer wouldn't notice. But realistically it wont be nearly as accurate.

Crossfire190

Sorry guys... didn't mean to stir the pot. I was just hoping to find out the best place to take my car to get new tires mounted at reasonable price. I hesitate to take my 997 wheels to just any shop.

RGrove

Actually, most firestones have road force balancing, and they do it for the regular price. In fact, i think all of them around me only do road force balancing, using hunter equip. I want to sat they charged me abt $20/wheel when i had p zeros mounted in july. Make sure you note any existing damage on the rims with them when you drop it off...

Crossfire190

Thanks RGrove. Will check out Firestone.

pfbz

Tire shops seem to have so much employee churn that getting even a good standard balance and not having your wheels scratched and beaten is a crap-shoot. Even at the reputable places.

There was a great local tire shop around me for many years. The owner did tons of race cars and classic vehicle wheels/tires personally, and always spent the extra time to do it right. Sadly he sold out to the tire chain guys...