Tire balance - Road Force or Traditional

jmitchell418

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2017
Messages
79
Location
Dandridge, TN
Hoping to get some clarity on tire balance techniques. Please bear with me while I give the story:

JEEP:
'02 Sport, 6cyl, 5 spd manual, completely stock, running 31x10.50x15 on stock wheels for the last 4 years I've had it. DD mostly highway, little to no trails to date.

BACKGROUND:
In April, I installed a 2" OME kit. Coils, shocks, steering stabilizer and rear track bar bracket. I drove the Jeep and had driveline vibs. Installed the tranny drop pucks and vibs went away. Reinstalled the 31x10.50s without any changes to alignment and drove for a month. Absolutely no further driveline vibs and never had any steering wheel shimmy at all.

ISSUE:
Last week, I had new 15" pro comp alloy wheels installed with BFG KO2's, 32x11.50s and alignment. Toe was adjusted as expected due to the lift. Reputable 4 wheel supplier with experience in all types of off road installs, especially Jeeps. Spoke at length about proper wheel balance. They get it...or so I thought. Drove home and have steering wheel shimmy at 50mph. Lowered air pressure to 29 all around and test drove again. Same shimmy at 50 mph. At 70 mph (or what my speedo now says is 50 and 70 mph) it feels like I'm driving a jackhammer. Vibes in steering wheel, floorboards, seats, etc. Took it back and the shop rebalanced on different Road Force machine. The balance changed and they corrected. Reinstalled the tires in the same location and I have the same result... Marginal improvement but unacceptable vibes.

They said the front end is tight, lift kit was correctly installed and no drive shaft runout. The shop is working with me to correct the balance issue. But beforehand I'm going to switch the L and R front tires and see if that helps and they want me to remove the OME tranny drop washers and test drive again. They said the drive shaft angle is slightly off but I didn't have vibes before changing tires and I thought the tranny drop pucks were to restore the driveshaft angle to pre-lift condition.

QUESTION(s):
I've read all the posts about the importance of wheel balance and I'm confident that is the issue here. My question is more about HOW tires are balanced.

I'm reading about this Road Force balancer and how it was designed more for low profile tires on larger diameter rims. Could this be causing balance issues in the 32s? Should I just have them spin balanced in a traditional balancer until perfect and see if that corrects the vibes? Is it possible to get to 'perfect' balance in a RF balancer or even a traditional balancer? The only other thing I can think of is having them break the bead and be sure the tire 'high' spot is properly positioned on the wheel's 'low' spot, typically opposite the valve.

Thanks for your insights!

Joe
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I was bored so I did some internet snooping regarding RFB. What I found was mixed reviews. Some say it is great, others say not so great. The common theme was for off road type tires in the 33" range and larger or gnarly tread patterns like mud terrains, it is better to static balance. I know this doesn't help you all that much and it is the internet so take it for what it's worth.

Certainly couldn't hurt to try the static balancing. They could also try to spin them on the wheel 180 degrees. It shouldn't be too difficult to balance the BFG's as they are a quality tire but of course there is a possibility of getting a bad one. I would swap rears to front and try that too.
 
I had a set of Goodyears one time that came out of round. Shook like a washing machine on spin cycle. I had the shop rebalance 3 or 4 times with no change. They ended up finding it, but I don't remember how. It was three out of four tires. You might be able to rotate your spare in, if its new, and see if that helps.
 
I gave up paying extra for Road Force balancing, I never saw better results with it. I get just as good of a balance with a regular tire balancing machine if the tech is good and is allowed to spend enough time to get them perfectly balanced. Not all shops give their tire jocks enough time to do a good enough balance job. I make it a point now to talk personally with the tech who will be doing the job before he starts, to make a personal connection. Then I explain why my Jeep's bigger tires require effort to get them perfectly balanced, that a less than perfect job will cause them to vibrate. Sometimes I offer him a $20 tip if they prove to be perfectly balanced during my test drive.
 
Balancing to zero can take some time, but it's doable if, like Jerry said, the tech is allowed enough time. It can take multiple spins to get it perfect, and sometimes the tire needs broke down from the wheel and rotated. RFB is a waste of money IMO. I've had no better results with RFB vs. traditional balancing.
 
off topic as far as jeep go but for my wifes Acura, she always had a shimmy in steering wheel and regular balancing did not help much but RFB always fixed it.. her car seems to be extra sensitive.
 
off topic as far as jeep go but for my wifes Acura, she always had a shimmy in steering wheel and regular balancing did not help much but RFB always fixed it.. her car seems to be extra sensitive.
I would imagine that your wife's Acura has low (certainly 'lower') profile tires as compared to our TJs. I have read that these low(er) profile tires do respond better to RFB and that's probably why you've had good success with it.

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Balancing to zero can take some time, but it's doable if, like Jerry said, the tech is allowed enough time. It can take multiple spins to get it perfect, and sometimes the tire needs broke down from the wheel and rotated. RFB is a waste of money IMO. I've had no better results with RFB vs. traditional balancing.
Thanks, I'll have to have a good talk with them again. Balancing the second time did marginally improve the ride at 70mph so I'm confident it can be improved more.

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I gave up paying extra for Road Force balancing, I never saw better results with it. I get just as good of a balance with a regular tire balancing machine if the tech is good and is allowed to spend enough time to get them perfectly balanced. Not all shops give their tire jocks enough time to do a good enough balance job. I make it a point now to talk personally with the tech who will be doing the job before he starts, to make a personal connection. Then I explain why my Jeep's bigger tires require effort to get them perfectly balanced, that a less than perfect job will cause them to vibrate. Sometimes I offer him a $20 tip if they prove to be perfectly balanced during my test drive.
Thank you Jerry. Appreciate your advice and insight and the time you take to not only provide your recommendation, but to back it up with fact and experience. What are your thoughts on removing the OME trans drop pucks? They said the alignment of the drive shaft is incorrect and it looks as if the transmission needs to be back in its original location. They said the angle it's at might let the pinion ride up. However, I had driveline vibes after installing the 2" kit and they went away after installing the trans drop pucks. I might try it to appease them but I can't see how changing wheels and tires would affect the angle of the driveshaft. The angle might not be ideal but I can't see it causing the issue I'm having.

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I would imagine that your wife's Acura has low (certainly 'lower') profile tires as compared to our TJs. I have read that these low(er) profile tires do respond better to RFB and that's probably why you've had good success with it.

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you are correct, they are fairly low profile, not to an extreme but much less than the TJ or most passenger cars but have seen lower.
 
I took the Jeep in for a THIRD time to have my new wheels /tires balanced.... Third time's a charm I guess because the 50 mph shimmy and vibes at 70 mph are finally gone! Both front tires were out of balance... 1 oz on the left and 1.5 on the right. Poor attention to detail on the part of the technician I guess.

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I took the Jeep in for a THIRD time to have my new wheels /tires balanced.... Third time's a charm I guess because the 50 mph shimmy and vibes at 70 mph are finally gone! Both front tires were out of balance... 1 oz on the left and 1.5 on the right. Poor attention to detail on the part of the technician I guess.

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Glad they finally got it right.