Simple question: Do you balance your trailer tires?

Most tire shops and trailer mfg do not balance trailer tires. When you question them I've heard quite a wide range of explanations ranging from the hubs are not balanced so there is no reason to balancing only increases tread life and for occasional use on a trailer you will need to replace the tires for dry rotting and cracking before tread wear is an issue.

Now my logic comes in thinking that one of the bigger selling points to the dynamic tire balancing setups like centramatic and equal powder, etc. is that they reduce the tire temperatures due to reduced sidewall flex when compared with traditional balancing techniques. Since we quite frequently load trailer tires at or near their rated maximum load it would only make sense to attempt to reduce their temperature.

Why do you balance your trailer tires or why do you choose not to balance your trailer tires?

None of my trailers have ballanced tires. Just like you said most of the time the trailer is loaded and you couldn't tell if a tire was out of ballance or not.

I've never had a trailer tire flat spot, but I have had some give a small vibration when the trailer was empty, but not bad enough to do something about.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't think that ballancing trailer tires is going to have a huge effect on the life of the tire.

If I balance the 4 tires on my 7 or 8 thousand pound truck, why would I not balance the 4 tires on my 15k pound trailer.

Especially when my trailer tires aren't exactly cheap.

Would I balance a atv trailer with ballon tires? Probably not....well, maybe.

Never balanced mine. Heck I had never even thought of having them balanced until just now....

The shop where I get my tires, mounts and balances them unless you ask otherwise. For free...


So the quick answer is Yes.

There's no point in balancing trailer tires according to the manufacturer of our trailer, "Load Trail". According to the factory, trailer hubs are not balanced therefore balancing trailer tires would be a waste of time and money. Thats according to the trailer manufacturer.

I balance mine... they are a smaller diameter than the tow rig tires so they're turning quite a few more RPM than the tow rig's tire. At 75mph, my tow rig's tires are spinning at 765rpm and the trailer's tires are spinning at 900rpm. I like to balance anything that's spinning that fast.

There's no point in balancing trailer tires according to the manufacturer of our trailer, "Load Trail". According to the factory, trailer hubs are not balanced therefore balancing trailer tires would be a waste of time and money. Thats according to the trailer manufacturer.

i x2 that. but if it is free sure go a head and do it but if the want 15$ a tire NO

18ft carhauler -yes
46' goose -no
19' RV -yes
M416 military trailer, usually cause I steal the 25's off my other truck that are already balanced when I need to use it :D

:usa:

I have nothing against it, but I've never balanced trailer tires. I've never felt a problem through the hitch, never had a load damaged by shaking, and I've never had tires with uneven wear so whatever bouncy/vibrating I might be subjecting my trailer to is truely negligible. I'll be the first person to run to the balancing machine if I ever think there's a problem though.

I just have them spin the tires on the machine just to see if the tire is way out. If it is. I make them break it down and spin it on the rim.

I love to seeing unloaded trailers running down the road. Two out four tire bouncing. OH fuck!!! Why'd my tires blow after i got a load on it. You bum fuck you broke all the belts in the tire running around with it unloaded bouncing its ass off..:D:flipoff2:

When I was taking them to a tire store and they would do it then sure. But now I change my own tires so no, but I do have access to a balancer it sits about 2 feet away from the tire machine. I figure that the trailer empty is 7800Lbs and I can load 17200lbs on it so with that kind of weight it's pointless.

yes, i have mine balanced. helps reduce wear and tear on the trailer, tires, axles, ect.

a hub not balanced will have little effect on the entire package since it's a relatively small diameter in relation to the tire and wheel.

I balance all of mine, but I can do it for free whenever I want :flipoff2:

I mostly do it to help with any longevity.

I couldn't tell the differencebetwen balanced and not.

I work at a shop that happens to get a lot (A LOT!) of tourist trailer traffic. Most of them request that the tires get balanced (for a fee, of course) mostly because I think it's just ingrained in their minds that that's what you do with tires. I don't think they understand the reasoning. Are my personal trailer tires balanced? No and I could road force them for free if I really wanted to. I just don't see the point. My trailers don't get that many miles so I fall into that dry rot before wear out category.

I've also experimented quite a bit. I don't think the smaller non-braking hubs being out of balance makes a damn bit of difference, but when you get a big 10 or 12 inch drum hub assembly it CERTAINLY makes a difference. Watch sometime. I bet you can put one of your drums up and have it spin down under its own imbalance. I honestly believe the odds are just as good that your out of balance tire is going to offset the drum as your balanced tire is going to reduce the hopping cycle that ultimately kills trailer tires.

I don't have an excuse for not balancing my tires, but I don't have a reason to either in my mind. I've never experienced a tire or bearing failure. Of course I run my tires at the appropriate pressure for the load (yes, less when unloaded) and I maintain my bearings. I do have trailers with bearing buddies, but that's only because I had them sitting on the shelf and didn't have any caps.

*edit* One other thought. How many of you run dampeners on your trailers? I've personally seen VERY few that have them. What good does it do to remove tire oscillations if you're still going to allow spring oscillations? Have you ever looked at the tires on a vehicle that has been run longterm with blown out shocks or struts? It ANNIHILATES the tires, balanced or not.

I have been in or around the tire industry all of my life and I really can't tell you if it helps or not but, I balance and rotate my trailer tires as often as my truck tires. this causes me to have to buy 4 tires at a time instead of 1 axle wearing them out sooner from sliding in turns. Just the way I go not sure if it helps because it seems I tow a lot so new tires about ever 2 to 2 1/2 years for me

I had some major issues with the tires on my trailer, the dealer made it sound like a crime was being commited when I told him "these tires are out of round, and can't be balanced"

I do get all my trailer tires balanced thoug

I have a 20' enclosed trailer and was regularly using it for work, I went through around 3 sets of tires a year, the first two or three sets I made sure to get balanced, after that I didn't get any balanced. As far as I could tell there was no difference in anything either way, towing, tire wear, bearing/hub failure ect.

You guys that dont balance must have iron arsess, I sure can tell at 70 mph if my trailer tires are out.
Balance your tires! I can't believe some of you actually think they shouldn't be.:shaking:

It's not that I think they shouldn't be. It's just that I'm skeptical of the benefits. The drums are unbalanced and the springs are undampened. Even if my tires were all out 2 ounces I really don't think it's going to make a difference. Chances are if it's bouncing it's because I have full pressure in the tires while unloaded and probably should back it down a bit. Like I said, I work in the business and can tell you that trailer tire failures I see are caused by low air pressure and dry rot. I've never replaced a tire with a wear pattern or cord failure that could be attributed to an out of balance condition.

The tires on my tow pig aren't balanced, why would I balance trailer tires? Big rig tires don't get balanced either...
Once they wear in they're fine...

Why do you say trailer hubs are not balanced? My trailer hubs/drums are. Just because you can't feel the trailer shaking thru the hitch doesn't mean they don't need balanced, the only ones who don't balance there trailer tires are cheap arses and ones who don't know any better.
Why bother to balance your truck tires? If it won't hurt the trailer shouldn't hurt the truck.
Top of the line trailers even have shocks on them! Shocks are left off to save money. Ever tow a trailer with shocks? Its worth the upgrade.

I balance mine because I don't like to subject the contents of my trailers to vibration. I am a 58 year old tyre dealer who is very one eyed about some things. ;)

I say the drums aren't balanced because they AREN'T unless you have some super secret source of drums that I don't know about. Ask the manufacturers and they'll tell you the same thing. There are no balance weights welded on the drums like you would see in an automotive application.

You guys can save $40-60 and run unbalanced tires if you want but my trailer gets balanced tires and runs smooth as my truck. If you only pull your trailer around the block who cares but if you put 100ks on it, you want it smooth as can be.

My Dad's boat trailer has balanced tires. He started doing that when he had a tire that shook bad enough to crack the fender mounts after only a few weeks of trailering. One little 13" wheel and tire took 7oz of lead to balance. Now he doesn't have to run around the boat retightening screws and bolts every few weeks. Once a season is enough. He also wears out his trailer tires in 3-4 years.

I didn't balance the tires on my car hauler because there wasn't any sign of serious vibration loaded or unloaded.

-Mike

Vibrations suck mine are balanced and my trailer rolls down the road nice and smooth, even if the hubs aren't balanced like others have said its a small rotating mass/diameter compared to the tire/wheel

My Dad's boat trailer has balanced tires. He started doing that when he had a tire that shook bad enough to crack the fender mounts after only a few weeks of trailering. One little 13" wheel and tire took 7oz of lead to balance. Now he doesn't have to run around the boat retightening screws and bolts every few weeks. Once a season is enough. He also wears out his trailer tires in 3-4 years.

I didn't balance the tires on my car hauler because there wasn't any sign of serious vibration loaded or unloaded.

-Mike

I would have been warrantying that tire out. That is excessive out of round. At the very least I would have spun the tire 180 degrees. Cracking out the banana weights on a 13 inch tire sucks.