Tire Opinions

rberq wrote:

europachris wrote:... he spent a lot of time getting the road force and balance right.

I understand balance. But what is road force?

Road force is where the tire is chcoked up on a special balancer that has a roller arm that applies pressure to the tire. Then the tire spins and sensors measure the movement and forces of the tire. The machine will display a number in lbs, if it is to high you pull to other measuring arms down and this will measure the rim. It will then calculate where you should rotate the tire on the wheel for the best possible balance. The idea that two imperfect surfaces can make a better one. It does a good job with getting rid of vibrations. If you have had tires balanced time and time again and still have a problem, they may just need to be road forced.

That is why I recommended the michelins to the op, cause they typically have the lowest road force right off the bat no need to do anything but balance. They also seem to stay round through the life of the tire. I see it at the shop car comes in with a vibration and you spin the wheels on the car and look at them and they look like an egg going round. no amount of balance or road force will fix that.

I've balanced tires on bubble balancers & never had a problem. Sounds like a definite 5-figure balancer ... then the shop can charge $20 per tire instead of $5. To each his own, I guess.

SMITTY wrote:I've balanced tires on bubble balancers & never had a problem. Sounds like a definite 5-figure balancer ... then the shop can charge $20 per tire instead of $5. To each his own, I guess.

I think it is actually over $10K. It is nice for body shops cause the machine will give a print out if a wheel is bent or there is a bad tire. So it is nice to go to the insurance co with a paper saying a wheel is slightly bent, so there are no hassels.

Smitty you are right you can use a bubble balancer, and it will work. What we run into is newer and newer cars with aluminum control arms, aluminum brake calipers and more all add up to less unsprung weight. Couple that with 18+ inch wheels and you got a recipe for vibration if you aren't smack dab on. Your older cars, older pick up with 15-16" wheels no problems, lots of weight to dampen vibrations from a less than perfect balance.

Ah .... I see how that would be valuable in a collision center. Makes sense.

They're definitely lightening (or cheaping out on ...) chassis components more & more every year ... so that makes sense too.

They have balancer where I work that with a little goffing around will tell you to break the beads and rotate the tire so many degrees to minimize the amount of wieght needed to balance them, I never use it, maybe if a trooper car had trouble or somthing but not the run of the mill pickups.

I've seen the balancers with the roller that rides on the tire, man it's getting compluicated.

Oh and by the way, 'You just need one stud,..... Behind the Wheel.'

SMITTY wrote:They're definitely lightening (or cheaping out on) chassis components more & more every year ...

True. My Civic is 13 years old, with 230K miles, and has not yet needed any work on suspension or steering components. My mechanic says if it were 5 or 6 years newer it would have needed at least bushings and ball joints by now because everything front and rear is smaller and less rugged.

GAW:
I was a mechanic and tire guy to help pay for college...IMO with tires you get what you pay for. I had Nitto Terra Graplers (diggers but wore terribly)...I had BFG All Terrain TA and 56,000 miles out of them (on road off road use of them with some towing Chevy 2500 HD)...I now have Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac. Seems fine so far. The tire is a straight up digger i know that. I wont buy Michelan because they backed the Brady Bill and gun ban stuff...Continental is ok I guess, never bught them. My one piece of advice (unless you have a buddy where you get deals others cant) I would buy tires on line at www.discounttiredirect.com They have good deals, usually free shipping, and I got a deal buy 3 get 4th free. Plus I paid an extra $100 for an unquestioned tire replacement warranty (used once when a tire got a huge hole in it)..they sent a new tire all I paid was shipping.

I hop this helps

I didn't know that about Michelin ....... now I don't know whether to be pissed, or sick to my stomach ...

Had I known that, I never would have sent a dime to that company.

robb wrote:GAW: I wont buy Michelan because they backed the Brady Bill and gun ban stuff...

Please back this up with some facts or send it to the urban legends forum. We all don't have 5 generations of Lifetime NRA magazines stacked up to search through. I won't buy any products with salt because of Morton owns Thiokol and they make missiles that kill innocent people and rare alboino frogs blah blah blah.