Balance Your RV Trailer Tires?

Pssst! Wanta stir up a controversy at your next fireside gathering? Ask your fellow fifth-wheeler if he's balanced his trailer tires. It's almost like asking what your favorite holding tank chemical is.

If informal polling holds true, the majority of fifth-wheel folks probably don't balance their tires. Their arguments against it? Many have never thought about doing it. Others say their dealer never recommended it. Some don't think the expense is necessary. How about it?

We called in the official industry spokes-folks about it: Wilson Beach, a director with the Tire Industry Association, the group recognized as representing tire makers and maintainers. In a previous life Beach was a tire shop owner. His first reaction to the question: 'To balance or not to balance' was a question: Have you ever driven down the turnpike and watched a vehicle with an unbalanced tire? "The tire can bounce so hard it can actually leave the pavement," says Wilson Beach.

In Beach's view, a balanced tire is one that runs cooler, smoother, and will be one that has a far greater lifetime than an unbalanced one. "It's money in the bank," Beach told Fifth Wheelin'. But are all tire shops ready to balance your fiver's 'rubber donuts'? That depends. Some trailer wheels are not designed like the typical car or truck wheel, with a nice round hole in the center for the bearing cap to protrude from. If your wheels don't have a center hole, some shops won't be able to balance them unless they have an adapter that uses the lug holes to hook up.

That lead to an interesting point: Beach says that in reality, the truest "center point" of any wheel is not the center hole, but rather, the center indicated by the lug holes. To get a truer wheel balance, it's best to go to a shop that uses an adapter and balances wheels based on the lug holes.

Photo: tigerplish on flickr.com

Carlisle Tires and Fifth Wheels

A good friend of ours bought a brand new fifth wheel from an Arizona dealer. Before he could get the beast come to California, he'd blown two tires. Another one went shortly after that, and to say he had the "heebeejeebies" about the matter is an understatement. The tires were Carlisle branded, and he contacted the company about them. They replaced his tires at no charge, and it wasn't long afterward, one or two of the new ones "blew." The company had the tires inspected, and apparently it wasn't a case of "owner overload." He finally gave it up and went to another brand.

A writer on a fifth wheel forum faces an interesting dilemma: He wants to stick with 15" tires on his RV (after hearing that others have swapped out to 16") and wonders about Carlisles. Got any experiences you'd like to share? Or check out the comments other readers have made regarding fifth wheel tire experiences from the Big C company. Visit the post on the RV Travel Forum.

Photo courtesy mlovitt on flickr.com

5th Wheel RVers Spin Test Your Wheels!

RVers who have 5th wheel trailers may want to consider spin testing their wheels while on the axle. Richard & Joan Walter from DeBary, Florida have a 5th wheel and performed the spin test today. They backed the 5th wheel onto a heavy duty plastic ramp in order to suspend one tire at a time for the spin test. It's recommended that you suspend one wheel at a time and manually spin it to check for rotational deviation. One way to do this is to tape a straight edge to the wheel skirt in close proximity to the tire and spin the tire. The stationary straight edge will give you an eyeball evaluation of how straight your wheels are tracking. Richard says that if the wobble is more than one half inch off then you will need to have a shop realign your wheel. Most of the time, you can just spin the tire by hand and eyeball it to see if it’s true. When your wheels are tracking straight, you’ll get better tread life and your wheel bearings will last longer. Jim Twamley