Road Force Balancing experience?

Good to know. If that ends up being the case I’ll contact them right away

 

First off, an alignment isn’t going to change or fix anything related to this and if everything is in good shape, you don’t need a new alignment to go with your tires. I personally don’t like to touch the alignment at all because I think most alignment racks are not maintained properly or kept calibrated as much as they should be.

I don’t believe in road force balancing either. To date, any set of tires I had that had shakes, still had shakes after multiple rebalancings and even road force balancing. If I have that many problems getting them to roll smooth, I give up and switch to something else. If they are that bad then you either have bad wheels or bad tires, I would try different tires first. I find that when I have the techs keep trying to balance tires that they didn’t get right the first time, it’s usually a lost cause and just keeps wasting my time.

 

most tire shops employee techs who will ultimately inspire new warning labels.

Make sure the shop you are bringing the truck to, has skilled, capable, and motivated techs who actually want to do the job right.

Road Force Balancing is great to optimize a tire/wheel assembly or to diagnose a bad wheel or tire and give you demonstrable evidence to support a warranty claim with the tire or wheel's manufacturer, But it won't make a Lazy tech motivated, a dumb one smart, or take an idiot and make him an expert.

 

Yeah I’m taking it to a pretty highly rated place here in town. Not saying it’s nascar pit crew techs but probablyyy a little better than the fellas stuck working Sundays at NTB who don’t want to be there in the least.

 

FWIW, I had new Wildpeak A/T4Ws put on recently at Discount Tire and they road force balanced at no additional cost without asking.

Rides and drives butter smooth. Super happy with the service!

 

Alright road force balance done. Regardless of its effectiveness it wasn’t much more so had them do it. The road force numbers looked good. All under 20. Now what really worked I think was someone that knew what they were doing. Allll of the tires were wayyyy out of balance from NTB yesterday. They got them dialed in better. Got her up to 70 once on the way home and very minimal shake if any. Still getting used to the tires but nothing like this morning where my redbull was shaking out of the can. Also had them check the lugs and torque to exact spec. Initial results seem
Very positive!

 

Like I said, it all depends o the person doing the work. Discount Tires offers free rotation and force balance for the life of the tires if you buy from them.

 

^^^ this ^^^ wheels have been balanced correctly a longtime before road force was around

 

put the spare on where that one with all the weights is and drive it

 

I had a set of (4) snows that my local shop installed - mounted & spun balanced. But once on the road I experienced a subtle vibration in the drive train and a bit of a wobble in the steering wheel. Tried again with the same balancer - N.G. Had all (4) road-force balanced and it all went away. For my Taco it proved worthwhile.

 

Yes. Wheels cannot be exact copies otherwise they violate copyright. I think there has to be a 20% difference. Also could violate a patent if the OEM uses their own design on the seating area for their lug nuts. This is where you have to rely on the wheel manufacture to tell you what lug nuts to use.

 

Did some research. I had the right ones. Had the fellas at the shop verify for me though haha

 

It never hurts to double check! That is one less source of your problems.

 

This is what my local incompetent major brand shop did when I switched my tires out. After I drove it and thought the truck was going to fall apart I saw this and I asked for a refund. Next local shop fixed it without issue.

 

Tire installation is a crucial part of our vehicles safety and this is an example of why there should be a law in place that requires technicians to be trained and certified. Like everything else the cost would increase but I think most would pay up to have there tires installed correctly.

The tire center that did this should be fined and management put on probation!

 

Yup. I contacted the corporate office and they issued the refund directly to me once I showed them the pictures, no hassle.

 

Yes sir. Always like to have someone check behind me haha

 

Pretty much exactly what happened to me. I hate that the first shop fucked it up (NTB) but it’s resolved now.

 

I agree with all of what you said. I literally was slightly frightened driving on the interstate the day after they messed my stuff up. Can’t explain how mad I was thinking about them carelessly balancing them and messing them up. Thank goodness it’s resolved and safe and smooth now.

 

Oh dear god that is bad. You have 2 pounds of weight in one spot. That should have told the tech there was something wrong.