I have a stock set of takeoffs and truck rides perfect and they wear perfect. Had an alignment 20,000 miles ago and everyhing was great. I know mud tires are not going to ride as smooth as street tires no question or argument about that. My previous truck had just the KMs on it. It was rough didnt handle as well and the tires were loud but they could be balanced. These you have to have the cover closed on the ash try or change will shake out going over 60. Plus these are not big tires, they are 285's. I dont think there is a cord broke or anything cause when I take it back for balncing it is much better. Also each time I take it back I look at the weights and the placement and they are totally different every time not just adding or removing a weight. Have tried three differnt tire shops as well as to eliminiate some idiot not knowing what is going on. One plus about these tires is they are wearing well even for the shake and man are they awsome in the mud.

 

Sorry to rant.....all I really wanted in my original post was peoples opinion if centramics were a decent product that worked.

 

I own a small tire shop and I have tried the centramatics,equal,balance beads etc.......snake oil!
I just make sure I have round tires and use lead weights.
I've found to get the best balance with my little Hunter is to calibrate the machine to each size tire I balance. If you can see the tire or rim moving vertically or horizontally you will have a vibration wether it's balanced or not.
Mud tires will vibrate....the tread is too agressive to ride smooth.

 

Rick,

I've had 4 sets of 35" mud tires on my Bronco over the past 8 years, never had a problem getting any of them to balance. The Pro Comp Xterrains that are on there now are reasonably smooth at 75 mph, no out of balance issues. I can feel a slight rumble from the tread below 20 mph, but that is from the tread voids. I agree that there will be some vibration from a mud tire, but they should balance and run smooth.

The only tires I ever had major issue with was a set of 285/65R18 BFG All Terrains that I put on my Titan. I swear those tires were square. After remounting and rebalancing several times BFG took them back. I went to a 285/70R17 in the same tire and they were great.

I like the info in this thread, as I've thought about using the centramatics on my last few trucks.

To Pikeman and others, are the problems with stock aluminum wheels, or aftermarket?

 

All stock aluminum wheels here. No aftermarket wheels have ever been on the truck.

 

stock. but thinking about some 20's

 

ever thought about getting them trued? i do all my tires.....you'd probably be surprised to see how many tires that are brand new have to be shaved ever so slightly to get them perfectly round...these pro-comps i have now were pretty good so i'm not getting them done until the first rotation but all of our tires get trued and it makes a WORLD of difference! JMO
hunter

 

Where to you go to get tires trued?

 

my local tire shop that i go to does it.....has a machine kinda like a lathe so to speak that trims off a fraction of an inch to assure that the tires are perfectly round... makes a world of difference. In my fathers truck it would vibrate pretty bad...now you could set a glass of water on the dash haha you should look into it....at least maybe call around and see if anyone does it...JMO

 

Shaving is night and day differance. Your problems will go away. I won't have another tire without shaving it. It works!!!!!!!

 

I used the Centramatics on my travel trailer. Like many other TT owners, we'd tried "Road Force" balancing (HUNTER GSP-9700 machine), installed new shocks, had alignments done; swapped brake drums; had the running gear balanced as a set, etc.

The Centramatics were seen as being the final piece. My wife left a paper cup half full of tea before a 450-mile dayon a shelf above the bed. It was still in the same place, unspilled, after unhitching.

Before I had done any work -- including new tires -- the exact same trip found our clothes/hangers jumped off the closet rods, secured drawers and cabinets opened and spilled, etc.

Painstaking work paid off. I'd use them again in a heartbeat, and many Owner-Operators would tell you the same thing.

The Balance Masters look quite nice, and the claims even better, but the price is steep. I'd still like to try them, as well as the driveshaft balancer.

Too bad they don't make the balancer in our engine vibration damper size as they do for the big motors. Bruce Mallinson at PITTSBURGH POWER is happy to sell them to the big truck crowd.