Do you balance or not balance trailer wheels & tires?

I have our boat stored in our (farmer) neighbor's pole barn and he asked if I could move it so he could get his plow and roller out. He told me that two of the trailer's tires were flat, which I knew, and in bad shape which I also knew. The trailer tires on the left/port side were old recaps and I've been wanting to replace since I got the boat so I ordered four new trailer 6-ply rating trailer specific new tires. Attempted to break the bead of one of them with no luck so I had to resign to having a tire dealer locally change them. Called a dealer in town and they wanted $25 each which included balancing and new valve stems. Didn't want to spend a hundred bucks to change four trailer tires so I was about to head off and find a cheap tire bead breaker for $59 and give that a try, I have changed many a car and truck tire by hand even with small 8" motorcycle tire levers if I could break the beads.

Before I set off for the bead breaker I thought that I would call one more place and a good guy Nate at the tire place in the next town said he would change the trailer tires for $10 each which total was cheaper than the bead breaker and the longer drive over and back from the store that had the breaker for $59. Now this is what I have a question about, Nate said the $10 included R&R of the tires and NEW valve stems but they never balance trailer tires and they don't need to be balanced The wheels on the trailer are alloy wheels not steel and they had balance weights on two of the four?

We're going to tow the boat this year to a public boat launch this year instead of the local Lake Erie marina that we had a dock so now there will be about 15 to 20 miles of 55 MPH highway driving on a 70 MPH speed limit road, What do you think will I have a problem with not having the tires balanced ?? Can I tell from the truck if the trailer tires are out of balance? If we go boating this year it may only add up to 200 to 400 towing miles so even if all of the trailer tires are out of balance would it damage the tires badly? Thanks In Advance (TIA).

Yep, I absolutely would.

Trailer tires seem to always be poorly maintained, the trailer owner will then always complain about always having blowouts.

You should balance every tire.The purpose of balancing a tire is to offset the "heavy" spot in the wheel/tire combo once mounted.If not balanced,everytime that "heavy" spot comes around,I believe it scuffs the road a little more,causing cupping that you sometimes see.I am not sure if they are still doing it,but a few years ago,wheel manufactures would drill the valve stem hole where the low spot was in the wheel (hard to do now with mostly alloy wheels)and the paint mark or later,a sticker,was place on a tire where the high spot was.Match the two up and get a lot better ride and balance.

70MPH with that kind of load and you wonder if the tires should be balanced?

I wouldn't dream of not balancing ANY tire that hits hiway speeds.

I always balance trailer tires. Which is cheaper, $100 to mount and balance now or replace cupped worn tires later. I routinely get 40,000 miles out of my trailer tires. They wear down before they dry rot. This is a car trailer that runs 70 mph for 800-900 miles in a single day loaded.

Don't be cheap! Spend the lousy $100 and get it done right. Not worth all the fuss of running around or wasting time shopping for this or that to do it yourself.

Definitely, absolutely. Even on my little utility trailer.

That boat looks like a SeaRay which I also own.. they are a heavier boat... when it comes to
tires on any of my trailers I never cheap out.. a hundred bucks is cheap.. just think what
can happen if you blow a tire.. and dont run 70 MPH.. I run 55-60 on the E-way.. so what if it
takes 10 minutes more to get there

If you don't balance them and they begin to wear funny and develop hot spots and become unglued at highway speeds, it will bend the c#@p out of the trailer fenders, and at the very least scuff the gel-coat on the boat if not crack it, possibly bend hand rails or break windows on the boat.

If you are just slapping tires on it to move it and let it sit somewhere else, then maybe.

I have used a bumper jack to break the tire loose a number of times. Put the short end of the footplate of the jack as close to the rim as possible and jack the van up. Be sure to take the valve core out of the tire. It helps if you stand on the opposite side of the rim from the jack to keep the rim from titling up.

DO BALANCE! Although, when I used to haul a friends 261/2 foot Sundancer, I was more concerned with the unilug rims I had on my 4x4 Warlock tow vehicle. Thrill seeker I was. Yes, those boats had some weight!

Balance

Better safe than sorry right?

Yes it's a Sea Ray 225 now with a new 5.7 liter motor. I had to move the boat/trailer and needed at least one new tire as it came apart. With the size I needed 215/75-14 there were limited choices so I went with trailer specific 6-ply rating tires and thought I would change them myself but ran into a time crunch as it was supposed to rain again the next day. I have been wanting to get a basic bubble balancer as I've used them in the past with pretty acceptable results so I think I'll do that with $60 I save just getting them changed and not balanced. As you stated I know that I will be towing at the 55-60 speeds as you said for safety reasons and my '85 E350 van has a 4.10 rear (Dana) and a 6.9 liter diesel and is humming up in rpm there anyway

Now do you guys think a bubble balancer will be good enough for "ballpark" balancing 60 mph towing speed trailer tires?

A bubble balance will work fine but make sure you do a nice job.. I have a bubble unit here that I use
and have used on my race car running 152 mph

Yes, I used one for years with no complaints

The reason some guys tell you not to balance trailer tires is because if you can't feel it then it must not be a big deal, the problem is the flex where the truck/trailer meet is going to eliminate a lot of that feel. Do it right, balance em. Bad balance on an empty or light weight trailer can really wear the tires bad.

bubble balance is fine for a narrow low speed tire like a trailer, it is just as good as a static balance with a fancy electronical balancer. Now if you have wide wheels and drive at very high speeds (like a dodge viper wheel) a good dynamic balance job can help smooth things out even more.

My dad been a mechanic since 65. Changed thousands of tires over the years. He bought a new set of wheels and tires for his 18 foot car trailer. It always had a jerk pull to it and bounced a lot. Still did that with the new tires and wheels. For a whim he pulled all 4 of and took them in to the dealership and balanced them. The trailer is a 1994 and been pulled behind lots of different trucks. He put them back on and pulled the trailer empty and then with a load on it. Both times it was like the trailer was not even behind the truck. No jerking,bouncing or anything. I am going to have to get my balloon 5'x8' enclosed trailer done now just to see if it helps.

corey

There is critical missing info from your fathers experience.....how much weight did he have to add to balance the tires/wheels? If a wheel takes an ounce or less it was probably doing ok as is. If one takes much more then yeah......that was a big problem.

Until you balance, you really don’t know.

I have a old (mid to late 1950s ) mechanical all manual labor tire machine and a old bubble balancer that I use to mount and balance all my tires I can on them
The 13.5x32x15 inch rear slicks on my S/P car where done on them, 150.+ MPH so far with no issues, same thing on the 4 new tires I bought and installed on my 24 Ft. Pace enclosed car trailer with Maxxis brand 225x75x15 E rated (2865 Lbs. each) tires.
I can't remember, probably over 20, how many 15 inch trailer tires I've had self destruct on my car trailers that had a lot of tread left on them I now hate 15 inch trailer tires
I've weighed them to make sure that there not over loaded, the most weigt I've seen in my current Pace car trailer was 8650 Lbs.total on both axles, it did add around 300 lbs. on to the truck rear axle but it also moved 150 lbs. off the front axle to the rear the truck weighs right at 7650 Lbs. with me in it with a 1/2 tank of fuel.
I'm now planning on replacing all four tires on my car trailer every four years now, no matter how many miles or how much tread is left on them

Does anyone know or remember how they used to balance OLD VW beetle tires - the 4 lug/stud type without a center hole in the rim? I have an old car trailer from the 70's with rims just like that. The brake drums on the trailer are threaded for the wheel studs, and have centering flanges on them Nowadays, if there was an adapter for a rim like that, it's probably long gone to the scrapyard.

Radial trailer tires need to be balanced if driving more than short distances of 5 miles.
The reason for balancing is not so much to make them "ride" better, but to make them "cooler".
Heat is a tires enemy. Unbalanced radial tires generate heat, which makes them fail prematurely.

Don't forget . . . just because you get a 6 or 8 or 10 ply tire, each has it's own MAX SPEED RATING !! . . . most trailer tires, if they have no speed rating on the sidewall, are only rated for 60mph MAX ! . . .

As for the balance issue, you know what it feels like on your car . . . so why would you not want to have the tires on your trailer balanced also ??? An extra little bit of $$$ up front, to allow you to have less worries, and more miles later . . .

Pulling that boat at 70? My rule is if I'm towing my boat jet skis or trailer it is 60 max, or most often less and in the right lane. Too much can happen and I don't want to kill someone else.

I balanced one of my car trailer tires on a new wheel this afternoon, it took less than three ounces using my old bubble balancer. It has a adapter that has Volkswagen and truck adapter written on a decal on the adapter. I've neve had to uses it as I got rid of my V.W. sand rail years ago and I can't mount my 2006 Ram 3500 17 inch truck tires on my manual machine so I take them up to one of the local tire stores and have them do both mounting and balancing

I own 3 trailers. I always have balanced and road force matched on a machine and did myself so I know done right.
I now use balancing beads instead. If you are any RV forums you will see that these have been used for years, not just trailers but big rigs. The beads work well since trailer tires sit idle so much that they can get flat spotted. The beads compensate well.
I have since used beads on my bias tires on my GTS with great success. Just took my ride out for first time this weekend after all winter. Had the usual shimmy for first mile then all smooth after.

Same theory with put the bad tire on the right rear of your car. It is still unbalanced and shaking.

Nope.

We balance 24.5 trailer tires by putting a hammer on the ground beside the sidewall and give them a spin: if it touches the hammer I adjust the runout with the impact until they run dead straight.

Never had a problem.

the reason you would do the above is best on an open diff. just get that tire "rollin" with lots of smoke, and all will be good !