Do The Tire/Wheel Combos Need To Be Taken To A Shop To Be Balanced

Question:

Im looking at some wheel and tire packages and in the description they all state... Tire-and-wheel assembly is ideal for stock trailers, utility trailers, and campers and... Assembly meets DOT specifications, but one area of those pages have... Need help with installation? Locate installers near me which make me wonder are these tires actually mounted to the rims and balance which the description leads me to believe, or do I have to take them to a shop and pay additional money to have them mounted to the rims and balanced?

asked by: Potential C

Expert Reply:

Hello again potential customer. So, all of the tire and wheel combos we offer are already mounted on the wheel and are already balanced in the manner that trailer tires are balanced. Every tire and every wheel has a high (heavy) and low (light) spot. The manufacturers offset the high spot on the tire with the low spot on the wheel to balance them. They do not need to balanced beyond that.

That being said, some people will still take them to a shop to have them balanced on a machine. I hear a lot of people say that they feel this helps with safety and ride quality, although it is not necessary in order to use our tire and wheel combos. It purely comes down to your preference. I can tell you that on the trailers that we use here around the shop, we use our tire/wheel combos exactly how they come from the manufacturer and we have not had a need to balance them beyond that.

One thing some people will do is use balancing beads such as part # CA66VR. This is an inexpensive and easy way to add balance to your tires without having to take them to a shop. Again, they are not necessary, but they can certainly be beneficial for extending the life of your tires.

expert reply by: Jesse M