Do you balance your trailer tires?

[Homeby5]

I have 4 new Goodyear 15 inch Endurance coming from Etrailer.com.
The tire shop told me that it is not normal to balance TT tires. They said some customers will request to and pay $20 extra per tire but it's a waste.
What say you?

[Rob_M]

It’s not a waste. Balance them. Vibrations are hard on everything.

$20 extra per tire to balance seems like a lot though.

[Old-Biscuit]

YES I have trailer tires balanced

If it goes round and round at speed it does it better when balanced

[vroom_vroom]

Discount will mount and balance them for less than that

[lanztek]

I took my trailer to Les Schwab 3 years ago to mount 4 tires I bought online. They were the only store in town that would do it and charged me $80/wheel to mount and balance the tires

[Homeby5]

I started reading about it. One article was saying that trailer tires normally are not balanced also. The reasons were:
Lug centric design - requires special adapter
Steel galvanized rims - too much uneven weight on rim
Trailer Bounce which throws weights

Any validity to these points?
Thanks

[whem2fish]

Originally Posted by Rob_M

It’s not a waste. Balance them. Vibrations are hard on everything.

$20 extra per tire to balance seems like a lot though.

$10 maybe

[ratherberv]

Originally Posted by Homeby5

I started reading about it. One article was saying that trailer tires normally are not balanced also. The reasons were:
Lug centric design - requires special adapter
Steel galvanized rims - too much uneven weight on rim
Trailer Bounce which throws weights

Any validity to these points?
Thanks

Most tire shops already have adapters.


If article is referring to added weight being too much, then that means there was too much uneven weight on other side to begin with.


If wheels are out of balance, bounce and shake are worse, which is bad for tire, rim, trailer and even TV to some extent.



Just my nickels worth adjusted for inflation.

[MtCamper]

Yes.

[jrollf]

Yes.

IMHO the "don't need to balance" trailers tires likely comes from the utility trailer world. I get not balancing tires on a trailer carrying mulch, etc all day around a city.

But for a TT with often spendy electronics and other items in it, anything I can do to reduce vibrations and bounce is worth it.

Discount Tire balanced mine when I asked, no push back at all, response was "OK, we'll get it done".

[ShelbyM]

Have it done if you can verify they are using the lug centric adapter. Expect to pay a premium if you bought the tires elsewhere. I'd be interested in hearing opinions as to whether this applies to alloy trailer wheels. Are they hub centric, lug centric, or maybe either way?

[jrollf]

Every tire shop should have adapters for hub centric, their just cones that go in the center of the hub, nothing fancy. Hub centric are more common than people think.

My 1993 F350 dually has hub centric wheels, If I recall correctly Ford used them till the early 2000's

[jleonard]

Another YES get them balanced.
And 3 months ago I had trailer tires mounted and balanced at a local Good Year store for $19.95 each.
They removed the 4 damaged tires and mounted and balanced 4 new ones including replacing the stems (they charged $3 each for the stems).

[Punkinhead]

I never used to until I bought new tires a couple years ago for my enclosed trailer. It bounced quite a bit until I had the tires balanced. Then I bought a smaller utility trailer and I could feel the bounce and vibration in the truck until I had the tires balanced. It's one thing to deal with that if you're only driving across town to buy some lumber, but it's really annoying if you're traveling any distance. I don't have a TT, but I'd certainly balance the tires if I did just to protect the electronics & appliances and keep it from rattling itself apart.