Heartland Not Balancing Tires

[Birchwood]

I recently removed the tires from my 2 year old Landmark and found
they were not balanced.The drive train on the trailer is probably the
most important part of the entire unit.Unbalanced tires could lead to
tire and axle failure .BUYER BEWARE!

 

[cookie]

I could be wrong, but I don't think any RV manufacturer balance the tires. They get the tires already mounted on wheels from a supplier and just mount them on your coach.
You haven't looked at your tires in two years?
Thanks for pointing this out as I am sure there are many owners that have not had their tires and wheels balanced.

Peace
Dave

 

[jnbhobe]

Two years of not checking tires, brakes, adjustment, or bearings on a new rig. Wow you are lucky!!! As Dave said, I don't know of any trailer manufacturer that balances new tires and wheels on a new unit.

 

[ccupton]

That was the first thing i did when i picked up my new rig. I also had nitrigen put in them and new metal valve stems before they balanced them. I purchased road hazard coverge also from America's tire.

 

[GOTTOYS]

I recently removed the tires from my 2 year old Landmark and found
they were not balanced.The drive train on the trailer is probably the
most important part of the entire unit.Unbalanced tires could lead to
tire and axle failure .BUYER BEWARE!

I don't think any trailer manufacturer balances the wheels. Probably a lot more of them running around unbalanced than balanced. Not a bad idea to do it. Can't see how not being balanced can damage axles in any possible way. The only damage it will do to tires is they can start cupping or wearing erratically around the edges...JMHO..Don

 

[Sandpirate69]

I'm not a tire expert by any means, but if you drop a weight on your truck tire you will experience some type of vibration. So i'm going to assume (there's that great word) that if all 4 tires & wheels are not balanced, the wheels would transfer that vibration onto the frame & then up to the RV structure. Once again, i'm not an engineer or tire expert, just another member looking for a smooth ride to my next shady spot.

 

[Nabo]

We also have our tires rotated and balanced, metal stems and nitrogen put in every new coach we have gotten and re-checked yearly thereafter. It's surprising what a difference it makes traveling.

 

[Birchwood]

I have always had the dealer do the brake inspection bearing check but decided to save a few
bucks this year and do it myself .Can't believe they weren't balanced by Heartland.No wonder
so many people are having wheel bearing failures.My bearings probably should all be replaced.

 

[jnbhobe]

I have always had the dealer do the brake inspection bearing check but decided to save a few
bucks this year and do it myself .Can't believe they weren't balanced by Heartland.No wonder
so many people are having wheel bearing failures.My bearings probably should all be replaced.

When you pull it apart you can check the bearings, they may be fine, just make sure you replace the seals with quality ones. At the same time you will be able to take your wheels to a quality shop to have them balanced.

 

[lwmcguir]

I would highly recommend DynaBeads or somthing similar for trailer tires. As far as rotating them, if you need the exercise then go ahead. Unless you have some wear patterns there is nothing to be gained. I have G614's on stock trailers that are over 10 years old with the same air and in the same position that they were installed in. Never an issue. I do beleive the trailer tires should be balanced however no matter what size they are.

 

[Bob&Patty]

Is tire balancing really needed. Well maybe. I did have mine balanced when I installed the G614's. There is something here that needs to stated. If your trailer axles have a combined weight of...lets say...12K like mine does. Then divide that by 4....so thats 3K per tire. Do you think that a tire with 3K weight on it is going to bounce high enough to cause cupping or damage to the suspension or wheel bearing's?? Probably not. Besides, these trailers are on "I" beam axles not independed suspension. Most cars do not weight that much anymore and they have 4 tires. Tire shake is relative to tire speed (RPM's). A tire on a Honda Civic spins 2 times as fast as a G614. So you bet that Honda needs the tires balanced.

If your going to trash HL for not doing it....then you need to trash all the other RV manufacturers also because none of them do.

 

[Birchwood]

Bob&Patty

Maybe Heartland will comment on this issue as seems most experienced owners balance their tires.Its ok RV manufacturers
don't balance their tires because (maybe) most owners are sitters??? I am just asking manufactures to make novice RV owners
(like myself) aware that their RV tires ARE NOT BALANCED and damage could occur to axles,bearings and tires.The 614 tires are
almost $400 CDN each and I need to replace two so far.I did manage to get one under goodwill warranty with Goodyear an it only
cost me $161.

 

[rick_debbie_gallant]

First thing I did when I bought the 3670 was to get the tires balanced. One tire took 21 ounces of weight. Now that is out of balance!

 

[GOTTOYS]

Is tire balancing really needed. Well maybe. I did have mine balanced when I installed the G614's. There is something here that needs to stated. If your trailer axles have a combined weight of...lets say...12K like mine does. Then divide that by 4....so thats 3K per tire. Do you think that a tire with 3K weight on it is going to bounce high enough to cause cupping or damage to the suspension or wheel bearing's?? Probably not. Besides, these trailers are on "I" beam axles not independed suspension. Most cars do not weight that much anymore and they have 4 tires. Tire shake is relative to tire speed (RPM's). A tire on a Honda Civic spins 2 times as fast as a G614. So you bet that Honda needs the tires balanced.

If your going to trash HL for not doing it....then you need to trash all the other RV manufacturers also because none of them do.

X2.... Couldn't agree more!...All this talk about damaging axles, shaking the frame apart...In my opinion..ALL NONSENSE! I had mine balanced when I replaced the junk tires it came with only because it was part of the package. I'll bet there is no way you can tell the difference. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do, but it's nowhere near as important as some of you are trying to make it sound....JMHO...Don

 

[rick_debbie_gallant]

X2.... Couldn't agree more!...All this talk about damaging axles, shaking the frame apart...In my opinion..ALL NONSENSE! I had mine balanced when I replaced the junk tires it came with only because it was part of the package. I'll bet there is no way you can tell the difference. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do, but it's nowhere near as important as some of you are trying to make it sound....JMHO...Don

Y'all may want to read the link about balancing your trailer tires. A balanced tire is just as important as having the proper air pressure, balanced load, fifth wheel hitch, etc.. etc..

to help make my point: Have you ever watched a washing machine walk across the floor because the load is not balanced? How about a ceiling fan that is out of balance? Yes they make lead weights to balance fans. Okay, how about a lawn mower blade that is out of balance? Those things are balanced also. For the few bucks it costs to balance my tires I will do it in a heart beat. "and that's all I got to say 'bout that".. Peace. Out
http://rvtravel.com/blog/jerry/2007/11/balance-your-rv-trailer-tires.html

 

[TireHobby]

Maybe they are balanced. Check and see if your tires have colored dots on them. If they do, where are the dots positioned?

Maybe these references will help a little.

http://www.bridgestonetrucktires.com/us_eng/real/magazines/97v1issue2/Doctor.asp
http://www.bridgestonetrucktires.com/publications/ra_v13_i1/PDF/ra_v13i1 ask doc.pdf

TireHobby