tire bounce

beck-mark

Member
while on a recent trip the folks we were traveling with told me the front wheels were bouncing on my 5th wheel. at the time i was doing about 60 mph on smooth road. what could be the cause of this. i have a 2014 elkridge 29RKSA
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
If there is little weight on the front axle that would contribute to bouncing.
Is your trailer level when towing? Or nose high?
Normally shocks are in play to eliminate that bounce as well although many feel that the at angle they are installed, they are not effective.

Peace
Dave
 

beck-mark

Member
it is a little nose high not much. I was thinking along those lines to and was planning on lowering my hitch to the next lower bolt holes if i still have enough clearance with my bed. i cant be more than an inch high in the front though i would of thought the suspension would take care of that. if i can lower it i may be nose down as much as up after adjusting hitch.
 

Nabo

Southeast Region Director-Retired
Check the distance between the top of the bedrail and the bottom of the camper at the hitch point. You should have between 6 to 7 inches which will give you enough clearance for awkward turns and uneven grounds. As for balancing the tires, yes we balance our tires yearly because of all the torquing that the axles do when backing, etc as well as rough roads/interstates.
 
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Jim.Allison

Well-known member
There are many trailers that do not have any shock absorbers, there are many fifth wheels that the owners have removed the shocks because of the perception that they are not effective. Given that I doubt that your tire bounce is a result of shock absorbers. Especially since the shock does nothing more than dampen the oscillation of your axles after being upset by a chug hole or other upsetting feature in the road surface. With or without shocks your wheels should be firmly planted on the pavement if there is no upset.

Given the above statement, IMHO, you have a tire that is out of round because it is fixing to fail. Centripetal force is trying to sling the rubber off the tire, when you stop, the tire resumes its normal shape.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
I will bet that it has nothing to do with balancing the tires. Trailer tires do not require balancing. If your tire is visibly bouncing, you should inspect the tire for defects, lest you tear the side of your rig out.
 

Doublegranch

Mountain Region Director-Retired
Jim:
Not sure why you say trailer tires do not need balancing while truck and car tires do??? What it different that trailer tires do not require balancing???? please explain??? I have balanced all tire from Truck to Rv and never had an issue?
 

JohnD

Moved on to the next thing...
I'm guessing tires out of balance . . . a tire starting to separate (look for uneven wear on the tires) . . . or both.

We just caught one of our trailer tires (not a BlowMax) starting to separate on our way back from the Vegas Rally and swapped it out for the spare before it blew.

If you have the TowMax (AKA - BlowMax) tires . . . get rid of all of them and get better tires!
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
Jim:
Not sure why you say trailer tires do not need balancing while truck and car tires do??? What it different that trailer tires do not require balancing???? please explain??? I have balanced all tire from Truck to Rv and never had an issue?

Of course you have never had an issue. I stated that balancing trailer tires is not required, trailers have no steering tires to transmit vibrations.

The front tires on your car or truck are connected through linkages. "Out of balance" tires phase in and phase out through the steering linkage. When the tires are in phase the vibration is not noticeable, but when they are out of phase they can shake violently.

Balancing only occurs in one plane, since your trailer tire is fixed on it's axle, and it has no mate to phase in and out with, the physics holds the trailer tire on the the correct plane, balanced or not.

Trailer wheels are "LUG CENTRIC, and if balanced, they need to be balanced by BOLTING the wheel to the balancing machine, most automotive shops only have "HUB CENTRIC" balancing equipment. If your trailer tires are being balanced utilizing a "hub centric cone", they are not likely balanced anyway. It's up to you, but I don't pay for balancing a trailer tire, and I do not notice any problem.

BTW my G114 and HiSpec Mod 3 rims were mated in such a way that they were balanced without wheel weights.
 

TedS

Well-known member
The tire shop I go to knows the difference between hub-centric and bolt-centric. Any tire molding process has uneven distribution of materials, therefore the tires are out of balanced as produced. All five of my truck tires are balanced, not just the steering tires. I can tell when the rear truck tire(s) are out of balance, they bounce and I feel it. All five of my trailer tires are balanced. Unbalanced tires will wear a cupping pattern. Wheels are out of balance as soon as the hole is punched and the valve stem installed. Correct balancing compensates two planes of imbalance so that the wheel runs true and does not wobble. An out-of-round tire will bounce even if balanced. Trailer tires should be balanced, many are not because nobody rides back there to be bothered by the bounce.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
the front wheels were bouncing

Take a look at your equalizers and shackle links to make sure they're not flipped - especially if you recently had the rig lifted or jacked up. Also inspect the rest of the suspension components to make sure nothing is broken and the springs look normal.
 

carl.swoyer

Well-known member
Could be an issue with a possible delamination. This will cause a bounce because the tire is no longer a" true " round surface.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 

Lynn1130

Well-known member
Out of Balance tire/wheel. I am sure there is some rule of physics that makes not balancing seem like the thing to do but I also know that centrifugal force causes a round object to create an outward force that will cause the round object to wobble. I also know what an out of balance prop can do on an aircraft. Kind of the same thing with a tire in my mind. So if the tire/prop is out of balance one side of it tries to throw itself out of the rotating circle. There, not quite so technical but what my simple mind can understand.

Now, if both tires on the same axle are bouncing then the axle becomes suspect also more for attachment than anything.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
I also know what an out of balance prop can do on an aircraft. Kind of the same thing with a tire in my mind. So if the tire/prop is out of balance one side of it tries to throw itself out of the rotating circle. There, not quite so technical but what my simple mind can understand.

An propeller is effectively round, but has no where near the mass that a tire has. I too had an airplane that had an out of balance propeller, and there was a slight vibration that was repaired by my mechanic, but the propeller turns at 2300 RPM, a tire turns in the area of 700 RPM. Balancing a tire is in one plane only, otherwise the tire is out of round.

Most trailer tires and wheels are matched mounted, and this is adequate for trailer tires.

IMHO, one cannot place enough lead on a wheel to correct a bouncing tire. His tire, bouncing is a direct result of a tire that is about to fail, OR possibly a suspension problem. Tread separation can be hard to spot if the belts have not shifted so inspecting the tire while the trailer is parked, may not reveal the problem; unless the tire is marked Towmax. If it is marked Towmax then that is probably the source the problem.

I will concede that properly mounting the tire on a spin balance machine will reveal if the tire is bad. Remember that if a trailer tire is balanced they must use an adaptor that simulates the "lug-centric" mounting of the tire. The "hub centric" cone commonly found at automotive tire dealers will not balance your tire and will most likely induce a problem.



Excerpt from E-Trailer which sums up my previous statements in this thread.

"[FONT=&quot]At etrailer.com, our tire and wheel combinations are mounted so that the high heavy spot on the tire is aligned with the low light spot on the wheel. This provides adequate balance for trailer tires.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]If you buy new tires for a set of rims, you can have them balanced. If you do balance trailer tires, remember that many trailer wheels are centered by the position of the lug bolts (these wheels are lug-centric) and not the center bore of the wheel. To get the best tire balance for lug-centric wheels, you should have them balanced using a pin plate adapter. This mimics the way a lug-centric wheel is mounted to a hub."


[/FONT]
 

TedS

Well-known member
How does etrailer find the high heavy tire spot and the low light wheel spot? Static balance? Not good enough.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
How does etrailer find the high heavy tire spot and the low light wheel spot? Static balance? Not good enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YknM9_M2yPQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KvRft422G4

They are not the only ones that do it. Static balance was good enough before spin balance existed, but quick match is not static balance. But hey if you guys want to spend your money on balancing trailer tires then do it. It can't hurt anything. But be aware of the fact that if your balancer is using a hub centric balancing machine on a trailer wheel you are not going to be balanced anyway, in fact you may be worse off. Trailer wheels cannot be balanced using a hub centric system.

I don't know why we are discussing this? The OP has a bouncing tire, and I can promise you that it is not because the tire is not balanced. The tread is separating, or he has a suspension problem.
 

TedS

Well-known member
Informative youtube. In the second film, the guy says that after rim matching you must go back and balance the tire. Rim matching just makes the tire run more true to the bolt circle of the rim, if bolt-centric. It does not make the tire and wheel combination weight balanced.

Out of balance will make a tire bounce.
 
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