Just got my snake’s tires performance match balanced

[tarfungo]

Boy, what a difference! I was driving on my Pilot’s for about 4 months now without complaints. I took my snake in to remove a nail from one of the rear tires. The mechanic asked me if I was interested in a performance match balance? After he explained what this was, I took the bait. 3 1/2 hours later, my snake was handed over to me. Not expecting much, I took the Viper out on the freeway and let ‘er rip! It was like my snake was skating on ice it was so smooth! Way more than I could have imagined!

A well respected local discount tire outlet originally put on my tires. The guy that did my recent match balance said my tires were horribly out of balance by performance standards.

Highly recommended.

 

[Russ M]

Exactly what did this service involve?

3 1/2 hours to balance tires?

And you think you can feel a set of balanced tires from a set that isnt?

Maybe this is something new that I am not familiar with but my gut feeling is you have been had. For something more than what a normal balance job should have cost.

 

[BigCarrot]

 

[ViperRichRT10]

They are either balanced...or not balanced. physics does not have a performance mode???

 

[cgmaster]

Please let us know what you are taling about. I am just curious

 

[Ulysses]

He's most likely talking about tire to rim matching and balancing.

 

[Hisserman]

When tires are performance balanced they spun under a load and both the tire and rim are matched to get the best overall balance. If done right, then it's just like Tarfungo said -- it really makes a difference. Hunter Engineering makes the best equipment for doing it.

The process is highly recommended if you are going to run your car a high speeds!

 

[Bo knows]

Viper owners who haven't had this done don't know what they are missing. The difference is like night & day. It's called road force balancing, and yes it can take 3 1/2 hours or longer to do 4 tires depending on how much work is needed. The only machine I know of to do this properly is the Hunter GSP 9700. Look for a shop that has this. What happens is a rotating drum is pressed agaist the tire as it is turned to measure high & low spots in the tire. The rim is also turned & measured for high & low spots. Then the tire is broke down from the rim & turned & remounted to the most ideal location to make the whole rotating assembly as true as possible. Then it is rechecked & balanced. Sometimes it may needed to be broken down a second time if the road force was way off. You will never know how smooth your Viper can be until you have this done!!

Bo knows

 

[Mike Adams]

Match balancing involves matching the light spot of the rim with the heavy spot of the tire. Does not involve loading the tire. It is a better balance that loading the tire on a hunter machine. We had a hunter machine and got rid of it for the hoffman machine when we found out the match balance done on it worked better than the hunter

 

[tarfungo]

Mike Adams, Bo knows, Hisserman got it right. I got mine done at Dependable Tire and Brake in San Rafael, CA.

When I bought my tires a few months ago I shopped for the cheapest price, which ended up being a local family run Mom and Pop outfit. I’ve used these folks before for my daily runners and have had no complaints.

Looking back now, considering the balancing issue, it would have been best to have TireRack drop ship the tires to Dependable. The money I saved (I think it was under $30.00) was irrelevant in the long run as the balancing was poor from the local dealer – and I asked them to take their time and do it right offering to pay for any time that was required.

Dependable says they will reject tires that can’t be perfectly matched. Three of my tires were matched the last is real close. $204.00 including the tire repair.

By the way, when I was getting my tire balanced the tech showed me where the chrome on my wheels is starting to peel off inside the rim. He said this would eventually cause the tires to lose air in a fast manner. The cure is a re-chrome. Has anyone heard of this before?