I'd like to be able to do my own tire changing and road force balancing. I won't be doing a lot of changes and balancing, maybe 12-16 tire balances and changes per year. Ideally, for the balancing, I'd like to do road force balancing. I know the Hunger 9700 is the machine to have but even used machines are fairly pricey. But, there are a number of Chinese made machines on ebay that appear to do a dynamic balance. These are sold with tire changers as well. Even though they may be sold by different people, these machines all be appear to be the same. So, for about $3000 or so, I can buy a dynamic balancer and tire changer. My question is, does anyone have any experience with machines like this? Are they robust enough to do 12-16 tires a year for 10-15 years? On the dynamic balancers, do they balance in an equivalent manner to the Hunter machine? Any suggestions on the best way to do what I'd like to do? Thanks in advance for the assistance.
Chinese Dynamic Balancers and Tire Changers Any Good?
- Thread starter ElastomerGuy
- Start date
I have one don't use it as much as I thought, the balancers also balancer does not seem very fast somewhere in the 100-300 RPM range.
Seems to do OK once you get it calibrated.
Seems to do OK once you get it calibrated.
A balancer should be able to do 12-16 tires a DAY. Why do you think you need that road force thing? I have a hand crank Snap On bought 20 years ago for $1000 that does all I need.
^ +1, get a Snap On WB 200 series, it'll outlive you.
Calibration simply means the display will tell you the correct weight on the first try, eg, it's the amplitude that gets calibrated. If it reads zero you're balanced, even if it's out of cal. And calibration is basically putting a naked rim on it then adding a weight, it's in the instructions.
IDK about powered tire machines, I'm rocking my HF pile of sticks $40 manual changer and have literally changed 8-20 tires per year for 20 years with it.
Dynamic balancers just mean two-plane, with weights on the inside and out. Operation should be similar-- knock all the old weights off, spin it up, put weights where it tells you, spin again, verify zero, you're done. My Snappy balancer has a "fine" mode that reads in 1/10s of an ounce, smaller than they make weights for, and unlikely to be felt unless you have a "difficult" car like a Miata.
What you WILL notice is how many "fine" rims actually have small bends, and how many egg-shaped tires are out there. There are a lot! Road force is way down on my priority list as I can solve most of my problems replacing obvious defects. The tire store won't tell you about problem rims because of learned helplessness and their desire to sell tires. If they mention you need a new rim they'll worry that it'll make you balk and "forget" to buy tires after solving the problem. However if you buy tires and still have a shake they'll then help you under warranty.
Calibration simply means the display will tell you the correct weight on the first try, eg, it's the amplitude that gets calibrated. If it reads zero you're balanced, even if it's out of cal. And calibration is basically putting a naked rim on it then adding a weight, it's in the instructions.
IDK about powered tire machines, I'm rocking my HF pile of sticks $40 manual changer and have literally changed 8-20 tires per year for 20 years with it.
Dynamic balancers just mean two-plane, with weights on the inside and out. Operation should be similar-- knock all the old weights off, spin it up, put weights where it tells you, spin again, verify zero, you're done. My Snappy balancer has a "fine" mode that reads in 1/10s of an ounce, smaller than they make weights for, and unlikely to be felt unless you have a "difficult" car like a Miata.
What you WILL notice is how many "fine" rims actually have small bends, and how many egg-shaped tires are out there. There are a lot! Road force is way down on my priority list as I can solve most of my problems replacing obvious defects. The tire store won't tell you about problem rims because of learned helplessness and their desire to sell tires. If they mention you need a new rim they'll worry that it'll make you balk and "forget" to buy tires after solving the problem. However if you buy tires and still have a shake they'll then help you under warranty.
"Road force" is not about balancing, it is about match mounting of the tire on the wheel to minimize radial force variation. Match mounting and dynamic balancing are 2 different processes.
Thanks for your feedback, everyone. The Snap On balancers look remarkably similar to the Chinese balancers in which I'm interested. The balance programs that Snap On describes are identical to what the Chinese balancers say they can do.
JHZR2
Staff member
You mean one of these?
Not sure it woukd have the diagnosing capability of a more modern tool, no?
ive kind of wondered if one of these with some way to visualize runout or variation could really help to diagnose vibrations better…
Just so everyone knows:
Tire runout isn't well correlated to tire uniformity, but tire uniformity is well correlated to ride disturbance - which is why the tire manufacturers use uniformity and not runout. And it's also why the Hunter RoadForce machine was developed.
Tire runout isn't well correlated to tire uniformity, but tire uniformity is well correlated to ride disturbance - which is why the tire manufacturers use uniformity and not runout. And it's also why the Hunter RoadForce machine was developed.
