Wheel balancers

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Does anyone here work at a tire store? I am going to buy myself a wheel balancer for my home garage and I can't seem to get any knowledgeable input from anyone that I've asked with regard to quality of equipment.

I can afford up to $2500 and at the moment I'm looking at a Coats 700, Corghi EM43, and a CEMB K10. I only balance car tires that fit on normal cars. I don't fool with trucks or super wide race tires or the bling bling 24" chrome things.

I have ruled out brands such as Ranger because they use a belt drive system that just seems cheap.

So my question is: What is the most critical feature to watch for in a wheel balancer in hobby use?

Thanks for any input.
 
Easy to use and ability to balance in several ways. Most work well if calibrated properly.

-T
 
quote:

Originally posted by T-Keith:
Easy to use and ability to balance in several ways. Most work well if calibrated properly.

-T


Ditto what T-Keith says. I had tires that had a constant vibration until I took them to a different shop and they balanced them with a higher end machine that has the ability to balance several ways (it was a Hunter I think). What a difference the machine made!
 
Might wanna buy one of these too!
wink.gif


shoot, if i had a hunter GSP9700 and a alignment rack i'd be doing it 24/7 just for fun!
 
Wow!! We're up to $30,000 worth of equipment. It would be great to have all of those neat toys but they're way out of my league.

I have written to several places that sell tire equipment and I've gotten a little bit more input.

I'm still undecided though so I'll continue to research.

Thanks for the input!!
 
Our shop is exclusively using Coats machines at this point. The heavy duty Coats balancers we've got are just that. Very heavy duty. They get a bit abused and they hold up quite well. Their rim clamp tire changers on the other hand have had a few issues here and there, but overall still pretty good.

I've also had experience with John Bean and Hunter tire changing and balancing equipment. Both are quite good. At least John Bean's newer stuff. I've had a little trouble with old beat up equipment of the John Bean brand. But the new stuff was lightyears ahead.

So.. just to throw another name to look into... Wouldn't hurt to check into John Bean equipment.
 
I have a Coats 1004 balancer and a 5060 rim clamp tire changer.

Most of the tire shops around here use the Coats equipment; it is certainly adequate for home use.

The only caveat I would have with any equipment of this type is to make sure you have room for it. The equipment has a big footprint, and you need to have room to work around and with it.

You might want to look for a tire dealer or car dealer being liquidated or upgrading their equipment. I got my equipment cheap at a liquidation auction.
 
quote:

Originally posted by edwardh1:
how and how often are the balancers calibrated?

Our coats machines rarely require recalibration. Most struggles with balancing wheels usually come down to operator error (wrong measurements input, weight placement is a little off... etc)

The old John Bean machine I mentioned in an earlier post was recalibrated nearly every day (fortunately it was a pretty easy procedure). It had some issues, to say the least.
 
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