wheel/tre mount and balancing equipment?

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Im about to have new tires installed. In my
area there are two very reputable shops...one
uses Hunter mount/bal equipment and the other
uses Coats.
Ive read that these are the top two, but many
folks have told me to find a shop that uses all
Hunter equipment.
Does it really matter? Please provide me with
some edudcation!
 
Hunter GSP9700 uses the roadforce balancing which simulates a road test to identify radial force vibration and pull problems.

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/technical/4127T/4127t.cfm

However, having it and knowing how to use it are two different things. A machine is only as good as its operator. I've heard of several cases where the tire place didn't do a good job using the roadforce balancer because their personnel wasn't trained properly.

I'm not familiar with Coats equipment.
 
I understand Coats now has a machine similar to the Hunter GSP9700.

But it isn't a case of one or the other, it's the particular model of machine that's important. Personally I prefer the Coats mounters over the Hunter.
 
I'm also not familar with the Coats but fwiw I this very day had four tires balanced on a Hunter GSP9700. I sought the machine out based on it's reputation. It completely resolved a long time nagging 'gallop' in my steering wheel that occured only at 65 mph.
 
I've had 5 out of my last 6 sets of tires balanced using the Hunter machine.

This is across 4 different vehicles. The one set I didn't - is really obvious. Needed re-balanced badly. It's not my daily driver, so I've been lazy about getting them redone with the Hunter, but I'm confident the 'shimmy' at highway speeds will go away once I do.

Just put set #6 on today - yes, the $100 to mount and balance 4 tires stings, but it is worth it. Especially with gas prices the way they are, anything I can do to improve MPG I figure will pay for itself quickly.
 
My local Ferrari dealership uses Corghi equipment. Another local speed shop uses CEMB balancers and coats mounting equipment.

There are so many features on these machines that you have to know exactly what you're doing in order to get the performance that the machine is designed to deliver.

If you can specify that the equipment operator use the ALU 1P feature (if you have alloy wheels) on the machine then you can pick the exact rotational plane that you want to balance. This works great for wheels that have wide inset dish surfaces.

All good machines will be able to identify whether the tire or the wheel is causing a problem.

As has been mentioned previously, machine operator efficiency is much more important than the machine itself.

Just know that the basic dynamic balance feature that puts the weight on the wheel lip is not very accurate and is simply a 'guestimation' of where the vibrational plane is rotating. Ask that the correct balance program (choices are static, dynamic, ALU1, ALU1P, ALU2, ALU2P,and ALU3-5) be used and you'll be surprised at how accurate the balance can be.
 
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