[VAC] Re: Tire & Tire Pressure Questions

[Jim Dunmyer <jdunmyer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Andy,
  Thanks for your post!

Never having actually checked the balance of the drums/hubs on a 
trailer, I have no idea how bad they might be. Your experience suggests 
that they're not very good. You're absolutely correct that the drums 
couldn't be balanced for $5.00/each unless the OEM did it when they were 
manufactured.

I used to work at a facility that machined 'V' belt pulleys from raw 
castings. One of the last operations was balancing; this was done on an 
automatic machine. The pulley was placed on a mandrel, spun up to a 
surprisingly SLOW speed, then drilled and re-checked. All the operator 
did was to place the pulley on the mandrel and remove it a few seconds 
later. IIRC, he could easily do 3 or 4 per minute.

Believe it or not, when I bought new tires for my trailer (removed the 
wheels and took 'em to a tire shop) they didn't bother balancing them at 
ALL! Told me some crap about "trailer tires don't need to be balanced" 
and got a bit snippy when I insisted that he put 'em on his machine and 
balance them. Needless to say, he'll never sell me another tire, ever.

                             <<Jim>>