Mike Melton shows how to use a Hunter Road Force balancer, which applies 1,200 pounds of simulated load to detect vibration in a tire. The machine caught radial runout, an egg-shaped deformation that causes hopping. His test tire showed 1.75 ounces imbalance and 23 pounds force variation, both in the green zone for smooth operation.
Let me show you how to Road Force balance a tire the right way. So for starters, we have a flange plate, so we balance them by the lug holes themselves. So this guy came in, we're going to balance this tire, we're going to Road Force it. So if you're not familiar with a Road Force machine, this machine's built by Hunter. It's called a Road Force. It's a diagnostic balancer, so it's going to check for anything in the wheel and tire assembly that's going to cause a vibration. So this puts— when it comes down on the tire, it puts 1,200 pounds of force on the tire being simulated, being driven on that truck. All right, so we're going to go ahead and balance it out here. Just a second, that roller is going to come down. Like I said, it's going to put 1,200 pounds of force on top of that tire. It's going to check for anything that's going to cause the vibration as far as radial runout. So radial runout is when a tire goes up and down, hops, so it's more like an egg shape than it is a circle, and that's what's going to cause your vibration. So that's coming off now. Now it's got 0 ounce here, only an ounce and three-quarters here, and only 23 pounds of force. So you see that's all the way green right there. That's exactly what you want. That way you know this thing is going to drive better than a Cadillac. You're not going to have any vibrations at all once you do everything right.
