A recorded phone-call transcript (YouTube video) where Mike Melton calls a large national tire chain location (On Tire Mooresville) and questions a representative, Justin, about their road-force balancing practices and staff training. The call covers whether the shop road-forces tires on installation, the pressure/force numbers quoted for road-force machines (disagreement over '34 pounds' vs higher forces), and Mike testing Justin's technical knowledge about thresholds for passenger, SUV, and light-truck (LT) tires.
Chapters
I'm calling one of the largest national tire chains right now. I'm asking some questions on it. I'm gonna see how knowledgeable he is about road forcing too. Will he get my name? Is he gonna be a relationship builder or an order taker?
Thank you for choosing On Tire Mooresville. This is Justin. How may I help you?
Yeah, man, I'm looking to get some tires on my truck. I got a couple questions, though. I know y' all do all the rotations and all that stuff free, but what about the road forcing? Do y' all road force all the tires when y'. All. When y' all first put them on?
Yes, sir.
All right, so y' all road force every time.
What was that?
Yeah, so y' all road force the tire because.
Yes, sir.
I just want to make sure. Because, you know, if y' all don't road forcing, then I don't want it done.
Yeah, okay, we do that here.
All right, so what's the big thing about road forcing the tire? Is that. Is that pretty good or supposed to be done or should it be done or what?
So it should be done. On our balancers, it's got 34 pounds of pressure that it applies to the tire, and it should be either 34 or less.
You said 34 pounds of pressure.
Correct. And then the.
34 pounds of pressure is not right. 1200 pounds of pressure is what it puts on the tire. Now it's 34 or 35 on the road force. If it's heavy duty tire, less than that.
So if that number's up in the 60s or 70s, then it's going to be more of a rough ride. But if it's lower, closer to like a 5, 10, maybe a 15, it's going to be a smooth ride.
Okay, but ain't there different thresholds on road force?
Yes, sir.
Okay, so what's a 35.
A 35 size tire?
No, you said the. The 35 pounds.
Huh. So that's where we would intern road force attire. So if it's above that threshold, then it would create a vibration in the ride, and then we would road force it to get you a better ride.
Okay, so let me ask you a question, because. So 35 pounds is for an LT tire?
Yes. Well, I mean, it's standard for all the tires.
Nah, because you got different thresholds for. For passenger and SUVs. And then you got light truck. That's all the machine set up. I was just trying testology. So you're wrong in that, brother. Y' all need some more training? Do y' all do training every day. That's what I'm here about. I'm not. I'm not here to bust your balls. I'm just here to. To see what kind of training you guys have.
No, I got you.
So you understand that 35 pounds of pressure. 35 pounds of road forces for LT tires, correct?
Yes, sir.
Okay. What's. What's below that one?
I'm unsure.
You're unsure?
Yes, sir.
And this is one of the largest tire chains. And y' all don't know. That's amazing to me. Not. Not. Not saying.
