[joel]

I’ve owned 3 Prevost’s, all had Centramatics installed on all axles.

If the tire has been mounted correctly by your tire shop the Centramatic will balance it perfect from that point.

Arrow points to the raised piece of rubber which is the installer guide line…which assures tire is centered on rim.

If ring is not centered then this tire has been incorrectly mounted . Centramatic are designed to handle balance each time the tire rotates with accurate in-balance results for the life of tire.

Picture #2 below shows what happens when a wheel weight leaves the rim for some reason while in balance service. This picture is from my XL-II when the wheel was removed on tag axle. My balance weight stuck in foam panel after leaving the tag wheel, picture shows it was a glue on which was not installed properly.

Centramatics or any balance ring eliminate any and all chances of a unbalanced tire and rim and no valve stem problems using beads. Jon, will not disappoint me after reading this in the price difference….beads vs Centramatics.

Go to video on Centramatic, web address is hot;

http://centramatic.com/Home.aspx

With no experience service or pricing of Balance Masters, it appears it’s an competitive product of tire balance rings.

AL

---

1999 XLV X-6872,  liberty #440

[Archived]

Jeff, I have used Centramatics for years with no balancing of any tire. I prefer the Centramatic use of ball bearings in their ring.

The Factory in Alverado will show how they work. All the best

[Archived]

I used the Centramatics on both of the coaches I owned and always removed the previously installed wheel weights.

Had them on my 40′ XL for over 6 years with no problems.

From Centamatics web site. [In most cases, pre-balancing is not required. However, if a vibration still exits after installation, a computer balance of the problem position can indicate a mis-mounted or defective tire, a bent wheel or other “out of round” condition, which balancing alone cannot correct. Wheel bearings should also be checked and defective parts replaced.]

[Archived]

Just to mess with everyone and introduce an alternative I used Equal or its equivalent for years (decades actually) for balancing. I would still be using it except my current coach came equipped with Centramatics.

At around $10 per wheel I would have to change a lot of tires before I spent what it costs to install Centramatics or Balance Masters.

If you think you have a balance problem, before you do anything pay attention to what Al posted. If a tire is not mounted on a wheel with both laying horizontally it is possible the tire is not concentric with the wheel and that runout feels like an out of balance condition, and if allowed to run like that for a while wears the tire unevenly at which point that runout might not be able to be corrected.

[Archived]

I ran Centramatic’s for years without balancing and in fact, removed all weights prior to installing Centramatics. Balance Master also recommends balancing the drives. Hope you go with Centramatics, they have been a loyal PC Advertiser.

Balance Master Q & A

23Q. Do I need to balance my Drives ?

23A. We recommend that ALL wheels be Balanced so that you get the MOST from your tires

[Doug]

Are Balance Masters the ones that use mercury in a sealed circular tube? If so, I looked it them, liked the concept but they did not have good distribution in my area and they wanted them returned to them when finished with them because of the mercury. I thought the liquid mercury would do a better job than ball bearing.

[Archived]

Like Jon, I have used Equal for many years with great success. I bought all new tires in August and put the new Equal Flexx in all of the tires. I have put 10,000 miles on the new tires with the Equal Flexx in them and the ride is very smooth and vibration free.

[Bill]

Hello everyone, new here and just dreaming Prevost. Been lurking for a while. I have used both balancemastes and centramatics on trucks with dual 16″ tires so it may not apply to the bigger semi tires but I’ll give my experience.

They advertise to remove the wheel weights. This may work in a steady state condition but when the tire becomes upset with anything on the road it will lose balance as it takes more weight to keep the tire in balance with the upset. I have removed weights and used balancermasters and the tires do not stay in balance, and reinstalled weights with balancemasters and they works much better. I believe if they used more weight in the rings this would not be an issue. This experiment was using the balancemasters with mercury, not the shot filled balancers like centramatics which has more weight in the rings possibly.

The latest centramatics I purchased were a two piece affair with the ring inside a disc formed around the ring. Don’t believe this is as desireable as the one piece balancemasters which also imo has better quality and fit between the two on the 16″ truck tire. I did remove the plug on the centramatic ring, inside was #7 shot and possibly tranny fluid. I don’t think this system is as smooth as the mercury as the shot seems to take longer to adjust and rebalance the tire when upset, possibly jamming in the ring to redistribute itself.

I have had a balancemaster leak, found the mercury on the concrete floor, no apparent damage to the ring. This was one among about 12 and quite a long time ago and they did replace it.

I do like the balancemasters, my preference due to quality and smoothness, just leave the weights on. And they do smooth the cracks in the road surface, bridge expansion joints, potholes, etc. fwiw.

[Archived]

Balancing media as is found in Centramatics, Balance Master or Equal works. Unlike wheel weights it is reliable for the life of the tires.

As Al posted, weights can be thrown from the wheel. Without any other means of balancing the wheel is then out of balance. But even if the weights are not thrown from the wheel it is possible for the tire to rotate around the wheel to a limited extent also throwing the wheel out of balance. A Prevost owner had wheels balanced by weights, marked the tires at the location of the weights, and then did a very hard stop. The tire had moved about 3″ relative to the wheel so it was out of balance after the stop. He proved to himself one of the shortcomings of weights.

Nothing is perfect, but balancing media tends to be a more reliable way of balancing as a tire wears.

One extremely important thing to understand. Tire balance begins with the mounting of the tire. A tire needs to be inflated on the wheel while the wheel is horizontal, sitting on a bucket or equivalent to keep everything off the floor and after inflation carefully inspected to make sure the molded ring on the tire is equidistant from the wheel around the full perimeter. If a tire is inflated while standing it is possible for the tire to not be centered on the wheel and the resulting run-out will feel and act like an imbalanced tire that balancing will not correct.