Wheel Alignment, Balancing And Shocks!

[GlenMcKay]

Does anyone have any suggestions on the best methods and which service shops do the best job?

[hermanmullins]

Glen, Welcome to the Forum. More information is needed to answer your question.

1. Where are you located?

2. What kind of coach do you drive, "A", "B", "C"?

You will get lots of answers when you give this info.

Good Luck,

Herman

[tbutler]

Where to get shocks done? We had our first coach outfitted with new shocks at the FMCA Convention in Hutchinson, KS in 2002. We talked to a vendor for Safe-T-Steer and had that installed. He also installed shocks, I knew we needed them and purchased a set from him. He came to our site and put everything on for us right where we were parked. I felt like I had a new coach when we drove away. So shocks are where you find them. Most important with shocks is to get good quality shocks. There are several brands, pick the brand and type you want. I would not advise trying to save money on this purchase. Shocks last a long time if you get a quality set. The shocks on our coach right now are nine years old and still good.

Alignment is another matter. That has to be done in a shop. Any truck tire dealer will have an alignment bay that will accommodate your motor home. While it is not purely a matter of numbers, I believe there is a bit of art to doing a good alignment, be sure you have the recommended alignment settings from your chassis manufacturer or motor home manufacturer. Those settings should be in your owners manual. If you don't have them, call technical support for your manufacturer and get the settings from them. Take them with you to the shop and have it aligned per manufacturers specs. With cars you can just take it to a shop and get an alignment, the shop will have the specs for your car. With a motor home you must provide the specs because there are so many models and shops don't have any information on all the models of motor homes. If you don't provide the specs, you may not get an alignment that works best for your motor home. Check with other motor home owners in your area as to who does the best job. I used to look at this as strictly a matter of getting the numbers right but I had an alignment done on my car recently and the man who did the job did the best alignment I've ever had. Maybe it is just a matter of taking the time to tweak the adjustments until they are as close as possible. The specs will give a range for each setting, not a specific setting. The final settings should be within range. The shop should provide you a print out of the settings they achieved. I keep that print out with my owners manual for reference.

Balancing is best done when getting new tires or rotating tires. Most any shop can do a good job with balancing. Be sure to get them spin balanced for best results. This is pretty standard at any tire shop. Large tires can be balanced but be out of round. Mounting tires can make a big difference in how round the tires are. I learned this several years ago when I had a set of front tires that were out of round. The were going to shake me apart. I had a good tire shop take a look at them and they showed me how they can test for the roundness of a tire. Sometimes remounting a tire after rotating it around the rim can correct some of this. Most tires will be slightly out of round. I now specify mounting tires and inflating them to bead in a horizontal position. This ensures that the rim will be in the center of the tire. Setting the bead when in a vertical position puts the rim off center to start. When the bead is established it should push the rim to the center but gravity is working against it so the rim will be slightly off center. Once the bead is set then they can put the tire in its safety frame for inflation to full pressure. After that, the tire should be tested for roundness. I specify .060 inch, 60 thousandths of an inch maximum variation from the lowest to highest spot on the tire. I have heard of using .040 inch, 40 thousandths and having the tire dressed to get it that close but I have had to purchase several tires on road trips and dealing with random dealers makes this more difficult. If you can find a good tire shop, make it a point to return there. I don't think you can simply go by a brand. I've always gone to shops that deal in my brand of tires and some are really on top of things and others are definitely not. You will be taking your motor home to a truck shop. They have a completely different standard for trucks and if you let them, they will use that standard for your motor home. Again, talk to local motor home owners to find the best shop for the job.

[hermanmullins]

Good point on mounting. When you have to have a tire mounted on the side of the road they will in most cases not remove the tire but mount it while still on the coach. This can create the off center as stated. It would be a good thing to have it remounted as soon as possiable to center the tire on the wheel.

As far as alignment, the standard specs are not always correct for the chassis. I contacted Monaco and they sent me the alignment specs for my chassis. I keep it in the coach information in the coach so if I need to have it aligned the Tech know what to set it on.

Years ago there were places to have your tires trued by shaving the rubber. It worked fine on cars, but I don't know if they can do it on RV and Truck tires.

One thing to look for is cupping on the tires. This can be caused by balance and or shocks. What kind of shocks are open for discussions, lots of openions.

Herman

[shields]

Tom,

Thanks for your excellent post. I'll probably be in the market for tires next year and will certainly specify horizontal inflation and .006" as you suggested.

Thanks again,

Tim

[wolfe10]

Actually, .006" is virtually impossible to find in a stock tire mounted on a stock wheel mounted on a stock hub.

Most tire manufacturers say .060" is acceptable.

My spec is .035". If more run-out that that, I have:

Tires rotated on wheel.

High point of tire put to top of rotation and loosen lug nuts and re-torque.

If still over .035", have the tires TRUED. Yes, that is "shaving" the high spots of the tire. Will add many tens of thousands of miles of VERY smooth performance. Sadly, truing tires is a dying art, as it is an art-- not something an untrained tech can do on a machine.

The place I have it done does not even work on outsider's vehicles (well mine). The guy trues 100% of the front tires on the fleet of OTR tanker trucks they maintain. The front tires are then spin balanced ON THE RIG. The drivers love him!

I do this every time I have new tires mounted.

[tbutler]

Oops! That was my mistake. I should have looked it up before posting. I have corrected it in my comment above. Now it reads .060 and .040 or 60 thousandths and 40 thousandths. Thanks for the correction Brett.

[wolfe10]

Oops! That was my mistake. I should have looked it up before posting. I have corrected it in my comment above. Now it reads .060 and .040 or 60 thousandths and 40 thousandths. Thanks for the correction Brett.

No problem. That would have just made you a LOT more picky than I am-- and on suspension issues, that would be hard to believe.

[hermanmullins]

.006 X 6 tires = .036 total. The seat in your Windsor is a lot more sensitive then most.

I am going to look to see if there any truck tire dealers in North Texas that has a truing machine.

Herman

[wolfe10]

Herman,

Tom revised his post to .060" permissible run-out.

For tire truing companies in your area, might contact the manufacturer of tire truing equipment. Note, many will only work on small tires (race car tires), so find out from them if they true your size tire ON THE VEHICLE.

Tire Truing Equip Amermac Ellaville, GA 800 841-8065

Brett