Centramatic Wheel Balancers

[hhoppe]

Centramatic Does Not Make their Wheel Balancers To Fit With Disc Brakes.
My wheel tire guy said the above statement. Anyone with contrary information??

[jack14r]

All 3 axles on my 08 have them.

[Ray Davis]

I had Centramatics installed on my new coach. They required a minor modification to clear the caliper on my disk brakes. I assumed that they probably bent the unit slightly.

According to the installer, it was just barely nicking the caliper, and was easy to fix. I haven't yet picked up the bus (leaving tomorrow), but report from driver who took it to JoSams in Orlando for install that it road smooth.


Ray

[Kevin Erion]

Harry, I have them on all 3 axles, no problem and no modifications for the install.

[Ray Davis]

Harry,

Not sure if it helps, but they installed the following on mine:

2 sets of 302-M
1 set of 404-U

I believe those are the same numbers that Ken Zittrer gave me, which are on his coach.

Ray

[hhoppe]

Centramatics say they do not have a unit that will work on my coach. They are expensive and I do not want to chance modifying them to work. I will be doing the weight balancing and see how they work.
Thanks for your input.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Harry, you might just want to look into balance masters. Brian used them and liked them a lot. They work by the same principle as Centramatic, but use Mercury instead as the counterbalance medium.

http://www.balancemasters.com/home.html

I think they are slightly cheaper.

When I get to that point with my bus they are what I will buy.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Harry here's a thread to read:

http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/showthread.php?t=2094&highlight=balance+masters

[Ray Davis]

Harry,

I installed Balance Masters on my coach, NOT Centramatics.

Sorry!

[BrianE]

I was wondering about that Ray. JoSam's uses Balance Masters because they think they are better. I had them on the Liberty and I was very happy with the combination of new Michelin XZE's and the Balance Masters. Had a VERY smooth ride from WA state to Truk's home in N. GA on them. I hope Tom and Nance enjoy them as much as we did. I will be putting them on our new to us Royale Coach as well when I can afford them. :D

[truk4u]

I can confirm the Balance Masters do the job, the Liberty is very smoooooth.

By the way, I think Brian made POG history by leaving Battle Ground, WA on Monday AM and showing up in Georgia on Thursday afternoon. That's about 2,600 miles boy and girls and at 62 mph, that's some serious wheel time.;) I believe the fuel consumed equalled 6.7 MPG (correct me if I'm wrong Brian) and that's really good for an 8V92.

So now, I'm trying to figure out how to fit 45' worth of stuff in a 40 footer while Brian is in Florida hugging his new ride. The good news, washing a 40 footer is a little less work than a 45 and I have more space to put stuff in the garage.

[JIM KELLER]

Congratulations on your new ride Tom ! You sure did pick a good one. I will never be able to get that picture of the engine compartment out of my mind. Brian set standards on that coach that will be hard to maintain.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Congratulations to both Truk and Brian. It is my understanding that Brian had to buy Beverly a new larger coach after she learned of the thong, the bra and the two pairs of shoes outside the green machine at Spearfish. Brian has no possible way to stay out of trouble on this one because he is either messing around, or cross dressing.

And Nancy is trying to get Tom into stealth mode so the Taco Twins will get to the point where they will have no clue about which coach is Truk's. We already know from Branson that JDUB is fairly clueless in keeping track of Tom's buses. Nancy thinks this will keep her from becoming Little Bo Peep. (Fat chance of that. She is destined to have her sheep.)

[tdelorme]

"I believe the fuel consumed equalled 6.7 MPG (correct me if I'm wrong Brian) and that's really good for an 8V92."

Well that beats all. My computer still shows 5.7MPG for the life of the coach. A week or so back we took a 500 mile round trip and left the Jeep at home. The coach by itself just barely got 6 MPG and I was just easing along about 65. We were running the OTR air, but that 6.7 is high cotton for an 8V92.

Texas 45
Oklahoma 35

[Jon Wehrenberg]

We put about 250,000 on our 87 Liberty. I recorded every gallon of fuel I ever added to the tank, and because it was the reason Jamestown Advanced got into the business of manufacturing electric boxes and campground equipment I needed the records for income tax purposes.

I had no way to isolate the MPG because checking the mileage on a tankful of fuel is inaccurate, but doing it over a large number of miles is accurate. I ran the generator about 1500 hours (memory here so that might be wrong) and we never hesitated to run the OTR, but at each year end when I added up fuel used and miles traveled it came to 5.6 MPG, the real number probably a little higher if I deduct the fuel used by the generator.

The difference between 8V92 buses was the gearing. Mine was at 72 MPH top speed at 2150 RPM. It would climb any hill easily, but was really only comfortable up to 65 because there was almost no more speed available if you had to pass.

Was this discussion about wheel balancers? Will JDUB report me?

[TheGadgetGuru]

While this thread is nearly nine years old, I thought I'd bump it up and ask if anyone has recent experience with the Centramatic balancers one the newer coaches and if there's a noticeable difference in the ride?

[Joe Camper]

How would the balancers know what year chassis they were mounted to?

Just kidding.

I would use them regardless of what year I'd be owning. After having a set myself I would never be without them again.

I bet many others who use them feel the same way.

It doesn't improve the ride on a bus with proper tires but it does eliminate the ocasional tire imbalance on new tires, ocasional thrown wheel weight, reballancing at half life and all those related costs.

Get them.

Tire balancing is only as good as the installer and the machine.

[dale farley]

This is one of the best demonstrations I've seen on the operation of the Centramatic balancers. https://floridashorestruckcenter.com/store/display.php?w=R.Category%3D%27Wheel+Balancers%27&gclid=COWlu8GHs9ICFdcegQodF_4G8w