Balance Masters vs Centramatic

[Bill1170]

Dale: Thanks for the great explanation that sure helps me understand the different balancing methods,Now all I have to do is decide which is good for me. Sounds like you are having good luck with the less expensive sutff in the tire. Thank again, Bill

[JIM KELLER]

Great job on that Article, Dale.

[mikedee]

I have been the biggest little Equal hater on the board, but have a new opinion on the product. I found some better valve cores and double seal caps and have zero issue with the equal fouling up my valves and losing air.

Whole fix was about $25 including a really nice valve core tool so I would get them tight.
http://www.innovativebalancing.com/gallery1.htm
Scroll to bottom of page, I got items COR-01, V2B-1, VCT-1

Equal works good, Centramatic work good and I bet some of the others work as well.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Every time I have bought and used Equal it has come with new valve cores with the mesh filters. I have always used them.

I think there are two reasons why I have had no problems with the use of Equal. First, the way I check my tire pressures is with the use of a fill valve with the pressure gauge attached. After reading the pressure I give the tire a quick shot of air. If any material had gotten past the screen into the valve the quick blast of air blew it out of the valve core.

The second thing I have done is used the "fill through cap" valve stem caps. These valve stem caps do not have to be removed when checking tire pressures or filling with air. In addition they are a second seal so even if the valve core were to leak the caps seal against air loss.

Two types of tire fill valves are shown in the photo below. I use the one with the big round dial most often. BTW, that eliminates the need for any valve stem extensions which will ultimately cause a failure of the valve stem.

[dale farley]

Jon,

Have you ever had an issue with moisture clotting the Equal? I've never seen this happen first-hand, but I've heard others say it was a problem. Obviously, you can't always ensure that you have moisture free air when adding to the tires, so maybe it isn't as much an issue as some feel it is?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Dale,

I have had zero issues with moisture in the tire. I don't do anything special to prevent moisture. I have filled the tires from the bus air system and from my compressor in the garage.

I can say with certainty no problems because not too long ago I had a leak at the seal where the valve stem goes into the wheel.

I had to open the tire up to get a wrench on the rear side of the valve stem and in doing that I noticed the inside of the tire was dry.

[dale farley]

Jon,

Your comments make me think it must really take a significant amount of water to cause any problems.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Except for the initial fill my tires just don't get a lot of air added.

I attribute that to the double seal the caps provide.

I have the normal loss of pressure in the winter when things get cold, but that is a few PSI.

If I have to adjust tire pressures after the bus sits for a month or more it is usually 3 PSI or less. If I see a need for more pressure I search for the cause and that is how I realized I had a minute air loss at the valve stem and wheel.

If I had noticed moisture it would not be a big deal to switch from air to nitrogen or argon or some other moisture free gas because I have small welding bottles I could rig up for the tires or bus air system. It would certainly be faster to fill tires using nitrogen or equivalent because with the right hoses it could be set up to regulate the pressure for filling to 200 or 300 PSI so putting a few PSI in a tire that is at 100 PSI would be fast. It would also clear any small debri from the Schrader valve if there were any.

Not intended to start the nitrogen debate. Speaking hypothetically here,.

[Petervs]

I am amazed at the fanatical following so many of you have or these products. Tires slipping on the rim with heavy braking? You must be kidding me. If that happened you would lose the air.

If the tires are slipping on the wheels, why is this not happening to all the other vehicles on the road that get by with simple balance weights?

And you say lead weights are only in correct balance at one speed. Well, the solutions presented here are completely INcorrect while stopped, and will not be perfectly correct until you get the wheel spining pretty fast. And they will be off balance while spinning up.

At 60 MPH the tires are turning only 500 RPM which might not be enough to spread the weights out perfectly and achieve good balance. What evidence do you have that the tires are perfectly balanced while driving? The manufacturers claims? It feels good to your butt? Very scientific.

Like Jon said, no one has done a side by side test for a real comparison. All I can say is I use lead weights, the bus rides smooth as silk. There are more important problems to solve.