I really only had two things left that I wanted to do. One was to install a license plate holder. The other was to install Centramatic balancers on the wheel assemblies.
Centramatic balancers are very simple but very cool. They dynamically balance the wheel, tire and hub assembly for near-perfect balance when driving down the road. It's always wise to balance your tires after they are assembled on the wheels. However, the hubs and tire and wheel may not be balanced when it's all put together on the vehicle. Even if the tire is out of balance, the Centramatic balancer will correct for any irregularities.
How does it work? In a nutshell, centrifugal force moves tiny weights in a circular tube to the area that extra weight is needed when the wheel is in motion. That may seem hard to picture, so check out this video from the manufacturer.
Vibration can do all sorts of unintentional things. First of all, it can result in premature and irregular tire wear. But more importantly, the shaking that occurs do to imbalance can move things around in the trailer, cause fittings to work loose or result in other damage inside the vehicle. The smoother the ride, the better, as far as vibration goes.
Centramatic makes dynamic balancers in all sorts of sizes for vehicles as small as motorcycles to as large as 18 wheel tractor trailers - and everything in between. You can call them and discuss your application and they can help you select the balancer that's right for your application.
My order for two balancers consisted of two rings approximately 10" in diameter with 6 holes to accommodate the lugs on the hubs. The outside of the ring was a circular tube and when you move the tube around you can hear what sounds like BB's moving around inside.
Installation is easy. The first step is to remove the hubcap and then remove the wheel from the trailer.
With the outside of the wheel facing the driveway, I can see the inside of the wheel.
I can orient the balancer so that the ring faces the wheel. The holes in the balancer aline with the holes in the wheel and it just gets sandwiched between the wheel and hub once it's installed.
Looking at the hub, you can see the six lugs.
There's plenty of room for the ring on the balancer to face inward toward the hub too - so the balancer can be installed facing either direction.
All I have to do now is put the wheel back on and re-tighten the lugs to 95 ft-lbs of torque. Then I have to do the other side.
Cecil is in for smooth sailing now when he cruises down the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment