Matco rim

[Tom Delaney]

I need to know the diameter of the axle opening on our RV12 main gear rims.
I want to make sure my Autobody shop has the corresponding cone to dynamically balance my new tires.

New tread placed and I now have a slight "shudder" when the wheels come up to speed on landing. Thanks

[Driftdown]

Originally Posted by Tom Delaney

I need to know the diameter of the axle opening on our RV12 main gear rims.
I want to make sure my Autobody shop has the corresponding cone to dynamically balance my new tires.

New tread placed and I now have a slight "shudder" when the wheels come up to speed on landing. Thanks

Tom,

Try calling around to some local motor cycle shops.
They usually have the equipment to handle any small size rims. What's more, they are reasonably priced to do the balancing.

Just a suggestion.

[tomkk]

Just finished doing mine with this http://www.harborfreight.com/motorcy...and-98488.html

Worked great and was quite easy ...

[John-G]

Tom -

Were you also able to use that balancing fixture on the main wheels as well?

I went to a place that had a similar fixture, but the centering cones touched each other before the main wheels snugged up in the fixture ... so was only able to balance the nose wheel at the time.

Would like to get the main gear wheels balanced prior to first flight ... so if that fixture worked for you on the main wheels, that would be great news.

[tomkk]

Yup, did all three without any problem. IIRC, you'll need a 3 mm right angle allen wrench to tighten the cones.

I picked up the wheel weights at HF as well. The 1/4 oz stick on weights worked well ...

[Sink]

One of the shops I was just at is using this balancer and I have heard of its use from several shops. They said it works very well and it's accurate.
I was told you should get the longer shaft. Quality bearings and a straight shaft will make all the difference.
You can use the 1/4 oz. stick on weights. Clean the wheel where the weights will stick 3 times with lacquer thinner. They won't come off. Spread the weights out on each side of the wheel. For instance put 3 weights on one side and 3 on the other or whatever the combination is. I was told 1.25 to 2 oz seems to be a normal amount of weight per wheel. The aluminum wheels are well balanced, but tubes and tires are not.

http://www.marcparnes.com/Universal_...l_Balancer.htm

Difference between Harbor Freight product.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU96Yu3Tzts

p.s.
Balance all your wheels and not just the mains. Balancing the front wheel can make a lot of vibration in the front end go away on any plane.

Hope this helps.

[Mich48041]

I watched a prop balancing demonstration at OSH a few years ago. The speaker said that the bearing was cleaned of grease and then lubricated with kerosene. He stuck a small piece of masking tape to one end of a perfectly balanced prop which made that end heavy. The end with the tape rotated to the bottom.
Could that same procedure (lubricating wheel bearings with kerosene instead of grease) be used to balance wheels? Or isn't that practical?

[tomkk]

Originally Posted by Sink

One of the shops I was just at is using this balancer and I have heard of its use from several shops. They said it works very well and it's accurate.
I was told you should get the longer shaft. Quality bearings and a straight shaft will make all the difference.
You can use the 1/4 oz. stick on weights. Clean the wheel where the weights will stick 3 times with lacquer thinner. They won't come off. Spread the weights out on each side of the wheel. For instance put 3 weights on one side and 3 on the other or whatever the combination is. I was told 1.25 to 2 oz seems to be a normal amount of weight per wheel. The aluminum wheels are well balanced, but tubes and tires are not.

http://www.marcparnes.com/Universal_...l_Balancer.htm

Difference between Harbor Freight product.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU96Yu3Tzts

p.s.
Balance all your wheels and not just the mains. Balancing the front wheel can make a lot of vibration in the front end go away on any plane.

Hope this helps.

Yeah, undoubtedly a higher quality product. I might have been lucky but the shaft I received was almost perfectly straight.

Agree about doing all wheels. I had a pretty healthy nose wheel vibration on takeoff that was totally eliminated with 1 1/4 oz in the right spot

[RFSchaller]

Mine were so far out of balance I could find the heavy spot while they were on the axles once I jacked it up! I put over an ounce of weights on each wheel, but it made a big difference in vibration after liftoff.