What is Road Force Balancing?
When it comes to tires, there are multiple aspects you shouldn’t avoid as far as maintenance is concerned. In one of my previous guides, I talked about doing regular inspections on your tires to ensure they’re in as good shape as possible.
Add a certain point in your car ownership experience, you’ve run into a little thing called “changing your tires”. People tend to do this whenever their old tires are too old or too worn out to deliver safe performance, meaning that the next logical step is to get them replaced.
If you’ve ever watched the process, you may have noticed that it’s not just about feeding the tires to the wheels. There is something called balancing, which is an essential part of the process, something that you shouldn’t skip. Contrary to popular belief, there are two ways of balancing the tire. The regular one is the process you’ve seen, but the second one is something that isn’t used as often.
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The second type of balancing is called road force balancing, which is what I’ll be talking about today. I’ll explain what the difference is between these two types of balancing, and if the road force one is something you should consider.
What is Tire Balancing?
I won’t be diving too much into the finer details of this, so I’ll try to be as brief as possible. Tire balancing, as you can guess from the name, is the process of balancing the tire to eliminate any potential vibrations or wobbling. This usually happens whenever you go to replace your tires, meaning that it’s not something you do too frequently.
The main reason why we need to balance our tires is because regardless of how advanced the overall process is, they still come out a bit imperfect. You probably won’t notice this with the naked eye, but you will notice it once you start driving. Due to the slight imperfection, the lack of balance is the main reason why many people notice vibrations.
To remedy this issue, technicians check the balance and add counterweights in specific locations on the wheel, which helps even things out. The result of this is the tire and wheel combination that will rotate without any noticeable vibrations.
![](https://tirehungry.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-being-taking-care-workshop-1024x683.jpg)
You may think that the biggest issue with vibrations is the inconvenience, but there is another problem. Excess vibration from the tire gets transferred from the wheel to all the remaining components of the car. Even though they’re all designed to handle everyday driving, that excess vibration puts additional strain, meaning that they can fail sooner than they should. In addition to this, excess vibrations will often result in uneven wear in tires.
What is a Standard Tire Balance?
The standard tire balancing is something that we all know, and most of us have been doing it for a while. This is the process where the technician months the tire and the machine spins it. During the process, multiple sensors determine if the tire is out of balance and if the technician needs to add weights.
As the tire spins have a certain speed, the machine determines the best locations where the weights should be added. As soon as the cycle is completed, the technician spins the tire slowly and monitors where the weights should be added. This is done with the help of the machine, which indicates the exact location on the wheel where the weights should be added.
Once the testing phase is completed, the machine determines the “heavy parts” of the tire and tells the technician where to add the weights.
What is road force balancing?
In essence, road force balancing is similar to the regular one, with one crucial difference. Like before, the entire technician installs the tire and wheel on the machine designed to identify where the weights need to be added. And so far you think that things are the same as before, but there is one crucial difference here.
Unlike the previous type of balancing, with the road force balancing one, the tire isn’t just spinning on the machine. Here, we also have a roller designed to simulate real-life usage. As the tire spins, the roller is pressed against it. The forces are calculated to be like when a tire is mounted on a car and the weight is pushing it onto the road. With most machines, the technician can fine-tune the amount of weight that gets put on the tire and get it as close to the real deal as possible.
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From this point on, the process is quite similar. The machine spins the tire, the second roller applies the pressure, and the machine identifies irregularities. This is where the technician comes into play and adds the weights. The final step is to double-check if the balance is good and the wheel goes on the car.
Is road force balancing right for you?
Now, it’s time to discuss if road force balancing is the right option for you. Even though it’s the more precise balancing option when compared to the regular one, it may not be ideal for everyone.
In most tire shops, this is the balancing that’s a bit more expensive. It’s not overly expensive, but there is a difference. To be fair, the difference has shrunk in the past several years, so some people won’t give this too much thought.
Despite that, the price can be a deciding factor for some, and if you fall in this category, you can save a few bucks by going for the regular balancing.
Next up we have the tire sizes. As the automotive industry evolved over the years, so did the tires. For the balancing application, I’ll talk about tire size. In the past, most economy vehicles had tires with a higher sidewall profile. Even today, some models follow the same rule.
When it comes to balancing, tires with a larger profile won’t benefit too much from road force balancing. Sure, the tires will be balanced, but they won’t differ too much from the regular ones. The bigger profile means that there will be more flex and many of the vibrations will go unnoticed. Don’t take this the wrong way, the tires will be balanced, but you won’t notice many of the secondary vibrations, and you won’t feel like the tires are not properly balanced.
![](https://tirehungry.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/car-mechanic-changing-wheels-car-1024x683.jpg)
On the other hand, tires with a smaller profile can benefit from road force balancing. The smaller and often stiffer sidewall means that even the faint vibration will be noticed easily. It’s an unpleasant feeling and people want to eliminate it as soon as possible. Yes, regular balancing may do the trick, but some people experience issues.
This leads me to the last reason why you should consider road force balancing or not. I’ve been in a situation where I went to switch my winter with summer tires and had them balanced. Things didn’t work well on the first try and I had excessive vibration. I went back to the shop to have things checked and to have the tires re-balanced. The shop managed to fine-tune it on the second try. To be fair, I didn’t have to resort to road force balancing, but it’s something that should be mentioned.
Going for road force balancing is a good option to minimize any potential situations where the tires won’t be balanced right on the first try. Many people don’t need to go back and usually don’t worry about anything. With that said, there are exceptions and people experience these issues. A better way to eliminate this is to go for road force balancing. This can be especially helpful in persistent issues with regular balancing.
Conclusion
Tire balancing is a crucial aspect that helps you keep the vibrations to a minimum. They don’t come perfect from the factory, so the process is crucial, not only from the vibration standpoint but also to keep them as long-lasting as possible. This also minimizes wear and tear on additional components.
Apart from the traditional balance most people know, there is another type known as road force balancing. It’s a similar procedure, but unlike the standard one, this is the process where force is applied to the tire to simulate real-world driving conditions.
In many ways, road force balancing is better than the traditional one, but that doesn’t mean it’s the ideal choice for everyone. If you’re in a dilemma about this question, today’s guide should help you decide if you should go for it or stick to the old faithful-ish.