Balance Tires

Tire vibration can be extremely annoying. Tire dealers and car dealers wage a constant battle to provide the customer with a smooth ride. Balancing equipment technology has come a long way and tire technicians are better trained, but for some reason replacement tires never seem to have that same new-car smoothness. Even new cars suffer from road vibration. In some cases, it is severe enough that new car dealers have to take back a new vehicle or suffer the consequences of an unhappy customer. It's not just a tire imbalance problem.


A less known cause of wheel/tire vibration is tire force variation—the variation in the radius of the tire as it travels down the road due to speed, load, air pressure, temperature and road conditions. The result is tires that perform smoothly at 55mph but vibrate at 35 or 65mph. The problem may be in the tire construction, in the wheel or in the fact that many custom wheels will only accept balance weights on the inner half of the wheel. Regardless of why, tire force variation cannot be balanced out with conventional dual-plane spin tire balancing.


The engineers at EQUAL Tire Performance have come up with an interesting solution that addresses this problem. A dry granular polymer is inserted through the valve stem and acts as an "active" balancing system that cancels out vibration with every rotation of the tire. The theory is based on the old physics equation that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The vibrations, created by the force variation of the tire meeting the highway, move EQUAL as far away from the source of vibration as possible, which is 180 degrees from the problem. These vibrations position EQUAL across the tread and around the tire circumference, equalizing the tire forces dynamically, ensuring that the tread footprint meets the highway evenly and smoothly during every rotation.


Does it work? Sophisticated rolling dynamometers that measure road force show impressive improvements of up to a 50% in tire rolling uniformity over tires that were dual-plane spin balanced. AutoMedia.com had EQUAL installed in a Toyota 4-Runner with monster off-road tires with aggressive tread, probably the most difficult combination to attain any ride smoothness. EQUAL made a discernable difference, especially at highway speeds.


A few of the long-term benefits of EQUAL are that it ensures a smooth ride for the life of the tire without need for rebalancing as tires wear. You also get optimized tire performance because the tread surface meets the road more evenly, ensuring better traction and control. And because the tire tread meets the road more evenly, tread wear will be more consistent and improved.