Ductape Dave wrote: I am going to have the Borg Dually tire valves installed and was wondering if the rear tires should be balanced?
Thanks Dave
Dave,
Watch the installation of the Borg valves and make sure they are installed correctly. Last week when I had new tires installed at Discount Tire I asked the service writer if they had experience with the Borg installation procedure and the reply was "Yes", as I expected. However when the tires were installed I was shocked to see that some of the stems were mounted at an angle, thread lock was not applied to the stems, and they were unable to insert the round discs in the hand holds of the outer tires while they were on the RV. A few of the valves are pressing against the wheel simulators. One was on such an angle that the installer couldn't even force the simulator on so he loosened the nut with a pliers and twisted the valve enough to get the simulator on and probably scored the chrome finish on the valve. I installed the discs when I got home.
The 2 young men did work hard and I tipped both for their effort but they should have at least read the instructions that were included in the package.
Al
Do I think rear duals should be balanced? Yes.
If they already WERE in balance and all I was doing was break the bed down on one side of each tire to install Borg valves, would I re-balance? Probably not.
Two reasons. First, the weight of the brass is in at the rim, 8" off centerline, not out in the tire itself. Second, you'll probably mount the inner and outer wheels with the stems opposite each other. That suggests to me that any weight difference is going to be canceled, or nearly so.
In our case I DID have all six balanced. Part of the reason for doing it on the rears was that I had two of them flipped on their wheels, so all bets were off on the balance of those two, which became the inners.
On our Ford wheels, I threaded the small extra hole that appears between two of the eight mounting holes. That way I can use a bolt to force the wheels off the center hub. When I went to do the Borg project, the two outers were hard to remove and the two inners nearly impossible. Being able to force them off with a threaded driver will prevent being stuck at a future date. I recommend that, but if you do it, then you want to put the inner and outer ONE hole off of opposite. Othewise the threaded hole in the outer wheel will be lined up with the inner. You want the bolt to push on something solid (the wheel surface) not into a corresponding hole.
God Bless, jd
2003 Jayco Escapade 31A on 2002 Ford E450 V10 4R100
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