Paddletrucker
04-14-2013, 02:16 AM
Ok, ok, ok.....
I've never tried this on my Jeep....yet. But that's only because I just recently, within the last few days, found out that this product was available for Jeeps. I wonder if any of you have tried this or something similar.
A few years ago, I had my tractor leased to FedEx. I'd pull double and triple trailers each night between Tulsa, OK and Dallas, TX, or Lenexa(Kansas City), KS, or Oklahoma City, OK.
Here is a shot of what I pulled.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj298/picsofnate/E93A1FA8-7762-4AFE-9DA1-3C2746B04693-1871-000003779F92F463.jpg (http://s275.photobucket.com/user/picsofnate/media/E93A1FA8-7762-4AFE-9DA1-3C2746B04693-1871-000003779F92F463.jpg.html)
Here are a couple of pics a buddy took as I pulled out of the gate one night.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj298/picsofnate/AE8A9179-6A9E-4CDB-A627-BE81880C2A98-1871-00000377A8C979A6.jpg (http://s275.photobucket.com/user/picsofnate/media/AE8A9179-6A9E-4CDB-A627-BE81880C2A98-1871-00000377A8C979A6.jpg.html)
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj298/picsofnate/6CC535D5-8B55-4DA8-BCCC-34523097DE9D-1871-0000037795718CEA.jpg (http://s275.photobucket.com/user/picsofnate/media/6CC535D5-8B55-4DA8-BCCC-34523097DE9D-1871-0000037795718CEA.jpg.html)
For reference, the trailers were 28 feet long, and usually weighed about 10,000lbs and were loaded with anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000lbs per trailer with packages.
As you can imagine, it was important to me to keep my truck driving as perfectly as possible. I DID NOT like fighting the wheel trying to keep all that straight. It was easy as pie, but if you let it whip around, things would get Western in a great big hurry due to something called "rearward amplification". That basically means that a little jerk on the wheel, would have an increasingly greater effect toward the rear of a vehicle that's pulling a trailer(s). I could move the wheel of the truck just enough to move my nose over a foot, and it could send the last trailer into the other lane. I tried to take GREAT care of my front end.
I was having quite a bit of problems with keeping tires in balance on the front end of my truck. Most folks rarely balance the tires on the rear of those things. Sometimes I would, and sometimes I wouldn't. I'd primarily focus on the font end. First, I wanted it to drive good, and second, a set of steer tires is right around a thousand bucks. I would usually get about 90 to 100 thousand miles, or one years worth of driving our of them, which I thought was low, since I could easily get 400-450 thousand out of my drive tires on the rear.
One night, at about two in the morning, it happened. I hit a little uneven spot in the pavement, and all hell broke lose. The front end began shaking violently. The 18 inch steering wheel began rapidly going left to right and almost broke my left thumb. The front end was also jumping up and down. I was really heavy that night with all three trailers almost at capacity. I think I was just over 98,000 pounds, if I remember. ( I was tagged to legally weigh 110,000). I QUICKLY dropped through the gears and stopped on the shoulder, expecting to find something horribly and visibly wrong under my truck. Nope. Everything appeared normal. I continued on in, as cautiously as I could, with no more problems.
I took it to the front end shop where it was declared to be aligned perfectly and tight. Everything normal. OK. Fluke? I wasn't convinced, but I was assured the front end was fine.
Over the next couple of months, the problem became worse and I went through front end shops (supposedly top notch ones) like Homer Simpson goes through Duff Beer. I finally found a guy who did alignments and REFUSED to use a computer. He'd use a level, a plumb bob, and take very precise measurements to align the truck. Before he drove the truck on his rack, he'd make sure the rack was perfectly level. It was the best alignment I've had and since 2007, he's the only one to have touched my front end. He found a slight problem that others had missed. Since he's been my front end guy, I've never had the 50 ton death wobble ever again. You think your XJ scares you when that happens? Try it with the outfit pictured above! It was only seconded by sitting through a tornado in my truck.
One of the problems I was having was keeping the tires on the front balanced. This was causing the death wobble to begin. Other front end wear and looseness would allow it to continue or worsen. If you've ever driven US75 north of Dallas into Oklahoma, and continued on into Oklahoma on US69, you know how rough that road is. I was losing wheel weights left and right. IT was causing my tires to wear prematurely. That was in turn causing my front end parts to wear prematurely, and THAT was causing the death wobble. I was having my tires balanced every few weeks for about 65 bucks. It was expensive, time consuming, and generally annoying.
I listen to a trucking radio show out of Cincinnati, OH and one of their sponsors was Centramatic. It's a continuous wheel balancing system that only cost me $200 to put on the front of my tractor. It was the answer to my prayers! My truck never rode better. I went from replacing steer tires ever 100,000 to 125,000 miles to almost 250,000 miles. I was amazed.
I recently found out that they offer the balancers for Jeeps. We've already got it on our 3/4 ton four wheel drive diesel truck, and I can say that I've been just as happy with them on there. In fact, after running them on all four wheels on the pickup, I started running them on all three axles on my tractor with excellent results.
Here's a video of the concept of how they work.
How Centramatic Balancers Work - YouTube!
Here's the website.
http://centramatic.com/Home.aspx
And here's what I found just the other day.
http://centramatic.com/ShowItemDetail.aspx?id=12524
When I told my grandpa about the great luck i'd had with these things, he told me that back in the day, they'd run golf balls in the tires. I have tried the packs the tire shops put in the tires, both the powder and the lead, but haven't had the same results I've had with the centramatics. I've ONLY used old fashioned, clamp on wheel weights on my Jeep or pickup trucks.
I was wondering if anyone had ever used this, or another similar wheel balancing product on their Jeep. I know that I was knocking wheel weights of far too often driving really rough roads, and thought of a 4WD vehicle knocking off weights while wheeling. Is that a problem?
Anyway, I'm not really trying to push Centramatics. I'm simply wondering if any of you had tried anything like this and if your results were as good as mine has been on heavier vehicles. I've had great luck with them on my big truck and have thought I'd use them on my Jeep maybe. Knowing about the death wobble problem with Jeeps, and knowing what I'm going to spend on tires once the lift goes on, I'm certainly looking for an edge to keep everything in balance and straight.
I've never tried this on my Jeep....yet. But that's only because I just recently, within the last few days, found out that this product was available for Jeeps. I wonder if any of you have tried this or something similar.
A few years ago, I had my tractor leased to FedEx. I'd pull double and triple trailers each night between Tulsa, OK and Dallas, TX, or Lenexa(Kansas City), KS, or Oklahoma City, OK.
Here is a shot of what I pulled.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj298/picsofnate/E93A1FA8-7762-4AFE-9DA1-3C2746B04693-1871-000003779F92F463.jpg (http://s275.photobucket.com/user/picsofnate/media/E93A1FA8-7762-4AFE-9DA1-3C2746B04693-1871-000003779F92F463.jpg.html)
Here are a couple of pics a buddy took as I pulled out of the gate one night.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj298/picsofnate/AE8A9179-6A9E-4CDB-A627-BE81880C2A98-1871-00000377A8C979A6.jpg (http://s275.photobucket.com/user/picsofnate/media/AE8A9179-6A9E-4CDB-A627-BE81880C2A98-1871-00000377A8C979A6.jpg.html)
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj298/picsofnate/6CC535D5-8B55-4DA8-BCCC-34523097DE9D-1871-0000037795718CEA.jpg (http://s275.photobucket.com/user/picsofnate/media/6CC535D5-8B55-4DA8-BCCC-34523097DE9D-1871-0000037795718CEA.jpg.html)
For reference, the trailers were 28 feet long, and usually weighed about 10,000lbs and were loaded with anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000lbs per trailer with packages.
As you can imagine, it was important to me to keep my truck driving as perfectly as possible. I DID NOT like fighting the wheel trying to keep all that straight. It was easy as pie, but if you let it whip around, things would get Western in a great big hurry due to something called "rearward amplification". That basically means that a little jerk on the wheel, would have an increasingly greater effect toward the rear of a vehicle that's pulling a trailer(s). I could move the wheel of the truck just enough to move my nose over a foot, and it could send the last trailer into the other lane. I tried to take GREAT care of my front end.
I was having quite a bit of problems with keeping tires in balance on the front end of my truck. Most folks rarely balance the tires on the rear of those things. Sometimes I would, and sometimes I wouldn't. I'd primarily focus on the font end. First, I wanted it to drive good, and second, a set of steer tires is right around a thousand bucks. I would usually get about 90 to 100 thousand miles, or one years worth of driving our of them, which I thought was low, since I could easily get 400-450 thousand out of my drive tires on the rear.
One night, at about two in the morning, it happened. I hit a little uneven spot in the pavement, and all hell broke lose. The front end began shaking violently. The 18 inch steering wheel began rapidly going left to right and almost broke my left thumb. The front end was also jumping up and down. I was really heavy that night with all three trailers almost at capacity. I think I was just over 98,000 pounds, if I remember. ( I was tagged to legally weigh 110,000). I QUICKLY dropped through the gears and stopped on the shoulder, expecting to find something horribly and visibly wrong under my truck. Nope. Everything appeared normal. I continued on in, as cautiously as I could, with no more problems.
I took it to the front end shop where it was declared to be aligned perfectly and tight. Everything normal. OK. Fluke? I wasn't convinced, but I was assured the front end was fine.
Over the next couple of months, the problem became worse and I went through front end shops (supposedly top notch ones) like Homer Simpson goes through Duff Beer. I finally found a guy who did alignments and REFUSED to use a computer. He'd use a level, a plumb bob, and take very precise measurements to align the truck. Before he drove the truck on his rack, he'd make sure the rack was perfectly level. It was the best alignment I've had and since 2007, he's the only one to have touched my front end. He found a slight problem that others had missed. Since he's been my front end guy, I've never had the 50 ton death wobble ever again. You think your XJ scares you when that happens? Try it with the outfit pictured above! It was only seconded by sitting through a tornado in my truck.
One of the problems I was having was keeping the tires on the front balanced. This was causing the death wobble to begin. Other front end wear and looseness would allow it to continue or worsen. If you've ever driven US75 north of Dallas into Oklahoma, and continued on into Oklahoma on US69, you know how rough that road is. I was losing wheel weights left and right. IT was causing my tires to wear prematurely. That was in turn causing my front end parts to wear prematurely, and THAT was causing the death wobble. I was having my tires balanced every few weeks for about 65 bucks. It was expensive, time consuming, and generally annoying.
I listen to a trucking radio show out of Cincinnati, OH and one of their sponsors was Centramatic. It's a continuous wheel balancing system that only cost me $200 to put on the front of my tractor. It was the answer to my prayers! My truck never rode better. I went from replacing steer tires ever 100,000 to 125,000 miles to almost 250,000 miles. I was amazed.
I recently found out that they offer the balancers for Jeeps. We've already got it on our 3/4 ton four wheel drive diesel truck, and I can say that I've been just as happy with them on there. In fact, after running them on all four wheels on the pickup, I started running them on all three axles on my tractor with excellent results.
Here's a video of the concept of how they work.
How Centramatic Balancers Work - YouTube!
Here's the website.
http://centramatic.com/Home.aspx
And here's what I found just the other day.
http://centramatic.com/ShowItemDetail.aspx?id=12524
When I told my grandpa about the great luck i'd had with these things, he told me that back in the day, they'd run golf balls in the tires. I have tried the packs the tire shops put in the tires, both the powder and the lead, but haven't had the same results I've had with the centramatics. I've ONLY used old fashioned, clamp on wheel weights on my Jeep or pickup trucks.
I was wondering if anyone had ever used this, or another similar wheel balancing product on their Jeep. I know that I was knocking wheel weights of far too often driving really rough roads, and thought of a 4WD vehicle knocking off weights while wheeling. Is that a problem?
Anyway, I'm not really trying to push Centramatics. I'm simply wondering if any of you had tried anything like this and if your results were as good as mine has been on heavier vehicles. I've had great luck with them on my big truck and have thought I'd use them on my Jeep maybe. Knowing about the death wobble problem with Jeeps, and knowing what I'm going to spend on tires once the lift goes on, I'm certainly looking for an edge to keep everything in balance and straight.