What a difference a day makes(or why I love road force balancing)
#1
What a difference a day makes(or why I love road force balancing)
I took advantage of the sale recently that discount tire direct had going on to buy some tires for my hfp wheels.I ain't no performance expert,I just liked the looks of them wheels,and though I read about a hit on the mpg I thought I'd giv'em a whirl.Those Yokahomas come with red and yellow dots which as the Tyre Bible web site will tell ya (as does Yoka's site also)are for balancing the red for uniformity balancing,which aligns with the low point runout on the hfp rims.The problem was I couldn't tell how the low point was marked on the rims so I called the honda store I bought 'em from and my local honda dealers parts dept.No one could tell me what or where the low point mark was.So I called customer service at enkei which makes the alloy hfp for honda,the guy there said I stumped him and that no one had ever called with that question.He said when he gets his own tires mounted he just takes em to the local shop and lets them have at it.So thats what I did and they did a pretty good job with their coates machine.The problem was that there was a subtle but noticeable vibration in the steering wheel (not a front end shaking) that occured between 70 -80 mph.I was bummed after all that dough I without hope of any real speed satori.Whats the use of plus sizing and performance tires if you don't get well performance.So I called around and found a shop with the hunter Roadforce balancing machine,this sucker determines the high spot on the tire and the low spot on the wheel and matches'em up to minimize road force which is measured by psi against a simulated road as the wheel spins the lower the better.My wheels showed high 30's and honda recommends mid 20's max.The service tech got all my wheels in the teens.The low profile 205/45/15 that honda recommends for the hfp do provide a harder feel ride and that 36+ psi thump every revolution from 4 tires creates that harmonic vibration especially at higher speeds.after Road force I am here to testify that that sh%%t was totally gone and the move of them wheels after was Sublime.
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