Wheel Balancer

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With the increasing concern that people are showing about the environment these days, coupled with the ever increasing price of gas, anyone who can offer drivers a chance to save fuel and do their bit for the environment is sure to be on to a winner. One of the quickest ways that you can improve fuel efficiency on a vehicle is by ensuring that the wheels are properly set, and the tires balanced. Using a wheel balancer, it is possible to ensure that the wheels are completely true. This will allow for a much more stable ride, with lower levels of vibration, and make the car more responsive and easy to drive.

Due to imperfections in the way a tire is produced, coupled with the fact that they will never sit perfectly on the wheel rim, there is always a slight flaw in the distribution of the weight. Although the imperfection in the tire may only be the very slightest amount, when moving at speed it can have a serious effect in how much the wheel moves or wobbles, and this can create a real problem for a driver.

A wheel that is not properly balanced will wobble slightly when the car is moving, and while the effect of this is quite light at first, over time it can actually cause major damage to the steering, drive train and suspension of the car, and end up creating a huge repair bill for the owner. Using a wheel balancer, it is possible to prevent any problems from happening in the first place, and give drivers a much more stable and pleasant ride from the start.

In the past, ensuring that tires and wheels were completely balanced in use was a real art form, and getting the technique absolutely right was a case of trial and error, with different weight levels and positions being tested until the best approximation was reached, and the wheel ran as true as possible.

A modern wheel balancer take much of the guess work and trial and error out of the task, and is a highly advanced computer controlled tool works by spinning a wheel at very high speed, measuring every little defect until the exact position for the weight and the perfect amount of weight that needs to be added is calculated. Once this has been done, a short test run is required in order to confirm that the process has been carried out properly, and then the wheel can be fitted back onto the vehicle.

As with any piece of computerized equipment, a wheel balancer represents a significant investment for a modern workshop, but is worth every penny of the cost. It is worth considering a number of different options when choosing the right model for you and a large portion of the decision will be governed by how many wheels you intend to balance and the level of investment that you are prepared to make in order to add the service to your portfolio.

A typical entry level wheel balancer such as the Ammco AMM850 will cost approximately $4,000. It can test a wheel in approximately 10 seconds, and requires a certain amount of manual intervention to get the best possible results. At the top end of the market, a fully computerised system such as the world class Ammco AMMXR1800 provides a full suite of testing software to give you a complete diagnosis of the wheel to make sure that you are able to give the best possible results for your clients.

When a driver has had the wheels on his car balanced, the benefits will be almost immediate in terms of the improved road holding, better ride, and of course the major improvements to their fuel economy.