Background
For most of 2020, I had been debating getting new tyres (tires). Ultimately this lead to a Road Force Balancing Road Trip. For one thing I subscribe to the theory of replacing tires based on age. I frankly don’t care what the tread looks like. Why? Because I’ve seen enough stories of MGBs being found upside down in a ditch on the side of the Interstate. The cause? Tire blow outs. The tread looks OK but the tire is not OK. Yet people drive to say a national convention for example and use the interstates to get there running the speed limit on 20-year-old, or older, tires.
For me, if they are 8-10 years old, they are being replaced and mine had a date code of 0111 (1st week of 2011). Secondly, I thought an alignment would be good as I had done a steering rack boot replacement at some point, and despite counting the tie rod rotations closely, I could have been a bit off as there did seem to be some tire wear on the outer edges. However, 2020 was “special” as we all know and with no big cross-country trips planned, my humming and haring went on most of the year and no action was taken, until late November/December.
I came across an article on Road Force Balancing from my friend Rick Mills in Kansas City. This really piqued my interest and the short version is that he was able to get a great road force balancing service at Santa Fe Garage in Independence MO and it solved an annoying vibration issue. They have Hunter Engineering top end equipment and my friend Mike Barnes, who works for Hunter here in St. Louis, also knew of the garage and said I would be very happy with the outcome.
Road Force Balancing Definition
So, what does a road force balancer actually do? As described by tirereview.com: Road force balancers, in addition to performing a traditional spin balance, measure both the wheel and tire by pressing a large roller against the tread of the spinning tire. The roller applies 1,200 to 1,400 pounds of pressure to simulate the weight of the vehicle on the tire as it rolls down the road.
A computer in the machine, along with various sensors, determines variations of tire stiffness, radial runout and anything in the tire’s construction (such as inconsistencies in the belt package) that would prevent the tire from rolling smoothly when it is weighted by the car. By measuring both the wheel and tire, the road force balancer tells the technician where to move the tire around on the wheel until the effective high spot of the tire (when it is rolling on the car) matches the low spot of the wheel – a more sophisticated method of match mounting.
Santa Fe Garage / Tire Purchase
So, I ended up talking to Santa Fe Garage and spoke with Greg Smith. It quickly became apparent they were going to be great to work with and are “car people”. Greg had owned MGBs in the past. I made an appointment for December 8! This gave me some time to complete my purchase of tires. I did this on TireRack.com (a first for me but local choices of 14-inch tires are extremely limited). Although I could have had them dropped shipped to Santa Fe Garage, I got them delivered to me as:
- I wanted to have them with me in case I had any weather issues getting to Independence
- I wanted to check the date codes on the new tires
For my MGBs I won’t accept tires as new if they were manufactured more than 6 months before I buy them. I will never do enough mileage to wear out the tread and replace based on age. My tires came through very quickly via UPS. That gave my delivery man a change from dropping off the usual boxes. I was also very pleased to see the date code on all 4 tires was 2420. This meant I was all set.
To do this I had taken the day off work and made an early start. By being on the road about 5:30 am I’d be sure make the appointment time of no later than 10 am. It was a lot colder, and foggier in the middle of Missouri than when I set off. But with a couple of short stops, I made it to Santa Fe Garage in good time.
Starting the Process
We got started right away with the car up on a lift and a very thorough check of the suspension. Also the steering rack, since problems here will impact the ride smoothness and the alignment.
Nothing major found other than maybe a little wear in the driver’s side tie rod. Next up was the tire install and balancing. Each wheel is tracked/numbered from where it comes off the car. Then each tire is removed, new installed and the balancing performed. The numbering becomes important. The best results from the balancing go on the front wheels and the worst result tire/wheel pair will go to the passenger rear.
Distanced and masked the whole time I was able to watch the entire process and try to understand everything as it was being explained to me. Frankly a good conversation and something that happens when a car enthusiast is doing the work, it’s not a job to them, it’s a mission.
For a couple of my wheels/tires it was necessary, based on the machine findings, to rotate the tires on the wheels. This required marking the positions and then breaking the bead and making the adjustment to put the tire in a specific position on the wheel. There were not, fortunately, any major issues with my wheels (rims) being out of round or buckled/bent.
Notice that the tire is mounted using a fingers device. Critical for RoStyle wheels which are lug centric.
To see the Road Force Balancer in action, view a short video below.
As you may be able to see from the results sheet, the best tire goes on the driver’s front and we work our way around to leave the worst at the passenger rear.
Last up was the alignment check, which was fairly routine, given there is only the one adjustment possible, Toe. This was also achieved with Hunter equipment. Once done all that was left to do was a quick road test to make sure all was OK and that the steering wheel remained straight, as it should be by using a device to keep it in position during the alignment.
Everything was fine and I left about 12:30. I had brought some lunch with me and stopped briefly in the main square. I enjoyed some sunshine that had appeared. Then I made my way home and stuck to the Interstate as far as Warrenton, before getting off to some back roads to test some cornering at speed. After this I was a happy camper! Additionally, I was home early enough to then head out for the club Holiday lights drive at Tilles Park. All in all, a very good day and very happy with my experience at Santa Fe Garage! I am sure you can find shops with this equipment more local. But this was a fun adventure and I now have a really smooth ride.
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