recommend me a no frills balancer

[eljefino]

Was looking at a used snap on wb240 two plane balancer. Seems like there's much money/space to be saved by having to spin the tire yourself instead of having a heavy monster motor that needs 220v (or three phase!!!). I'm not familiar with the "entry level" type stuff and searching is hard. Apparantly the wb240 has a fair amount of precision... I don't mind taking extra time or effort if I'll get a good result.

I have a bubble/static balancer but have outgrown that.

 

[carwreck]

Garagejournal has a tool discussion for wheel balancers.

GarageJournal WB240Thread

WB240 Manual

 

[eljefino]

I read that thread and thanks for the manual!

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
I have a bubble/static balancer but have outgrown that.


You could send it to me.

I miss mine. Well, without having a tire changer anymore, I don't have a lot of need for a balancer anyhow.

 

[eljefino]

It's a horrible freight model. For you, it would have been imported twice!

It's so awful I just spin my tire on a brakeless rear hub (less friction) and if the thing auto-reverses I put half an ounce up top.

 

[Garak]

Yikes, no wonder you wish to upgrade.

 

[eljefino]

Well I got the Wb240. There's a reason some people don't put pictures on craigslist... all the labels were wore off the knobs. Turns out Snap on tried white paint on plexiglass and thought it would stick?

Will report more after I mess with it.

 

[eljefino]

Rebalanced my car and OMG smooth.

The backstory: I have a junkyard "source" of $10 nearly new tires and have been mounting them myself since 2004 with a harbor freight all manual changer. For balancing I've done the aforementioned hub-spin method and a HF cone balancer. I lost the "bulls eye" so was just measuring distance to the floor in a few spots with it teetering on the cone. I occasionally would bring a tough tire to walmart for a $5 one time balance. I think they use "Hunter smartweight" as it would come back with one weight in one spot.

Then I've gone so far as to bring my weight pliers with me in the car and when I stop I add thirty degrees to a weight to see if it made things any better or worse.

So yeah the time came. I would heartily recommend this to any BITOG type tire nerd.