Wheel balancers

[Guest]

Looking at these manual type spring and spirit bubble wheel balancers. Are they ok for ocassional use for seven and tintop? Anyone got any advice?

[Roger Ford]

Not sure what you're referring to, but I use an Abba motorcycle one (here) modified with the addition of an old Caterham hub. Seems to work reasonably well.

[Guest]

I was thinking of one like this link

[Guest]

Thanks Roger, I did see that type too, and wondered if it would work.

[Roger Ford]

Hmm, looks a bit Michael Mouse to me. The ABBA ones (there are cheaper ones on ebay that look similar work OK, but they're designed to fit through the wheel bearings on a bike wheel. I thought about making up much bigger cones, but not sure it would work. Then I replaced a hub, and realised I could just put the old one on the balancer and bolt the wheel onto that.

[apjenkins]

I used one 0f these for 30 years on our 10+ fleet of company vehicles (we changed our own tyres) and also on my 7, whilst I appreciate it is nowhere 'state of the art' I never had one complaint.

 

@ndrew

[Guest]

Yes Roger, I agree it looks a bit flimsy, particularly in the plastic. There are metal ones available.

Thanks for the reply Andrew, might give one a go then.

[ric355]

I used one for a while, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's hard to get reliable results from it, particularly with light wheels such as the 13's on most sevens. The problem is the springs are too stiff. You press the wheel down against the central cone to centre it, and the springs push it back up so it can be balanced via a central bubble. But since the springs are so strong the wheel almost always moves off centre no matter how lightly you release it. If you balance the wheel from a slightly off centre position, the end result won't be what you expect.

 

I found it fine with heavy range rover wheels, but unreliable with 13's on the caterham.

 

I now have an electronic balancer which does a proper job. It's a hand spin one so doesn't take up too much room and bought second hand was quite cheap (about 120 quid I think).

[Guest]

Thanks for that, maybe I won't be trying one then!! ☹️