To maintain a smooth ride on a vehicle, good wheel balancing is a necessity. In the video above from the Tire Review Continental Tire Garage Studio, we’ll talk more about the process of balancing a customer’s wheels.

Custom wheels with low-profile tires can cause tire vibration and discomfort in the driver’s seat if the wheels aren’t balanced properly, which is something your customer definitely doesn’t want. Here are a few tips to follow when mounting a fresh new wheel assembly onto a wheel balancer to ensure you’re servicing the customer’s investment properly.

Let’s first talk about collets. Collets are two-sided and can cover two different-sized wheels. They have a steeper taper and cannot push plastic cladding out from the backside, unlike cones, which can push the cladding out and ruin the wheel.

You want to use collets from the backside of the wheel only, since they cannot go through the center bore of a plastic-clad wheel without damaging the wheel assembly. Using them from the backside of the wheel prevents damage to the wheel’s cosmetic face.

A lot of times, wheels are damaged by technicians simply trying to put them on the balancer. It’s common to scratch or gouge wheels with tooling or even with the shaft of the balancer. Using a wheel lift allows the technician to be more precise in placing all the tooling in the proper position, which is especially true for heavy custom truck wheels.

You’ll also want to use a wheel balancer’s behind-the-spoke mode to hide wheel weights behind the spokes and make the outer plane of the weights virtually invisible. Address any static or dynamic imbalance as even a one-fourth ounce of residual static imbalance on a large custom wheel assembly can create enough force to transmit vibration to the steering and suspension of the vehicle, which causes an uncomfortable ride and a poor-driving vehicle.

Last but not least, keep up on the maintenance of your wheel balancer. Tooling for wheel balancers should be replaced every five-to-seven years. When replacing the tooling, also check the diameter of the balancer since this is where the collets rest during balancing. Replace the shaft if it is too small in diameter.