Those who doubt the hunter 9700 balancer..

[Jon K]

so I had this shimmy, i've done urethane bushings, that alleviated the 55mph shakiness. I still had a slight vibration @ 65+. Martin, bahnstormer, supplied thoroughly used tires on the #72's I bought from him. They were assumingly balanced, but after mounting new tire @ work (very hard, by the way) and balancing on a Hunter 9700 we have, any and all shakes and vibes are completely gone. The wheels needed about .50 ounces of weight each, and one needed 1.50 ounces, but after weighting, all the wheels spec'd 0 ounces out of balance both free and road force! Smooth as butter!

[632 Regal]

the machines are absolutly state of the art awesome, its when you read and learn the machine and go to discount tire and you know more than the operator that sux...

they looked at me like I was stupid...wasted a lot of time and money, left all the big rocks in the tread, didnt zero the machine to test it, and didnt rotate the tires cause they were "within speck".

If you study the Hunter site they believe that you should be able to "zero" out any tire without weights (by trimming a bit of side tread) and anything over I forget the number, think it was 2 oz, is a defective tire. My tires were 21 lbs road force (?) and that definetly wasnt good at speed.

got cheap winter tires and couldnt believe my car could run that smooth...our cars can feel 10 grams at 75-80mph. that was simply sticking weights on by some old beat up balancer.

round tires are key here!

[liquidtiger720]

So...I can get tires mounted and balanced for free but not road force. Do you think its worth an extra 170 bucks?

[632 Regal]

it really matters on the tires in my oppinion, (just my oppinion) originally i got some uniroyals (unieggs) that sucked, after complaining I upgraded to other tires they couldnt seem to handle. Both sets were road forced and brought back on a weekly basis. It ended up in a heated discussion with another manager that said that it's my car and not the tires...with the "upgrade" and road force balancing it totaled over 1000 bux... and then I got my winter tires for 60 bux each...night and day AND on the same rims. Im sure if they wanted to they could have fixed them with the hunter but chose to "get em in and out" no matter what.

You probably saved a LOT of time and money choosing the route you took.

[LMUNick]

Here's the Hunter link with the demo video-

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/images/demo.cfm

[Hector]

for all 4s.

I'm a believer of dynamic balancing... it works!

[liquidtiger720]

for all 4s.

I'm a believer of dynamic balancing... it works!


Problem is, thier machine is broken. :D


I wonder how much it would cost if I bought tires online, and had somebody mount them with Road force balance.

And....what is this straight trek thing? Seems pretty cool...but I can't find anywhere around here that has it.

[Tiger]

Bah! Hunter is way overpriced service. I used simple Coat 700 balancer and zero vibration... Cost me nothing to use. The problem with most people is that they don't calibrate their balancers often enough!

[MantecaBMW]

$30.00 each to mount and roadforce on the Hunter.

Well worth it in my book!

[Jon K]

Well seeing as I've had 2 or 3 sets of tires balanced by basic balancers on 15" rims and they vibed, Martin (whos rims I bought w/ tires) had issues getting them to balance too, and then I went an balanced on a GSP9700, all spec'd 0 ounces, and I have no more issues what so ever up to 145mph, I'm more than happy with the Hunter machine. I've had Yokoaham AVS Sport DB2, Dunlop Sports, Michelin Sport Primacy, Continental ContiSport Contact, and I always had an annoying vibration above 70mph.

I will say that the balance was free because I work at Jaguar dealership. If anyony in the immediate area needs wheels balanced, (Philadelphia area) let me know, just tip the mechanic like $20 and he'll do all 4 and balance them to zero for you.

[winfred]

i have almost 10k miles on the kumho 712s on the front of my 535 and they have no weights on them at all, i have a tire machine but no ballencer, i like to mount up my tires and run them a day or two and then get them spun, it seems to get a longer better ballence if they have been run a little to even them out, and i have had it to around 135 with no shimmey :D

[Kalevera]

i have almost 10k miles on the kumho 712s on the front of my 535 and they have no weights on them at all, i have a tire machine but no ballencer, i like to mount up my tires and run them a day or two and then get them spun, it seems to get a longer better ballence if they have been run a little to even them out, and i have had it to around 135 with no shimmey :D
Jeeze, I hate my 712's. I don't know how many miles are on them, but I bought them used and the PO must've done something like hacked away certain parts of the tread with an exacto knife. Not only are they loud -- three have a flat spots on the inner tread and all have feathering. This translates to a gyrating, out of balance sound on the morning drive (~ 25 miles). Surprisingly, maybe due to sitting out in the sun all day, they're much smoother on the drive home. I had the car on a lift on Monday and considered moving my two rear tires to the front, only to discover that they had more flat spots than the current fronts do.

I can't wait to get rid of them. In fact, I wish they'd wear out faster :)


best, whit

[winfred]

i have liked mine and am getting ready to get another pair for the front and move those to the back, that will make two complete sets that i've bought for the 535, with my wholesale connection to tire rack they run $62-68 each + s/h which is on par with tax if i had to get them in town but about $30 each cheeper vs actually buying them from a tire shop


Jeeze, I hate my 712's.

[Hector]

but at 80 mph with my unidirectional ZIEX Falkens... no doubt it's was begging for the Hunter... I was told by a tire expert that one gets the most bang from the buck if the GSP Hunter is used on larger nonstock wheels.


Well seeing as I've had 2 or 3 sets of tires balanced by basic balancers on 15" rims and they vibed, Martin (whos rims I bought w/ tires) had issues getting them to balance too, and then I went an balanced on a GSP9700, all spec'd 0 ounces, and I have no more issues what so ever up to 145mph, I'm more than happy with the Hunter machine. I've had Yokoaham AVS Sport DB2, Dunlop Sports, Michelin Sport Primacy, Continental ContiSport Contact, and I always had an annoying vibration above 70mph.

I will say that the balance was free because I work at Jaguar dealership. If anyony in the immediate area needs wheels balanced, (Philadelphia area) let me know, just tip the mechanic like $20 and he'll do all 4 and balance them to zero for you.

[liquidtiger720]

I think Im going to see how well they balance without the RF and save my 120 bucks.


Where do you guys think I should place my weights? If the lip is pretty substantial...I dont think I could put it on the inside.

[Kalevera]

i have liked mine and am getting ready to get another pair for the front and move those to the back, that will make two complete sets that i've bought for the 535, with my wholesale connection to tire rack they run $62-68 each + s/h which is on par with tax if i had to get them in town but about $30 each cheeper vs actually buying them from a tire shop
Yeah, we've got an account with TR as well -- not sure if the pricing's that good, though :D. I'm thinking I'll try the ASXs when it comes time....hopefully they're more of what I'm looking for.


best, whit