Wheel Balancers...... After reading about some of the complaints with corrosion buildup on wheels causing wheel and tire imbalance I wanted to suggest a product that am currently using. This type of product continuously balances the wheel and tire assembly, no matter the road conditions, the terrain, or road speed. Centramatic and Balance Masters are two of the manufacturers in this industry. One design consists of an aluminum disc mounted on the hub behind the wheel. This disc has a sealed ring filled with grains of a material that flow continuously and spread evenly around the ring with the centrifugal force generated from wheel rotation. Another design consists of a disc that also has a sealed ring, but this one is filled with ball bearings and a type of oil. Both of these products have been available for years and are generally marketed for the commercial trucking industry. There are smaller scale demonstration models attached to electric motor driven wheel and tire assemblies in truckstops all over the country.
I personally have used these products on a Class 8 (26,000 lbs and above) truck with 24.5 wheels that I drove for years. I am currently using this product on my '09 Ram 2500 with 17" wheels. These products are available for pickup trucks. As a result, wheel and tire balance is improved, tire wear is reduced, tire life is increased, However, I do not have conclusive comparisons concerning fuel mileage. There are so many factors that contribute to fuel mileage that is is difficult to narrow down. I can tell you that I nearly doubled the tire life on the heavy truck that I drove. Steer axle tire life increased from 125,000 miles to 200,000 miles. When you consider that next to fuel cost, tires are your next biggest maintenance expense in trucking, this is huge. For a Class 8 truck this equates to about $4000.00 for a set of 8 drive axle and 2 steer axle tires. My current pickup has 65,000 miles on 17" BF Goodrich All Terrain T/A's with 8 to 9/32" of tire tread left. These tires are wearing evenly. I am currently researching whether or not this product is currently available for the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel.
