2016 Wheel Balancer offer

[FJReady]

Happy New Year everybody!

Apparently I've had some patient customers who missed previous year balancer offers and have expressed interest in the next 'production run'.

So here it is. Same deal as last year- refer to 2015 GB thread for background and photos etc.

Pricing will be $2 more to cover bearing price increase: $90 per unit. I didn't check with USPS but I expect that they won't raise their rates appreciably since last year so I plan on keeping shipping costs the same too: $8 to Chicago and eastward, $10 Chicago to Denver, $12 to west coast, $16 to Canada.

It usually takes you guys 3-4 weeks to decide if you want one so I'll wait until January 31st to get orders. Then I should be shipping before the end of February.

I need to get 10 orders minimum to keep this pricing so if you really want one, convince one of you buddies to buy one too.

PM me with any questions, etc.

To place order, PM me with your name and shipping address, I'll send my Paypal info or mailing address if you want to pay by check.

Russ

 

[PJ4863]

Bump.. and I'm in!

 

[TomInPA]

IN

PM sent with paypal info and senior discount.

 

[MrZappo]

In. Will send pm

 

[Heen]

I'm In. Sent you a PM.

 

[HotRodZilla]

NICE!

 

[bseelbach]

I'm in. Thanks!!!

 

[ionbeam]

Previous post by Russ from last year.

I've been using my buddy's wheel balancer the last couple years and always felt it had a couple short comings: the two little bearings used on each end of the main shaft seemed to have a little too much friction. I think the outer races perhaps rub on the angle iron they were bolted to. I also thought that the thumb screw used on those cones didn't always give a reliable clamp onto the shaft. It was hard to be sure the m/c wheel bearings were in solid contact with the balancer cones.

So I'd been thinking about building a different balancer of similar function but with a couple improvements. Here it is:

The construction is pretty simple. The shaft is hardened and ground carbon steel. The collars and bearings are off the shelf commercial grade stuff. The only custom items are the two aluminum cones that a friend made for me in his shop.

The whole thing works better than I anticipated. Hard to detect any noticeable friction in this set up.

The black collars clamp very nicely on the shaft without a chance of marring the surface. The aluminum cones have .001" clearance on the shaft and slide easily but don't wiggle around at all. The little compression spring you see keeps the cones firmly planted in the wheel bearing. Very slick, I must say. (Slicker than Bust's sheep on a Saturday night!)

Here it is in the wheel:

Going around:

Non-marring shaft collar:

Redneck front end stand:

Removed front tire. Roadsmart with over 10K, believe it or not.

As far as sensitivity of the balancer goes all I can say is that I could easily detect the addition of a 1 gram weight taped to the wheel. I think this set up is so sensitive that I probably fussed too much over the degree of goodness required. I was trimming the tape on weights with side cutters in BB sized pieces to fine tune the balance.

I haven't been able to road test yet. Some hairy thunderstorms are moving through the area today. I'll report back after I hit the ton for balance feedback.

FYI. I checked the wheel balance without a tire on it. It is way out. I used a chunk of wheel weight about 25 grams to make it close. Unfortunately the PR2 doesn't have light spot indicator so I didn't bother trying to 'match' the tire to the wheel.


I have not tried this on the rear wheel yet. (maybe in a month or so when the Azaro gives up). I'll post up how it works on the rear too.

Russ

I'll note that if you SPIN the wheel and wait for it to stop on its own, plan to come back about 4 days later and see if it has slowed down yet Follow the included excellent instructions for this excellent tool and you will have professional results.

 

[Warpdrv]

Get 'em while they're hot ladies.....

Couldn't be happier with mine - great product.....

 

[FJReady]

Friendly reminder that orders will taken for about two more weeks.

 

[lococnc]

In, on da list.

 

[BigOgre]

Bump and PM sent.

 

[slatonp4]

I'm in (hopefully.) PM sent.

 

[FJReady]

You're in slatonp4, PM sent.

Friendly Reminder #2 - To any fence sitters out there: this is final week to get orders in. Production starts next week.

Orders are light this year. I'm guessing I'm near market saturation so its probably unlikely I'll do this again next winter. Jes sayin...

 

[rushes]

To you fence sitters, this is very high quality.

I'm a tool and die guy and I could build the same, but figuring time and material, his price too good to bother.

I bought one last year and love it.

 

[HotRodZilla]

I'll echo Rushes. If you're sitting on the fence, get off. This balancer rocks. I got one and my brother got one.

 

[TomInPA]

You're in slatonp4, PM sent.
Friendly Reminder #2 - To any fence sitters out there: this is final week to get orders in. Production starts next week.

Orders are light this year. I'm guessing I'm near market saturation so its probably unlikely I'll do this again next winter. Jes sayin...

I don't imagine it will work on car wheels, right? Hey, I'm a waiting and looking forward to it.

 

[bseelbach]

Time is running out

Get them while you can.....

 

[FJRRider08]

Thank you Russ