Whether you have new tires for off-roading or new wheels for racing— safety, reliability, and performance are top-of-mind. That’s why it’s important to turn to professionals who can provide high-quality tire mounting and balancing services when you need them.
At HG Performance, state-of-the-art Hunter Engineering equipment allows us to deliver the most precise mounting and balancing service available with the lowest chance of damaging your wheels.
If you’re looking for mounting and balancing service in San Diego, learn how we combine Hunter Engineering equipment and industry-leading processes to help our customers’ vehicles reach peak performance.
Do I Need to Balance My Tires?
Tires and wheels don’t have the same weight distribution which means wheels will naturally be heavier in certain spots. While some weight discrepancy is normal, just a 0.5-ounce weight difference can cause shaking and vibrating when you’re driving.
You should get tire balancing done when:
- You feel vibrating when driving at high speeds
- You feel vibrating in your steering wheel or seat
- You notice uneven wear on your tires
- You get your tires rotated
- You repair a tire (e.g. after a flat)
- You buy new tires
What Are the Benefits of Tire Mounting and Balancing Service?
There are several reasons why proper tire mounting and balance are crucial to your vehicle. When your tire weight is unevenly distributed, it causes vibration, especially at high speeds. Balancing will improve your vehicle’s performance, making each ride smooth. Balancing also helps to ensure your tires last longer, since the service promotes even wear, getting you the most bang for your buck.
Above all, balancing enhances the safety of you and those around you. Your tires are what connect you to the road and balances ensure you have adequate control over your vehicle.
How HG Performance Approaches Tire Mounting and Balancing
Not all tire balancing services are the same. We often see vehicles that have been balanced multiple times by tire shops that still exhibit vibration or tire cupping at freeway speeds.
This is often due to a lack of precision in other tire balancers leaving the tire and wheel assembly 0.5 to 1.0 ounces out of balance. This seemingly small imbalance is enough to feel, especially on sporty vehicles with a more direct connection between their wheels and the chassis. In addition to lack of precision, we often see wheels with visible marks left from mounting and balancing mistakes.
Our mounting and balancing services are designed to provide you with the most precise performance possible, without compromising your wheels in the process.
Here’s how we do it:
Hunter Road Force Touch GSP9700 Provides Precision
Our Hunter Road Force Touch GSP9700 is an important tool in delivering the best possible experience regardless of the type of wheels or tires your vehicle has.
The GSP9700 is more common than our tire mounting machine because it’s designed to save tire shops money by allowing them to use fewer wheel weights. It calculates the fewest number of stick-on weights needed to balance the assembly to a particular threshold that should feel smooth enough on a typical passenger car.
We like the precision but don’t feel that “good enough” is ever enough so we set ours to make the assembly roll as smoothly as possible using 0.25oz stick-on weights. The machine will still avoid redundant weights on opposite sides of the wheel that would cancel each other out. This slightly reduces the total rotational mass of the wheel and tire.
Road Force balancing measures the tire and the wheel to find the high and low spots on each and instructs the technician to spin the tire along with the wheel until the optimal alignment of high and low spots is achieved.
No tire or wheel that we have ever measured is 100% perfectly round so a road force balance delivers a noticeably smoother ride. High spots cause the wheel and tire assembly to bounce along the road and this is felt in the car as vibrations through the steering wheel or seats.
Hunter Revolution™ Tire Changer TCR1 Provides a Touchless Process
Hunter Revolution™ Tire Changer TCR1 was a must-have for us as soon as we saw it in 2014. Since we offer the finest custom wheels from HRE, Vorsteiner, Rays, BBS, Carbon Revolution, and many other brands, the ability to mount tires onto those wheels without marring their finish was a high priority.
We want to go a step beyond selling customers the wheels they want at a great price. The wheel installation process should not leave scuffs or scratches in the barrel or around the outer lip. The Revolution™ is fully touchless so nothing contacts the inner barrel or outer lip of the wheel.
Soft plastic covers all surfaces of the machine that touch the tire since those surfaces come close to the outer lip of the wheel. Our technicians add a second layer of protection with blue Teflon tape. The technician ensures that the plastic tools don’t touch the wheel, but the Teflon tape is there just in case contact is made. The wheel is only held in place by a large plastic spike that clamps down through the center cap hole. For street wheels, this surface is covered by the center cap so even if there were any marring of the finish, this would be an inconspicuous area.
The downside of this type of machine is speed. A more traditional machine can do the job more quickly but if you care about the finish on your wheels, our Hunter Revolution will keep it looking great even after dozens of tire changes!
Precision Tire Mounting and Balancing Service at HG Performance
Your wheels can completely change the dynamics of your vehicle. That’s why we’re committed to providing industry-leading tire mounting and balancing service.
The team at HG Performance is committed to ensuring your vehicle reaches peak performance while saving you money in the process. Speak to our experienced team at our San Diego auto repair shop to schedule maintenance services at 858.943.0891 or leave us a message on our online contact form.