I had a set of BFG Long Trail T/A Tour tires installed 2600 miles ago and I noticed a shimmy upon leaving the dealer. I had the dealer perform a alignment and RF Balance a week later and it only made the shimmy start at 35 mph vs. the previous shimmy at 50 mph. I contacted BFG and had the tires inspected and dynamic balanced and it worsened the shimmy. BFG replaced the tires about 600 miles ago but it hardly improved the shimmy.

I visited a tire dealer this morning and had the new set of tires RF Balanced. I was told that three balanced ok and one tire had to be rotated 180* and then attempt a re-balance. The wheel has a flat spot that most likely would need to be replaced in order to resolve the shimmy issue.

I ordered a new OEM wheel online this morning.

I have installed new rotors, pads and rear shocks since the first set of tires were installed.

I asked the tire dealer what the tires balanced at but he could not tell me, only that he added 1.75, 1.25, 0.0 and .50 oz. to each wheel. Did he really perform a RF balance? It only took him about an hour total...

Can a tire be RF balanced and still have a undetectable defect that will not allow it to properly balance?

 

I have learned a lot about road force balancing the last few years but I am by no way an expert so this is based on what I have been told and my experience.

Road force balancing should produce a number. This number is in pounds of force and should be around 40 or less with factory size tires to give a decent ride. I just had a new set put on and road forced and all of mine balanced out under 20. My set was swapped out and road forced in under and hour as well. The lower number the better and yes the dealer should be able to show you a print out. A tire that is road forced balanced and still not balancing, assuming the wheel is good, might be out of spec. But the road force reading would be very high on it, above the 40-50 number.