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4x4 Tire Truing - rim Tire Connection - Photo 18784347

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  • One of the keys to making sure your newly trued tires stay trued is to ensure a good bond between the tire and rim so no movement occurs. When this tire was mounted, we marked it with a chalk line and accelerated aggressively. You can see that the tire did not move on the rim. If it had moved, the truing would have been thrown out of whack.
One of the keys to making sure your newly trued tires stay trued is to ensure a good bond between the tire and rim so no movement occurs. When this tire was mounted, we marked it with a chalk line and accelerated aggressively. You can see that the tire did not move on the rim. If it had moved, the truing would have been thrown out of whack.
The tire-truing machine operator controls the depth of the cutting blade as well as the horizontal travel of the blade via hand-operated controls. Operation is much like that of a lathe, and it requires a significant amount of experience to ensure quality results. This is the business end of the $5,000 Amermac machine that actually does the tire truing. It features two electric motors. One powers the drive that slowly spins the vehicle's wheel, while the other operates the blade. As the machine operates, an onboard sharpening stone sharpens the blade, and this ensures a smooth, even cut to the tread. Before beginning the tire-truing process, the tire-truing machine operator uses the drive roller that slowly spins the tire to determine how much, and where, the tire is out of round. Once the operator determines the area to be trued, he slowly turns the crank that drives the blade into the tire and begins trimming. This 44-inch Bogger had been previously trued, but had to be re-trued after the tire spun on the rim. You can see the new cuts (dark area on outer lugs) that were needed to true the tire. Some tires require very little truing, while others require a significant amount of trimming. These are the chunks of rubber cut from a large-lugged mud tire in order to make it round. While it may seem almost criminal to cut into a perfectly good tire, remember that all you're doing is removing the highest area of the out-of-round tire. One of the keys to making sure your newly trued tires stay trued is to ensure a good bond between the tire and rim so no movement occurs. When this tire was mounted, we marked it with a chalk line and accelerated aggressively. You can see that the tire did not move on the rim. If it had moved, the truing would have been thrown out of whack. After the tire is trued, the next step is to balance the tire on the truck. Once again, this is done so that the tolerances of the wheel, brake drum/rotor, spindle, bearings and so on are all factored into the balancing process. The truck is placed on a sensor that measures vibration, and this information is sent to the computer in the high-speed strobe light.
With the vehicle suspended on the sensor, an electric device is used to spin the wheel/tire combination at high speed. A strobe light tells the operator where and how much weight to place on the wheel. This completes the tire truing process.
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