Harbor Freight tire balancer

[Eagle]

Has anyone used the Harbor Freight wheel balancer?

 

https://www.harborfreight.com/portable-wheel-balancer-39741.html

 

I used to have a small tire balancer I got from J.C. Whitney about 50+ years ago, but it seems to have disappeared in my last move. I know a simple bubble balancer isn't a match for a computer balancing machine (IF the guy running the computer machine knows what he's doing, which too often isn't the case), but a bubble balancer could be useful in helping isolate which tire is causing a shimmy (just as one example).

 

Basically the same machine as the Harbor Freight unit is available from a number of vendors on Amazon. Reviews are all over the map. I'd be very interested in knowing if anyone here has had first-hand experience with this thing.

[Dzimm]

I don't have first hand experience but I have looked into this myself and talked to a guy on YouTube who made a video on it.  

 

The info I gathered was that they work just fine but you have to make sure and check your unit over for any damage to the pivot point and double check that it actually sits level before using it.

 

Most of the negative experiences people have seem to be due to user error or damage to the unit.  Some people also expect it to give computer level accuracy which is just not gonna happen.  

 

This is the way tires were balanced before machines so it's a proven method.  With a little practice and you should be good.  You already say you are expecting computer accuracy, which is good but you can get pretty dang close.

[Eagle]

I did all my own tire balancing with the J.C. Whitney unit for many years and I was usually more satisfied with my own work than I was with what tire shops and car dealers did with their machines. I think the reason I stopped using it was alloy wheels. Back then, the only wheel weights I could buy easily (this was decades before the Internet, and Amazon or eBay) were for steel rims. The clips for steel rims are no good for alloy wheels, so as I got into vehicles with alloy rims I gradually gave up on doing my own balancing.

 

I really wish I could find that little machine.

[Dzimm]

7 hours ago, Eagle said:

I did all my own tire balancing with the J.C. Whitney unit for many years and I was usually more satisfied with my own work than I was with what tire shops and car dealers did with their machines. I think the reason I stopped using it was alloy wheels. Back then, the only wheel weights I could buy easily (this was decades before the Internet, and Amazon or eBay) were for steel rims. The clips for steel rims are no good for alloy wheels, so as I got into vehicles with alloy rims I gradually gave up on doing my own balancing.

 

I really wish I could find that little machine.

You should check out school/government auctions in your area.  Recently there was a school selling off their old tire balance and mount machines around here.  Description said they worked fine, the school was just getting rid of their auto program or something like that.  They sold for $100 each.  I didn't have the money at the time or I would have bought them.  

 

I'm right there with you, want to do it myself.  Not only do you know it's done right, you also don't have to pay for tire work again.