# Vibration - Hunter GSP9700 balancer



## pyronn (Sep 26, 2005)

What does anyone know about this wheel balancer, have you had good luck over others? I have an 05 NISMO 2wd that I have had at the dealer three times now for a vibration on the highway between 60 and 65 to 70mph. It is subtle, but definitely present. Below 60 and above 70, it is smooth as glass, in between, my passenger seat shakes. The dealer did the basic balancing and alignment then declared it as normal, "dude, it's a truck!" It is a definite difference between another I drove and mine, then they said all trucks have little variations. I am ready to take it to an outside shop and pay to have it diagnosed and fixed. It was suggested that I try a shop with one of these balancers, that it can find issues that standard wheel balancers cannot. Thanks.


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## 05 NISMO 4X4 (Jun 4, 2005)

The Discount Tire store I go to has one according to their web site. I used to take my Explorer there and they did a good job, no complaints! Also, Discount tire will sell you a lifetime ballance and rotation package for about $45.00, even if you don't buy the tires from them. I would bring my explorer in after every oil change for a balance and rotation. I'm getting ready to do the same thing for my Frontier. :thumbup:


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## bonez (Dec 7, 2005)

we have this balancer at work, it's called road force. It is typically more money than a normal balance. It is however the only machine on the market to use if you have vibration issues. What it does is measure the force that the tire has on the road by applying 1500 lbs of pressure via a big roller that presses against the tire. Think of a tire as springs facing the road. As the tire rotates the spring or road force is measured as if the tire were on the truck rolling down the road. It is measured in pounds. Most LT tires are under 20lbs meaning that the difference in the force between the softest and hardest parts of the tire are 30 lbs of springing force. So if you have a tire with a broken belt or just a bad tire that a balancer can't find, this machine can find it. 

After balancing if all tires are in spec the machine puts the worst tire on the RR of the truck and the next worse on the LR and the next on the RF and the best tire on the LF. That is for vibration but the machine can also tell you if any tires are pulling one way or the other by measuring the lateral force. It also can measure rim runout to determine if you have a bent rim. If you have an out of round tire and a slightly bent rim it can force match and you spin the tire on the rim to a marked spot and it will get as close to round as possible. 

It is actually a very amazing machine. I use it every day and we have found brand new goodyears on 20's that were bad from the factory. Brand new and had over 100 lbs of road force. Anyone can balance a brick but it won't roll very well will it? I feel like a salesman...damn.

Anyways check with GM dealers as most are required to have it. Don't waste money on another balance. If it's the tires that machine will tell you which ones are good and bad. And if you can see if you can watch them do it...it's cool as hell.

I think this is the longest post i have ever written....


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## pyronn (Sep 26, 2005)

It is an awesome post and very much appreciated. From what I read on their site and what you posted, you provide much more detail and clarity. Thank you.


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## FastCrewCab (Nov 3, 2005)

pyronn said:


> What does anyone know about this wheel balancer, have you had good luck over others? I have an 05 NISMO 2wd that I have had at the dealer three times now for a vibration on the highway between 60 and 65 to 70mph. It is subtle, but definitely present. Below 60 and above 70, it is smooth as glass, in between, my passenger seat shakes. The dealer did the basic balancing and alignment then declared it as normal, "dude, it's a truck!" It is a definite difference between another I drove and mine, then they said all trucks have little variations. I am ready to take it to an outside shop and pay to have it diagnosed and fixed. It was suggested that I try a shop with one of these balancers, that it can find issues that standard wheel balancers cannot. Thanks.


Looks like each of the few Nissan/Infinity dealers within 25 miles of me have this machine. Good to know!

Thanks for the post.


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## bonez (Dec 7, 2005)

no sweat, I used it when we first got it. I ordered 33x12.50's on 15x10 black street locks from 4wheelparts.com and they were balanced terribly. So I ran them through a regular balance on the hunter. Still had vibrations in steering (shimmy) which i thought were bent rims. So I took them back off, road forced them and put them back on. Shimmy completely disappeared. It is truly amazing and I had to eat my own words because I bet that it wouldn't help. It calculates more than I can remember to give the best ride. 

And yesterday they installed the hunter alignment equip so I'm gonna get one of those soon. It is even more amazing than the balancer! Uses digital cameras and is accurate to .01" . Has dvd showing in video and audio where and how to adjust. My 5 y.o. nephew could align a car if he could turn the wrenches. haha I think my ackerman curve is wrong from installing the calmini steering system on my 99 and the hunter guy said that it would check for that and correct. If you ever need any work done check to see if they have hunter stuff. It is money well spent!


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## pyronn (Sep 26, 2005)

I found a Nissan dealer that had the machine and went by and explained my issue. He immediately said it was "Radial Force Vectoring" or something like that and said the hunter machine he has might be able to fix it. Might in that if a tire is damaged, it would have to be repalced by BF Goodrich and I would have to contact them. Caveat though, Nissan will not pay for it. He said to do a full balance on all four tires it is $200 to includie measuring, switching tires with rims and so forth. Said it takes about 2 hours to do it right. He recommended I call the tire manfacturer via the warranty number, complain and get a diagnosis based upon the RFV conversation we had. They will refer me to a shop with the machine. Worth a try before I call Nissan. 

But $200??? I called another place on the list and they want $20 per tire, but that is not a "full diagnosis."


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## bonez (Dec 7, 2005)

200? That's outrageous! 

We charge $50 to roadforce 4 tires but we are a new shop in a small town. I've heard most shops are 20-25 a tire but 200 is just stupid.

Keep calling around and checking. Basically if you have your tires roadforced, after each tire is balanced and checked they are marked on the comp. 1,2,3,4. Then the comp tells you which tire should go in which spot on the vehicle. It will also tell you which tires are bad, if any, and need to be replaced. Check to see if the $20 shop will remove all 4 wheels, roadforce, and put in order machine tells them to. If they say yes then they are roadforcing them the way they are supposed to. They will also give you a printout of what each tire checks out as and so on. It should list the amount of force in lb. and which location it is placed on the vehicle. Switching tires on rims is a bit over the top though. The amount of runout in your brand new rims shouldn't be able to compensate for a truly bad tire. If it were me I would just have the worst tires placed in the proper spots and ride it until i got new tires. Nissan should cover the tires on your truck but that's up to them. We don't swap tires on rims, just spin the tire on the rim to obtain the roundest setup possible. The comp will predict what the force will be on the assembly after forcematching and tell you if it thinks that it will pass after forcematching as to avoid wasting time forcematching if it only pulls out 2lb of force in a tire that has 100. Pulling it down to 98lb isn't going to do anything. But if your tire has 40lb and can pull it down to 30 that is a great amount and would make a big difference.


It may be possible to put a bad tire on a bent rim and obtain a good match but in the end you still have a bad tire, bent rim, and you're short 200 bucks.


If you have any bad tires and they have to forcematch which is spinning the tire on the rim, that should be included (we do). Anyways I would keep looking for a reputable place with better answers than 200 bucks. We try not to bend people over but that's just plain breaking it off in you....


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## pyronn (Sep 26, 2005)

Thanks for the info. The $20 per tire shop, called Performance Tires & Wheels, will do exactly as you describe, so I will take it there. The other cheapie is Merchants Tire. The dealer did tell me to call BF Goodrich and have them send me to a place to diagnose, just none of their authorized outlets around here are listed on the Hunter website as having a machine. If it is just $80 to correct this issue or at least diagnose a bad tire that can get replaced, it is worth it.


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## inanima (May 10, 2004)

It's a common problem on Pathfinders.

I only have my balances done at the local Buick dealer who has a Hunter machine. They charge me only $50 to mount & balance 5 tires! They're getting my alignment business next.

Just about completely cures the vibes. I bought my 01 PF with 60K on it. Went thru a new rim, two alignments, two balances, new shocks and struts before I read up on the Road Force balancing. Nothing else worked but that.


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## pyronn (Sep 26, 2005)

inanima said:


> It's a common problem on Pathfinders.
> 
> I only have my balances done at the local Buick dealer who has a Hunter machine. They charge me only $50 to mount & balance 5 tires! They're getting my alignment business next.
> 
> Just about completely cures the vibes. I bought my 01 PF with 60K on it. Went thru a new rim, two alignments, two balances, new shocks and struts before I read up on the Road Force balancing. Nothing else worked but that.


Service Manager at the Nissan place (who quoted $200!) said that it was a problem with the pathfinders.


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## bonez (Dec 7, 2005)

Keep in touch to let us know what the problem was. BTW, I'm from Va Beach. Grew up there and lived in GRun until a couple months ago. I don't miss that fn traffic though!

And when the guy said "radial force vectoring" it means a measurement of tire pull. Even if your alignment is dead on you may still have pull. The balancer measures for that as well and can give you printouts for either least pull or least vibration. I assume you don't have pull so he was just trying to make himself look smart i think. I need to get trained on this thing because the mechanic here showed me a bad tire yesterday on a vette and it will display a detailed graph showing the assembly rolling down the road. It measures one revolution and shows a line for the rim, tire, and assembly so you can see what it is doing as it rolls down the road. Makes it really easy to understand. Ask for all the printouts you can get.


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## pyronn (Sep 26, 2005)

** UPDATE **

Finally got he opportunity today to take my baby to a local Goodyear shop that has this Hunter balancer. $15 per tire and I have a new truck, smooth as a baby's ass. I don't know what these mean, but the LF was 1.00/0.75 and 18lbs, RF was 1.50/1.50 and 19lbs, RR was 1.50/1.00 and 19lbs, LR was 4.75/5.25 and 37lbs. He said about the LR it was like they threw a bunch of weights at it and banged in what stuck. Supposedly, BFG wouldn't replace LR either, he said they look at 40lbs and over. 

Anyone who has a vibration issue, even the slightest, look for a shop with one of these load balancers.


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## bonez (Dec 7, 2005)

The 1.00/1.25 refers to the weights. 1 ounce on one side and 1.25 on the other. The force means that there is a 19 lb difference between the hardest and softest parts of the tire. It's not that bad. One of my tires a 33x12.50 has 30 and when placed on the right rear its barely noticeable. If you ever put the tire with 37 on the front you will probably notice it in the steering wheel as a shimmy.

Glad it worked!


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