Hand spin vs powered wheel balancer?

[A-R-K]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking at getting a wheel balancer for my home garage. It'll only see DIY work, probably used once every couple months. I've got an Atlas lift that I'm pretty happy with so I'm looking at Greg Smith balancers at the moment. I like how compact and portable the WB-HS is:

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas-WB-HS-Wheel-Balancer

They also offer various powered ones such as the WB11 (cheapest):

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Atlas-WB11-Wheel-Balancer

My question is, do the powered ones provide a better balance than the hand crank ones? The accuracy (1g) and resolution (1.4 deg) are the same between the WB-HS and their high end WB77, so that seems to indicate the answer is "no", but I'm hoping for some real world experience on the matter.

Also, I'm open to other comments and suggestions (brands, machines, etc). Budget right now is around $1k, give a take a few hundred. Eventually I'll get a tire changer too, but for now might start out with the HF manual unit.

Thanks!

 

[Hondarancher4435]

I'd keep an eye on Craigslist if your patient you could get a good used mount and balancer for $1000+\- never used a manual balancer and have no desire to hand crank the tire the powered one I would assume you would like a lot more

 

[Antique Engine]

I used a hand spun balancer for seven years when I worked for the Post Office fixing mail trucks. We balanced an incredible amount of tires as you can imagine. It's a non issue. You just give it a whirl. No work involved really.

Let me put it this way, if it came down to one or the other and the difference was 100 bucks, I'd save the money and get a hand spun unit.

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

If you can't crank the spin balancer, you are going to have a lot of trouble mounting a wheel to it in the first place.

 

[WhiffySpark]

I would spend the $200 and get the power one

It won't matter either way, I'm just lazy

 

[A-R-K]

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm not worried about having to crank it by hand, just concerned about the quality of the balance. I've seen a fair amount of negative comments toward the snap on hand cranks. I'm just trying to sort out if the issue is the fact it's a hand crank, a beat machine, or operator error.

I like the idea of the hand crank - a lot less to go wrong with it. It appears you spin it up to the same speed as the motorized ones, ~150 rpm. So, I think the end result should be the same?



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[WhiffySpark]

That's what my snapon guy told us. Everything is the same except you manually spin

 

[A-R-K]

Excellent, thanks!

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[JJThrasher]

I'd go powered. Never used a hand spin, but I don't want to try and spin a wheel and tire at 30+ mph.

 

[HomeTheaterMan]

I've also never used a hand spin model, but having a powered one I have a hard time imagining going to one I spin by hand. No way I can spin a tire at the speed that thing does. Especially not with most of the heavy mud tires I do.

I'll also say that I bought a used Hunter tire machine and balancer combination that's probably much nicer than that balancer and I only paid $1,000 for both. If you look, there are deals out there to be had.

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

I worked at 2 shops with hand spin balancers. One was S-O, the other might have been hunter?
anyway they both hold the tire to the machine with a bignut that has a crank ~6" long.
You give the crank 2-3 spins, the machine beeps , and you let go. Numbers are spit out.
it's that easy. If you had a hard time with it, you literally would not be able to lift a 31" tire & wheel onto the balancer.

 

[A-R-K]

Thanks for the input. I'm keeping an eye out for second hand stuff. Most of it nearby doesn't seem to be capable of handling modern 17"+ rims with stick on weights, that's the main reason for looking at new Atlas stuff.

And if I can get just as good a balance with a hand spin, I'll probably go that route.

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