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Just putting out a bit of information in case any of you may be going down this road. In my continuing plan to make the truck ride as nice as an F-350 could ride, I installed some Centramatic balancers to improve the ride. The first issue that some of you might have is selecting the right model for the Ford. On their site, they call for a 300-318. While this is the model number, they also make a 300-328 that is a bit more oval shaped as some folks have reported problems mounting these balancers on the newer trucks with 20" wheels. I called the company and spoke to "Hue" and he told me to try and install the 318s and if I had an issue to try the 328s. The issue for my truck was not with the brake caliper but with the rounded edge on the inside of the wheel. When you mount the balancer, you can face the ring inside or out and I selected to put the ring towards the inside. The rings come with two labeled "A" and two labeled "B" so you start with the front left wheel and see which one has the best fit.
While I had plenty of room for the brake caliper, I could not get the disk to sit perfectly flush with the wheel as the inside edge of the wheel lifted it just enough that I was not happy with the fit. That is why the kit gives you spacers and you should only use the spacers on the front as you will definitely not need them on the rear. With the spacer in place, the wheel lays flat against the balancer. The balancer has a concave section that the wheel can sit in it but the edge of the wheel was touching the lip of the balancer. The spacer just fills this gap and makes the surface flat which gave me the room I needed. When I got to the passenger front wheel, I could get the balancer to sit flush on its own but I went ahead and used the spacer on the right because I used it on the left. The plate is not tapped down yet but you get the idea.
When I got around to the rear wheels, they have room for days and you just need to pull the wheel, tap them on as they are tight and then reinstall the wheel.
The install did not take long and I was glad that I did not have to send these back for the 328s. They sit nicely behind the stock wheels and if I had a different color wheel, I would probably just hit them with a little spray paint.
Anyway, the test drive was good and I do feel the difference so any improvement is a good thing. I already changed out all the OEM shocks and added a dual stabilizer so this addition was just another part of a larger piece of improving the ride.
Been thinking about picking these up, do you remove the wheel weights before installing these or are these to be used in addition to balancing the tire and wheel.
Been thinking about picking these up, do you remove the wheel weights before installing these or are these to be used in addition to balancing the tire and wheel.
You can pull off the wheel weights if you want to but I will just leave them on with this set. When I need to get new tires, I won't need to get them balanced and I will just have the tire installed on the wheel and mount them to the truck.
Originally Posted by Ding126
what does these things actually do ? And how do they work?
Thank you
There are plenty of videos out there but this short video will give you an idea. They keep your wheels perfectly balanced throughout the entire life of the tire. They also reduce vibration and increase the life of the tire. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...6FORM%3DVDVVXX
My front balancers had that indented section so the wheel would touch so the spacer makes the face of the balancer flat like yours. Every little thing we can add to these trucks to smooth out the ride helps.
I've got centramatics on the front of my F450 and Balance Masters on the back. I painted the silver centramatics black so they weren't so noticable. The Balance Masters, using mercury instead of shot, are silent. The centramatics give a distinctive swooshing when the windows are open when driving at slow speeds.
The dynamic balancers helped some, but the big change in vibration, by far, was a road-force balance. I still had some vibration before and after removing my weights before doing the road force balance.
I've got centramatics on the front of my F450 and Balance Masters on the back. I painted the silver centramatics black so they weren't so noticable. The Balance Masters, using mercury instead of shot, are silent. The centramatics give a distinctive swooshing when the windows are open when driving at slow speeds.
The dynamic balancers helped some, but the big change in vibration, by far, was a road-force balance. I still had some vibration before and after removing my weights before doing the road force balance.
I've got Centramatics on all 4 corners of my F450. It sounds like I'm hauling 2 tons of pissed off snakes at slow speed!
I knew they made some noise, and I'm still happy overall with the purchase (2,000 miles in), but I'm wondering if I should have gone with Balance Masters for quieter slow speed operation.
I've got centramatics on the front of my F450 and Balance Masters on the back. I painted the silver centramatics black so they weren't so noticable. The Balance Masters, using mercury instead of shot, are silent. The centramatics give a distinctive swooshing when the windows are open when driving at slow speeds.
The dynamic balancers helped some, but the big change in vibration, by far, was a road-force balance. I still had some vibration before and after removing my weights before doing the road force balance.
I bought a front and rear set of the balance masters for my 2020 F450. I have been debating about removing the wheel weights, the instructions with the balance masters is pretty adamant about removing them, but....
I bought a front and rear set of the balance masters for my 2020 F450. I have been debating about removing the wheel weights, the instructions with the balance masters is pretty adamant about removing them, but....
I never quite understand why they want weights removed from the wheel. It seems that if the wheel is balanced as well as possible with weights, then that would be beneficial. I have not pulled the weights off my wheels.
But I can also see where the dynamic balancers may need some IMBALANCE to actually work properly. If the wheel is already "perfectly" balanced, is it possible the dynamic balancer could result in a slight imbalance (counterproductive in other words)?
Seems they should work the same, even if the imbalance is not very large (1/4 oz even.) . In the real world, there has to be enough natural imbalance in the rotational mass to allow the dynamic balancers to work properly.
