wheel balancing

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by PopBeavers

Since the tires will need to be replaced every 4 to 5 years anyway, if you replace the rubber valve stems at the same time, what would the advantage of the metal valve stem be? Especially for those of us that store our TM in the garage out of the sun and bad weather when not in use?

The valve stems seem to rot far faster than the tires. I think that most people would be shocked if they took the rubber valve stem and bent it to one side. I did that to my brother's trailer a few weeks ago and the stems were cracked nearly all the way through. His trailer is 4 years old. The tires look perfect. Not a single crack anywhere. He went out that week and had steel stems installed.

Wayne hit it on the head. This is old news, but from some of the comments it needs to be revisited. There was a massive recall of valve stems around a year ago. Made in China (surprise) stems rot extremely fast, sometimes within a year. TM has used these stems. There is no way to find out if you have the bad ones without removing your tires. Best to just bite the bullet and change them to metal. NOW!!! I personally feel that many of the tire problems blamed on the Goodyear Marathons should actually be laid at the doorstep of the stems...