Downside of tire sealant treatment?

rprochnow · 12-24-2020, 09:41 AM

With our 21VD, we purchased Multi Seal tire sealant for the 6 tires on our View, to provide some protection from tire leaks on trips.

Our View has had vibrations running at highway speeds, and based on forum feedback, it was recommended we try a "road force balance" on the tires.

We took our View to Discount Tire, which has road force balance machines - and they were unable to balance the tires - the machines got a different reading after each spin. They assumed their machines couldn't handle the Sprinter rims.

So we took our View to the nearby MB dealer (since the front two tires were no longer properly balanced), and they called us about the "goo" they found inside the tires - because they were also unable to balance the tires.

Once they removed the tire sealant (about 45 minutes per tire), they were able to get all 6 tires balanced.

It cost us around $1000 for the Multi Seal treatment and another $500 to get the sealant removed and the tires balanced.

Has anyone encountered balance issues when using tire sealant???

If we don't have any vibrations on the next road trip, we probably won't put any sealant back inside the tires...

al1florida · 12-24-2020, 09:58 AM

The end of your last sentence sums up my recommendation:

Quote:

we'll probably won't put any sealant back inside the tires...

DavidM · 12-24-2020, 10:06 AM

Tire sealant prevents balancing on a machine as you note. The sealant always settles in a different place. But the sealant should automatically balance the tires under way. But maybe there was too much sealant for that to work.

As was said, don't use sealant any more.

David

rprochnow · 12-24-2020, 10:21 AM

When we drove 1000 miles to pick up the RV in June, the rental minivan had a slow tire leak - which we didn't discover until early Saturday morning - and had to make increasingly frequent stops to refill the tire and get to Lichtsinn before they closed in the afternoon.

After that experience, it seemed like having the Multi Seal protectant was a great idea - just didn't realize the potential negatives.

According to Multi Seal's website, vibration at high speeds can happen if too much sealant is in the tires OR the tires aren't balanced (they recommend balancing the tires before adding the sealant).

Expensive ($1500) lesson...

Winterbagoal · 12-24-2020, 10:36 AM

$1500 could have got you a few years worth of some very good roadside assistance coverage for tire problems, or if they're the stock LT215/85R16 size, you could have replaced them all at Discount Tire with Michelins for that much money.
As you say, lesson learned. Thanks for sharing your experience.

HappiHenri · 01-05-2021, 08:08 PM

Don't use any "goo" in your tires. Yes - it is supposed to self distribute inside the tire to balance it - unless it's cold in which case it just sits as a solid blob inside 1 side of the tire - making it terribly unbalanced - worse than if it was not there to begin with..

What I did on our Class A with 22.5" tires - Had all tires spin balanced when installed new. Then I added Centramatic Bead Balancers at each corner. These are metal spacers which fit between the tire and hub with small beads in an outer channel which automatically self balance as soon as you start driving. Works in any temp as all beads are dry. These help fine tune tire balancing from changes over time, automatically balancing as required. Work great!

Link:
https://www.centramatic.com/wheel-ba...us-Motor-Homes

Wyatt · 01-05-2021, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HappiHenri

Don't use any "goo" in your tires. Yes - it is supposed to self distribute inside the tire to balance it - unless it's cold in which case it just sits as a solid blob inside 1 side of the tire - making it terribly unbalanced - worse than if it was not there to begin with..

What I did on our Class A with 22.5" tires - Had all tires spin balanced when installed new. Then I added Centramatic Bead Balancers at each corner. These are metal spacers which fit between the tire and hub with small beads in an outer channel which automatically self balance as soon as you start driving. Works in any temp as all beads are dry. These help fine tune tire balancing from changes over time, automatically balancing as required. Work great!

Link:
https://www.centramatic.com/wheel-ba...us-Motor-Homes

Thank you for mentioning those, as I was going to chime in, as an alternative, but I have not employed them on our rig.

I’ve seen their videos, and they seem like a smart system. Hey, what. Could go wrong?

So how have they worked for you? Made any difference? Thanks!

rprochnow · 01-06-2021, 09:20 AM

Last weekend, we drove over 1500 miles in 3 days, after having the sealant removed and the tires balanced - and the ride was much, much smoother.

If we have the same experience on the drive back home this weekend - will be contacting Lichtsinn about the problems.

I was told they've seen very few customers with issues after the sealant was installed - and when that happened, it was either a tire that wasn't balanced or a defective tire.

I suspect the problem wasn't the sealant, but that we had one or more tires out of balance when the sealant was installed - and the sealant only made the problem worse.

Though even if the sealant might work with properly balanced tires, we won't have it added back into our tires and risk spending another $500 to get it out again...

HappiHenri · 01-06-2021, 01:30 PM

They seem to just fine. Of course you only really know for the front tires as you can tell a lot from steering wheel feel. For the backs - very hard to tell other than checking long term tire wear.

But these balancers seem to work as advertised.

al1florida · 01-06-2021, 02:47 PM

IMO:
-- There are so many hundreds of thousands of RV's out there that work just fine with normal balancing.

-- If you are having a problem with tire vibration or what ever, then find the root cause instead of buying extra cost stuff that may just try to hide the problem.

HappiHenri · 01-06-2021, 03:26 PM

True - But tire balance can change over time - from tread wear, road damage/impacts, etc.. Having something like bead balancers installed will automatically compensate for many of these issues and help quick the tires running smooth.

wwr · 01-06-2021, 03:29 PM

the sealant also makes tire repair almost impossible except for a plug which i do not like and would not recommend

al1florida · 01-06-2021, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HappiHenri

True - But tire balance can change over time - from tread wear, road damage/impacts, etc.. Having something like bead balancers installed will automatically compensate for many of these issues and help quick the tires running smooth.

Road damage/impacts and irregular tire wear causing a tire to cause a change in balance means to me the tire is damaged and I would not continue using it.

If the tire is not damaged then just rebalancing it should take care of the out of balance problem.

NeilV · 01-07-2021, 03:59 AM

Putting goo inside your tires is a really bad idea and usually will end up costing more any time you need to have the tire serviced with some shops automatically refusing to service the tires. If you hit some road debris or have it foul a valve stem it can end up getting slung all over your coach and any nearby vehicles costing you even more to also pay for the clean ups.

As for balancing, goo or beads do not take care of radial imbalance situations and can at times make it much worse so a good shop before they put in balance beads should put the tire on a spin balance machine to verify that the beads will have any chance of working at all.

Elkman · 01-11-2021, 03:54 PM

Tire sealant is a gimmick much like tire shops that charge to put nitrogen into tires instead of air which is 80% nitrogen anyway. There are run-flat tires that use a very different approach but even they have their limitations unless one buys one made for military applications.

In the past 50 years I have had two flat tires from running over 2x4's in the road with low profile tires on a coupe an one tire puncture. How often do you see an RV or tractor rig on the side of the road having a tire changed?