Wheel Refurbishing in Kansas City, MO

Refurbishing changes a wheel. Old coatings, corrosion and buildup come off, the surfaces are restored, and a new finish goes on. Every one of those steps moves a little weight around the wheel, and the old balance weights come off in the process.

Which means a refurbished wheel is, for balancing purposes, a different wheel. Whatever balance the assembly had before is gone, and fitting the tire back on without rebalancing is how a fleet ends up with a vibration it did not have before the work was done.

The fix is simple: treat refurbishing and balancing as one job. When a wheel goes back into service with its tire, it is balanced as a new assembly.

Refurbishing needs the tire off the wheel, so the sensible time is when the tire is coming off anyway. A wheel pulled at a tire change, refurbished, and fitted with the new tire and balanced in one sequence avoids taking the same position apart twice.

For a fleet, that suggests a simple routine:

• Inspect every wheel when its tire comes off. Look at the bead seat, the mounting face, the stud holes and the finish.
• Set aside the ones that need work rather than refitting them because the new tire is ready.
• Keep a few spare wheels, so a unit is not held up while its own wheels are being refurbished.
• Balance every assembly as it goes back into service.

Cleaning back to sound metal, restoring the surfaces the tire and the hub depend on, and refinishing so the wheel is protected. The inspection comes first, and it decides whether the wheel can be refurbished at all.

A crack ends the wheel and it is replaced.

Tire and wheel balancing is at this store, and so is OTR work for equipment rims. The national wheel refurbishing page covers the process.

Springfield and Joplin also refurbish wheels in Missouri.

The Kansas City store runs sixteen services and is managed by Richard Kerber.

See the national wheel refurbishing page for all 42 locations.