Hunter machines
 

Ok. guys... i think I have to share my experiece....
Several weeks ago I visited V&S service for tire balance....Overall its was a good experience, however my ride didnt feels right...
So today I stoped at the first tire shop, what i saw and asked them to re-check my tire balance.
Of couse my tire balane wasnt good, but suprise is, that that tire shop has Hunter Balancing machine gsp9700, AND Hunter allighnment machine AND Hunter tire mounting machine... Prices are good. I paid for 4 tire with Road Forse balance only 80$..... And the best thing is, that they changing for allignment only 85$...
So if anyone interested:

"Emils Tire shop"
1701 Gravesend Neck rd.,
Brooklyn, NY,11235
Tel: 718-332-9358

Good Info.

BMW uses the Hunter setup. Post #7
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...n-braking.html

^ reading that gave me a headache :confused:

but thanks for the recommendation. I'll check them out when I upgrade my wheels.

haha thats my indy! ralph is an awesome guy btw... great indy shop!

We mounted and balanced your used summer tires. I wish you would have called to let me know something didnt feel right. That being said, I am glad you sorted it out. The Hunter Roadforce GSP9700 balancer is a sweet piece of machinery. I'll have to ask my Hunter Rep what deal we can get for one of those.

BTW, I forgot to mention, that they filled my tires with Nitrogen ( or something like that) and ride comfort improved + handling became a little bit better ( small difference, but sometimes noticeable)

Vince,
you have a good shop,...
But Hunter machines make a big difference for performance cars. But they are pricey...
Ralph, told me that he paid 25000 for Hunter tire mounting machine ( which is garantee no scraches on rims)... kinda pricey.

To KingSimon,

If I may suggest you a diffenet indy, best from my experience.

They are located on the corner of Ave. Y and E.17 str., Brooklyn .. ( 2 blocks from your indy), best work ( mechanical) ever done for me in 4 years on my x5.
But if you'll try them, ask for Alex ( mechanic ), or Grisha ( also mechanic)...

I know, I figured around there with the cost..Brutal. But for a Tire shop a must! Auburndale Tires by me has similar mounting equipment. Nitrogen is nice too, I want to get that done to my S4, I think i'll be paying those guys a visit for that service. Good to know

speaking of nitrogen, i thought that was all a scam..

how does it really improve tire life, handling, and gas economy?

Well, I just did it, so hard to tell, give me about a week( I'm putting around 900 miles a week), and i'll tell you my experience with gas and handling.

You mean within the golf gas station?

Because air has a mix of gases, as your tire warms up it expand-es increasing your tire pressure. When you use nitrogen, your tire wears better because N also displaces moisture much better than air, keeps better displacement, keeps your tire pressure more consistent.

I run it in all my cars, most important on my race car. Pre-N I would start out at 22PSI and after 3 to 5 hot laps my PSI would be around 34 to 35. Very few times would it be consistent from tire to tire.

All race organisations use N because they can tune the car with more consistent results.

It really works well!

Anyone now of Hunter in
 

The Green Bay or Appleton WI area? Also any have a good indie?

Thanks.

Yes...
They are good.. Those 2 mechanics doing best job... they are care about your car... + they will explain to you what they are doing and check everything in your car if you'll ask them. But I always coming to them with OEM BMW parts from dealer.

I seriously doubt you are going to notice a difference in handling and gas mileage going from regular air to nitrogen on a road car. I have had it in our X5 for a few years now. Didn't ask for it, the tire shop just put it in. I have noticed that it does keep a more consistent pressure over long term than traditional air (never had to touch it in the 2+ years the tires have been on the car), but handling and gas mileage? Not likely, unless your pressures were way off before you got it.

From other posts, it sounds like you got different tires put on the car (maybe went from winter to summer). If that is the case, that may be the reason you feel a difference.

you can build your own rig to vacuum out the air and then refill with nitrogen.... its on my list of things to do, but since i have access to a pro race shop, it makes me lazy to build my own rigs... simple hoses and connectors, tire chuck, valves and a vacuum (harbor freight has one for under $15 for air powered vacuum or you can use a motorized one for about $150) - so you can build your own for about 50-200 bucks depending on how fancy you want to get...

but firstly... filling nitrogen isn't going to mean a thing unless they vacuum the tire down and then fill it.. otherwise you still have ALOT of mixed air in there. (my race tires do not see a 12+ psi increase from cold to hot - yoko slicks or hoohoos )

I only fill my tires with methane. Huge improvement in gas mileage and I've never had a wheel stolen since.

That sounds great, i gotta give that a try. :rofl: will methane also cause the tires to weight less because the gas is lighter than air?

Depends on how well it's filtered before going into the tires. After I connect the funnel to the cow's ass I need to change the filter at least once per tire in order to get pure methane. Honestly hardest part is just finding the cow.

prior to running R888's and ambient, i ran constantly 8 to 12. Now I have 3 to 4.

But the predominant gas in air is nitrogen. That is why air expands at essentially the same rate as nitrogen. If you are seeing large pressure differences between cold and hot, it is because you have moisture in the air, and not just because it is air.

Race teams use nitrogen so they can set hot pressures, tuning after each few laps. Nitrogen fills will be more consistent between hot and cold, because nitrogen is dry. Dry air has the same effect. However, since the tire pressure spec for your X5 is a cold pressure, the hot pressure is pretty much irrelevant for the street.

I agree with FSETH that simply replacing the air in the tires with nitrogen will make no difference in handling, unless the tires had the wrong pressure before the change, or unless the tires were changed at the same time.

found this topic searching for tire-pressure and registered to react.
Been busy with calculating it with use of the same equation that the European tyre- and car- manufacturers also use.
Made spreadsheets for it and in the beginning one originally made to see what the temperature does to the pressure.
pressurecalculationwithtemp.xls - Windows Live

So I want to make something clear about it.
Every gas gives the same pressure at the same temperature.
Even if you put helium in it . Or Carbondioxide ( also a place to store it)
Only there Nitrogenium needs more energy to get the same temperature.
The diferences in temperature with Oxigenium will be marginal

Or just follow the BMW SIB that says it's bullshit.

DO NOT GO TO EMILS

The owner is a HACK. I usually drive 1.5 hrs to my tuning guy for anything tire related - even a simple plug/patch. I found Emils on tire rack and since it was only a 7 minute drive, I went there. Before work proceeded, he swore up and down he would be able to handle my wheel with no issues. I walked into the bay after waiting for a while.....and there was 2 guys with tire levers MANHANDELING my wheel setup. I asked them to immediately stop whatever they were doing.

EMILS f'ed up my $2000 HRE wheel setup. They were so rough they even took out 3/4 to 1" off the bead of my tire. The tire was only had 300 miles on them. I was not fully compensated for either the repair of the wheel (in which they gouged both the lip and spokes) and paid me pennies to buy a replacement $300 tire.


It's not the machines that count guys. Well, to a degree it helps...
It's the technician that is working on it...

Sorry to hear that. My experience was good with them. Who's your tuning guy.

I will be visiting your shop this week Vince. See you soon!

Nice. Happy to help you

I don't know that I would call it bullshit, If it maintains better tire PSI, that helps life of the tire and, I would assume fuel mileage. I use this as my logic... If a tire is over or under inflated you change the geometry of the contact patch. If that is not making contact properly, you are crossing the patch creating more heat and wear. Think about a tire crossing the road with a bit of toe in, the tire is crossing at a slight angle, wearing the tire unevenly.

Just a thought.

BMW never called it BS, they are above such language. What they did say was that it wasn't recommended, but that neither is it prohibited.

I agree that the main point is to keep tires properly inflated; one of the challenges with nitrogen fills is that people then mistakenly assume they don't need to check their tire pressures any longer.

Copy of SIB attached (I had this one on my computer, I am not sure if there is a more recent one)

I can see this happening. I for one have taken for granted how well the nitrogen has maintained pressure over the life of my tires. I will admit that I check them less than my 325i with regular old air.

VSMVINCE -

OT....but what's the deal with shop equipment. I would think they would be on some sort of lease ...or RTO (rent to own)...

Between a couple of cab rolls...outfitted to the brim, 2 or 3 2 post lifts, and a 4 post alignment bay....ha, just running #s off my head ;-)

Finance. Man those numbers add up. We just put in a new scissor lift/frame bench. Recessed for extra low vehicles. Equip Automotive Systems - Jollift 100 Bench.

Last two years.. Two brand new rotary lifts, to replace our older set-ups, and for use with the Celette frame machine. Updated specs every year for the alignment rack, GT1/OPS diagnostic..Maybe next year or so for the Roadforce Hunter balancer. lol

you could always use the accelerated depreciation method for the machines and get a "free" loan from the government. Go for it man!

Does Ralph only do Tires? Do they do other installs?