Wheel Balancer Comparison

Atlas wheel clamp tire changers and computer wheel balancers are built to the same exacting standards as those tire changers and wheel balancers sold by SNAP-ON ®, HUNTER ®, ACCU TURN ®, HOFMANN ® and CORGHI ®. Many of these "Big Name Manufacturers" have EXCLUSIVE manufacturing agreements with both ITALIAN and CHINESE manufacturers. ITALIAN manufacturers produce many of the tire changers and wheel balancers that are sold by the "Big Name Manufacturers" in the USA, however, the ITALIAN branded equipment may actually be completely manufactured in China and/or have the majority of the integral parts made in China.

Many of the "Big Name Manufacturers" have now “discovered” that they can have their equipment (or component parts) made in China and save a lot of money. Unfortunately, these “Big Name Manufacturers” do not always lower their selling prices to reflect their lower costs or do they identify that their products are not “Made in China”. Greg Smith Equipment has been importing the highest quality tire changers and wheel balancers for the last 12 years. We work hard to make sure the quality is excellent and we pass the enormous savings along to our customers.

ATLAS wheel service equipment is manufactured in one of the most prestigious wheel service manufacturing facility located in China. Most other ASIAN tire changer and wheel balancer “manufacturers” are not in the manufacturing business. These ASIAN “factories” are really just small assembly companies that purchase parts from dozens of small “job shops” and assemble poorly made wheel balancer parts to produce the finished product.

ATLAS is manufactured in an ISO 9001 compliant factory that enjoys CE certification.

There are dozens of ASIAN tire changer and wheel balancer assembly companies that market their product under several different brand names. These ASIAN assembly facilities sell their products to a variety of small distributors all over the world. Although many wheel balancers appear (from the outside) to be similar as those sold by “BIG NAME MANUFACTURERS” and Greg Smith Equipment; there are major differences in the component quality of many of these “No-Name” products.

Atlas wheel balancers have an encoder phase disk with 64 teeth. Most "cheaper wheel balancers" have only 36 teeth on their encoder phase disk. The more teeth on the disk increase the accuracy of the wheel balancer.

Atlas computer wheel balancers have a longer 40 mm shaft which offers much more support than other balancers that use a shorter 36 mm shaft.

Many of the cheaper wheel balancers provide software with very loose tolerances. Their wheel balancers may display 000 across the screen, so that the operator believes that the tire is perfectly balanced. This may not be the case. If the tolerances are set too loose, a wheel balancer shaft/software assembly that has tolerances set to plus (+) or minus (-) .5 ounces may read 0000, but the wheel assembly may still be over .75 ounces out of balance.<

Atlas wheel balancers have very close tolerance settings and demand that the operator position the correct weight in the correct position. Any "cheap wheel balancer" can display 0000 across the screen if the tolerances are set too loosely. Do not assume that 0000 means that the wheel is balanced properly.

Atlas WB-11, WB-21, WB-41, and WB-49 wheel balancers have four (4) aluminum modes which provide the operator with more weight positioning alternatives than the "cheaper wheel balancers". The Atlas WB-55 has (7) aluminum modes, and the WB-77 has (14) aluminum modes. The current Atlas balancers have a motorcycle wheel mode that other balancers do not offer.

Greg Smith Equipment Sales is proud to be the exclusive dealer for the ATLAS product line in the USA.

Greg Smith Equipment works very hard to provide our customers with the highest quality lifts, wheel service equipment, and general shop equipment at the lowest possible prices.

We have been in business for over 30 years, and we understand what our customers want when it comes to their automotive aftermarket needs. Call the professionals at Greg Smith Equipment for straight answers about shop equipment.