In late 2003, Ron Webster came to him with a problem. Ron was a friend of Jims from the classic car circle. He was also the fleet service manager for a major product distribution company that was having tire issues with their fleet. He was inundated with drivers complaining of tire vibration and his tire replacement costs were at an all time high. It seemed no matter how many times tires were replaced and balanced, the same problems persisted tire vibration and bounce, tire cupping and erratic tire wear.
He called Jim and said he thought he knew what was going on and asked him to come to the shop and look at the situation. The problem was also quite obvious to Jim whose background is in engineering. The weight of the wheel was resting on the upper hub pilots leaving a gap in the bottom pilots so when the tire rotated it would produce an uneven motion. This created the vibration and tire hop which Ron hadnt been able to get rid of despite his best efforts. The wheels were off center and no amount of replacing tires or balancing was going to fix that. The wheels needed to be centered up in order to be properly balanced.
As the word spread, people began asking for a product that would stay on their trucks as the centering pins were used upon mounting and then removed. This is how the internal and external sleeves came about. The internal sleeves or "Solution B" are designed to center up the wheel and brake drum while the external sleeves or "Solution C" can be used all the way around the truck and trailer helping to prevent wheel off condition. Both sleeve sets stay on the truck assuring that the wheel center is always maintained.
The company has grown tremendously since the first centering pin set was created.
In June of 2007 Angela and Ron were brought in by Jim as owners of the company. These three make up the principals of the company.
They also have numerous office personnel and sales representatives which have made the business into what it is today.
Their customers range from the largest nationwide fleets to the one truck owner-operator. To date they have never had a product returned because it didnt work.
They received patents on their products at the end of 2006 and today there are more than 45 different TRU-BALANCE products available and that number increases regularly. When someone calls with a unique wheel configuration and they dont have the correct product in their line, they just create a new product. This was the case with the A-1625 Centering Pins. They were originally created for the UPS package trucks.
The TRU-BALANCE products can be used alone or in conjunction with your favorite balancer including the various balancing rings and beaded products that are available today. When comparing TRU-BALANCE to some of the current tire balancers on the market today they state that it would be like comparing apples and oranges. They are completely different products designed to do completely different things. TRU-BALANCE does not balance the tires like the other products do. It centers the wheels which allows for proper balancing of the tires.
Their headquarters are located in Windsor, Colorado.