Tire rotation vs balancing vs alignment

Dear Tom and Ray:

My dealer says my wheels must be re-balanced each time each time he rotates the tires. The tire manufacturer says the wheels should only be balanced when the tires are mounted or remounted.

My dealer got a little huffy when I told him that, but he couldn't explain why.

Tire balance and rotation cost

Who is right?
Hank

RAY:Your dealer's theory runs counter to Newton's First Law of Rotation: Tires in balance tend to stay in balance (that's Vinnie Newton, the mechanic, not Issac, the Physicist).

TOM:Rotating the tires doesn't affect the balance, because you're just moving the tires--rims and all--from one place on the car to another.

And trust me on this, once the tires are balanced, they don't have any idea where they are.

RAY:But just to be sure, we always blind fold the tires when we move them around our shop.

TOM:Obviously, if you ever took a tire off a rim and re-mounted it on another rim, you'd have to balance it again.

RAY:Or if you hit a huge pothole, or drove into a curbstone, it's possible to knock a weight off the wheel and throw the balance off.

But that's pretty rare

do you have to balance tires after rotating them

do you need to balance tires after rotation reddit