Terry Weipert is the owner of Jack’s Brake & Alignment in Davenport, Iowa. Weipert took over the family business back in 1977, which his father started in 1965 with just two service bays. Today, Jack’s Brake & Alignment has 28 bays as well as a second shop with an additional 12 bays. Throughout the years as the business grew, Weipert has invested in a variety of tooling and equipment; most recently, he added Rotary’s R544 Pro Truck 2D Wheel Balancer to the shop – an excellent addition to the business, he says.
Weipert says that the R544 arrived at the shop via truck freight and was palletized nicely. Getting the R544 set up and ready for use was a simple and painless process.
“We had the factory reps come and they turned around and took it off of the pallet, and then we helped them move it into position,” Weipert says. “Then, they set it up, they calibrated it, gave everybody training, and we were ready to go.”
Having in-person training from Rotary representatives was very helpful, Weipert says, for getting the team and the R544 up-and-running. Beyond the in-person training, the balancer also came with what Weipert calls a “cheat sheet” of instructions.
“There is a cheat sheet, basically a piece of paper that is laminated that we actually hooked to the machine,” he says. “It is very simple to operate it. And in fact, we still have the cheat sheet hooked to the machine. We never use it, but in the event that you get a new guy and you train him and he forgets something, he can just look at the cheat sheet and turn around and just push the correct button to get it operating again.”
Having physical instruction copy on-hand is always helpful. Rotary takes the training and instruction beyond on-site training or the “cheat sheet,” offering online video training as well – a benefit Weipert appreciates.
“They do have really good online videos to help you walk through it, which if [someone] would get [an R544] without training, I think that would pretty well suffice the training,” he says.
Beyond the support offered through training materials, Weipert says that the Rotary tele-support has served as a resource for him and his team.
“One time we had a little bit of trouble when it was new,” Weipert recalls. “We were having a little bit of a difficulty using it and we called the 1-800 number. We got a guy instantaneously on the phone, he walked us through … the procedure. It was just a little bit of a training error on our side, where the guys were forgetting to push a button the correct way to change it from a passenger car to a truck. So, it was basically operator error on our side. They were right there for the support to help us get it figured out.”
Jack’s Brake & Alignment serves a varied clientele, with vehicles ranging from compact passenger cars to large trucks. This was a major consideration when Weipert was purchasing a new balancer, and ultimately a deciding factor when it came down to selecting the Rotary R544 Pro Truck 2D Wheel Balancer.
“In the past, on the passenger cars, we had a similar computerized balancer that worked real well,” Weipert says. “But then we start getting into larger trucks, larger passenger cars, or larger pickup tires, [and] the tires are getting heavier. With this particular balancer, it has the lift that helps you put [the wheel] on the spindle. It saves time, just for the pure fact that a guy is not straining his back and putting [the wheel] up on the spindle.”
Having a machine that can serve any vehicle that rolls into the bay is a time saver, and a game changer when it comes to training technicians on procedures per-vehicle – as one machine handles it all.
“As we get into the larger truck tires, like the 22.5 or the 24.5 … we actually mounted by hand,” Weipert says of the shop’s procedures prior to having an R544 on-site. “Then we would put them back on the vehicle and then we would balance them on the truck. That took a lot of extra time for the fact that we were mounting them, rolling them over, bolting them on, and then getting the other balancer out to spin balance them on the truck. The R544 saved a lot of time by just being able to mount them, put them right on the balancer, balance them, put it on the truck, and then call it a finished product.”
Weipert stresses that the machine’s versatility is his favorite feature.
“It is just a matter of which setup cones you are using to mount the tire to the machine,” he says. “There are no shafts switching over, nothing like that. It is just mounting cones to fit the center of the wheel – that’s all there is to it.”
The shop owner also appreciates the R544’s accuracy.
“It is very accurate [in demonstrating] where you place the weights,” he says. “[With] some of the other machines, you have to move weights occasionally to get an accurate balance … You can do a dynamic balance or a static balance, and it tells you exactly where to place the stick-on weight versus the hammer-on weight. It works very, very well. That is probably one of the best machines we have ever bought.”
Weipert gives the Rotary R544 Pro Truck 2D Wheel Balancer a stellar review, appreciative of the machine’s versatility, time-saving functionality, and its company-backed support.
“I, and the guys, they like it all the way through,” Weipert says. “I can't think of anything that we would even want to change … If we ever need another balancer, or anything happens to our balancer at our other shop, I’d definitely be buying another one of these machines.”
