OK, the IBEXTronic machine showed up and I've got it set up. The KATOOL shipped in a pallet crate with lag screws holding the machine down to 1/4" plywood...which broke free and ****ed everything up. The IBEX Tronic shipped in 2 smaller cardboard boxes, none of which sustained any damage in shipping.
Much smaller / lighter business end, but bigger footprint and no wheels with the stand. Instructions are considerably better than with the KATOOL, but still sorta janky. There is no weight tray, so you'll have to have it next to a bench to set your tools and weights on. The weight tray on the KATOOL was small and fairly useless, but I still like places to pile ****, even though my life would be easier with fewer places to pile ****. I don't mind the lack of a tray on the new unit.
It did not come with a caliper to measure wheel width, and it only came with 2 small cones....the biggest one is just big enough for a 5 lug trailer wheel. A set of 4 cones is available on Amazon for $60 and the caliper can be had for $15 or so....so not a real big deal, but annoying.
Build quality appears very good. Nice hardware and all the tapped holes are in the correct place and clean.
Like with all stuff like this, I wish they just add a couple more goddam buttons and make changing settings sort of intuitive....Like a set of arrows and a "Enter" button that are only used along with the "MENU" button for setting stuff up, rather than this push and hold completely different buttons that have nothing to do with anything to get into certain functions.....but I guess that's just how it works.
This machine does not have a brake.....so you need to just drag your hand against the tire to slow it down and stop it from spinning. That's annoying. Also, it takes about 45 seconds for the machine to take a balance measurement.....the KATOOL, and every other balancer I've used, took about 10 seconds or less. That's also annoying....but not a problem for the home-gamer.
The 2D distance arm is badass....its everything I hoped it would be. The arm has 2 encoders, and there it a little cutout where you can put tape weights and run the arm out until it beeps, then roll the arm up to stick the weights to the wheel in the exact spot it wants them....I thought that was pretty neat.
Both machines, in balancing 2 different steel wheels I have here, are consistantly 0.25 oz out. You put the initial weights exactly where it wants them, then on the next spin-up they ask for another 1/4oz somewhere. I've seen plenty of tire shops let this go but I don't remember it happening much when I was using real machines at the dealers I've worked at. I can play with the tolerances in the settings....maybe they're just a bit too loose and it rounding up and stacking to create a less than perfect balance the first time.
I think they are both very good for the price. The IBEXTronic is better though. We'll see how there support works. I'm not sure if there is any lol.
