TRUE TIRE EXPERTS ONLY PLEASE

[redchev]

I recently purchased a set of BFG all terrain tires (lt 265/75R16) and had them static balanced. After a week of driving 2 of the tires lost all of the wheel weights and the other 2 were 2 or more ounces off. I had them road force balanced and the truck rides much better.

 

Could someone please explain all the positives and negitives in wheel balancing technique? With all the weight they had add to my rear wheels (about 10+oz but hidden behind the spokes of the wheel) I think I have 2 bad tires. I know there are several ways to balance tires but what is best?

[citydriver]

ALL tires have heavy spots,ALL wheels too !

When a tire/wheel assembly needs that much weight in 1 spot,the tire should have been broken down and rotated 180* (at least thats what i would have done)

I've been out of it 4 awhile (10 years) so i'm not familiar w/the ROAD FORCE procedure...I've used SPIN BALANCERS w/o a problem w/the above procedure....

I've never been a fan of STATIC balancing,never figured out what good it does to balance a tire while it sits still...

Centrifical force take over if there's too much weight in 1 spot...also not a big fan of HIDDEN weights..it's been my experience that the stick-ons do not hold well while the vehicle is rollin at 65mph...

[Bish]

Funny, the guy at my Discount Tire calls it Static Balancing when he keeps the weights on the inside. I thought static was laying flat on a balancer and adding weight till the bubble is in the middle. What my DT guy says is static is still done on a machine that spins the tire. On vehicle balancing is by far the best but not generally available around here.

 

Regarding the sticky weights, if not done properly, the stick ons will fly off easily. I have had mine balanced about 15 times. (2 sets of tires) Only once did I have a problem with them falling off. The other times, I insist they clean the inside of the rim with mineral spirits or something else to cut through all the crud. He also warms the rim with a heat gun in the winter prior to sticking the weight on.

 

For me, I put so many miles on, the weights would trash the outside of the aluminum rim with all the weight changing/rebalancing. Done properly, they should stay put.

 

Regarding the heavy out of balance, agree you should rotate the tire and try it again. Hard to get pepole to do it properly these days.

[citydriver]

True,there is a STATIC setting on some spin balancers,but I never had any luck doin it that way (when i used to do it)...as far as the stick on wheights,if done right they will hold..but thats a big IF

 

As far as the clip ons,If the installer is using the correct style weights AND installing them properly,you shouldnt have a problem...BUT again that depends on who's doin the work....If you run thru tires that often it will have an affect on the rims,there's no doubt of that...But the average driver rarely has a new set of rubber every year(just my opinion)...winter driving is also an issue where they use salt on the roads,,if not cleaned regularly the salt will affect the wheel,especially ALUMINUM wheels,coated or not!

 

Alot has to do w/the type of driving you do,the type of roads you travel,and the type of tire you are running....A GOOD TIRE SALESMAN will take those factors in2 consideration...LOOKS are not always the best way to judge a tire...it's how YOU are goin to use the vehicle...that goes for balanceing technics also...

 

JUST MY .02............

[1 Bad Burb]

yup, all this is tru..i just went thru all the problems on my 22's..i also had Discount Tire do a balance... they messed it up 3 times, i got fed up and went to a diff shop. basically, static balance finds the spots necessary for wieghts and u place them in the middle of the rim. this is supposedly the best type of balance for big rims... smaller rims can use dynamic balancing, which places the wieghts on the edges of the rim.. this is far more accurate. Road FOrce balance is when they apply a roller on the tire while it spins and it measures all the heavy spots... it also tells whether the rim is bent or tires have a flaw... this is also a very good technique to balance. after spending 120 on freakin balancing, im never going back to DT... they swear they had it down correct ,and i told them, lets go for a ride, and u'll see...sure enough, they felt the vibrations... they were also lazy and didn't want to dismount and rotate the rim to releive the heavy spot, so i said screw it, left, got it done right t another shop.

 

soo depending on ur rim size, 16's, with the BFGs that have a rim lip protector, u might have to get static balance... they could do it dynamic and have the wieghts on the edge of the rim, but that rim gaurd on the tire is a PITA..

 

good luck!

Aj

[Markeaux]

I special ordered my last 2 sets of tires thru Discount Tire, they balanced them very poorly both times. So now for as perfect balance possible I always take my Tahoe and other cars to the local Cadillac dealer - they have one of the really nice Hunter force balancers and really take the time to do it right.

[Ben]

Read up at the Hunter site: Hunter Engineering Technical Info/FAQs

 

Hunter makes one of the best tire/wheel balancers available.

 

[Markeaux]

FWIW the Hunter website lists two local Discount Tire's as having the nice GSP9700, and so that was one reason I special ordered tires thru them ... but while they were installing my new tires I went and looked and the Hunter model they had were not the GSP9700 like my local Cadillac dealer has.

[juiced01s10]

I recently purchased a set of BFG all terrain tires (lt 265/75R16) and had them static balanced. After a week of driving 2 of the tires lost all of the wheel weights and the other 2 were 2 or more ounces off. I had them road force balanced and the truck rides much better.

 

Could someone please explain all the positives and negitives in wheel balancing technique? With all the weight they had add to my rear wheels (about 10+oz but hidden behind the spokes of the wheel) I think I have 2 bad tires. I know there are several ways to balance tires but what is best?

where are you located? I work at a sears and if you are around the NH area stop in and I will ballence your wheels for ya and show ya some tricks to get a better ballance