From the Journals of the Mundane: Tire Balancing... need tips (1 Viewer)

[Manhattan]

It's about time for new tires. The new wheels are a dark(ish) gray. So, I'm not liking the idea of a bunch of bright silver clamp-on wheel weights. As I understand it - based on reading on the interwebs and talking with a guy at Discount Tire - the best method is just that... those clamp-on weights on the outside.

But, the DT guy did go on to say I have options...
- Clamp-on on the inside
- Tape/stick-on weights on the "barrel" of the wheel
- A combination of the above

It's not a show truck, so I'm going to sweat it too bad if I have the little weights littering the outside of the wheels. But, if the other options are solid, I'd like to give it a shot.

Anyone have experience with this? Do those stick-on/barrel weights work well? Stay on? They actually seem less vulnerable to be scraped off.

Thanks!

 

[yotasavg]

I've had the same thoughts, and I really hate the weights on the outside. Last time I got my tires balanced, I neglected to mention wanting them on the inside, and guess where they ended up.... I'm not sweating it, but every time I play on the rocks I secretly hope I bust them off so I have an excuse to balance them again.

Now, keep in mind that I run retreads. When I got them initially balance (when new) they had no problem balancing with the stick on barrel weights. This last balance, the owner of the shop admitted, after I asked him why they put them on the outside, that they didn't have any stick on weights and since I didn't specify wanting them inside that's where they ended up. The reason I got the most recent balance was because (I think due to the retreads) things were feeling a bit wobbly, so to speak, but I also feel that if I went to a dedicated tire shop they'd have no issue balancing them with the barrel weights.

For a new tire, non-retread, I don't foresee any issues with you asking for the barrel weights. And worst case scenario, just specify that if they must use rim weights, put them on the inside. That's my plan for next time.

 

[TXLX100]

The tire machine will instruct to put weight on the inside and outside of the wheel as needed to properly balance a tire & wheel (if it's an advanced machine). You can ask for stick-ons on the inside the wheel though.

 

[SUMMIT CRUISERS Jr]

Air soft BBs work well. I've used them over the with my past 3 sets of tires. 8.5 ounces is the weight for tires 33ish-37". Only thing that is kind of weird is that you can hear them when you stop.

 

[ENGINE er]

I have 33" BFG ATs with 30k miles and lots of missing chunks, they are hell to balance and i always elect the hammer on weights because they work better.

I had a couple wheels with a solid 8inches of hammer on weights and they still weren't balanced well. Had a minor shake at 70. Took it to a guy that had a road force balancing machine, charged me $20 a wheel and not only is it balanced perfectly now, each wheel only has a weight or 2 on them. We take our truck on a 8k mile road trip every year and nothing drives me more nuts than a shake at speed. Road force is the way to go.

 

[ton504]

If the surface is prepped then I wouldn't lose sleep over the stick on weights coming off. I balance my own tires and I have 35s toyo m/t on my 80. It needed very little weight and I cruise at 80mph with no vibrations. Drives like a Lexus should lol.

 

[pavieSD]

Get the inside wheel weights, road force balance them. If you're worried about the weights falling off, you can get aluminum tape and tape over the weights. Keeping brake dust and the elements off them should make them last just as well as the outside hammered on weights. Another member on here had a ton of issues with wheel balancing that all went away when he got the wheels road force balanced.

 

[Manhattan]

Since the wheels are new and freshly powder coated, the weights should have a good clean surface... at least for the first time around.

 

[mr111]

I used to ask for the same thing...until I understood how tire balancing works. There are static and dynamic components of wheel balancing. The static balance is what you envision when you think about tire balancing. It's when one side of the tire is heavier and you put weight on the other side to compensate. But that's not everything. Even though a bubble balance would show this tire is balanced, when you spin it fast it will likely still oscillate and vibrate. This is because the weight isn't equally distributed around the center of the wheels thickness (along its rotation axis) and needs to be compensated for. This is where dynamic balancing comes in and it matters whether weight is placed on the inner or outer edge of the wheel to help compensate for this effect. For a wheel that is already statically balanced, a dynamic balance would involve putting equal amounts of weight 180 degrees apart on the wheel, one on the inside of the wheel and one on the outside. With the stick on weights you have some flexibility of putting the weights toward the outer or inner edge of the rims, but with the clamp on weights there is no choice. Using the outer and inner edges is optimal since you have the best leverage to correct the problem and can use the least amount of weight. This was a long post, but the point at the end of it is if you want a properly balanced wheel you probably want to deal with the shiny weights on the outside edge...or get used to living with the vibrations.

 

[Sandroad]

I always ask for the stick-on weights inside the rim because the rim clamp weights cause serious corrosion around here. I have never had a problem with excellent balance using the stick-on weights and I've never had them come off. I do have a great tire shop with good techs. Many (maybe even most) newer car (don't know about truck) wheels can't even take the old rim-clamp weighs on the outside anymore because there is no edge to clamp to. Those all have to be stick-on inside the rim.

 

[Dog]

I had a couple wheels with a solid 8inches of hammer on weights and they still weren't balanced well.

Whenever a tire shop installs a bunch of weights in one area, it's because they were too lazy to deflate the tire, break the bead, and rotate the tire 180 degrees on the wheel and start over.

 

[Kofoed]

Some rims are cast to always or almost always have the weight go on the inside rim....

 

[ENGINE er]

Whenever a tire shop installs a bunch of weights in one area, it's because they were too lazy to deflate the tire, break the bead, and rotate the tire 180 degrees on the wheel and start over.

Except I had them try that already

 

[DrivingMissRosey]

Air soft BBs work well. I've used them over the with my past 3 sets of tires. 8.5 ounces is the weight for tires 33ish-37". Only thing that is kind of weird is that you can hear them when you stop.

I use balancing beads and they work great. Kind of the same idea as using air soft bbs but you can't hear them.
They are more expensive than the bbs per tire. They work in my tubes and claim to also work in tubeless radials as well but I don't have firsthand confirmation. I was told if one still has vibration after balancing beads are installed in the correct volume and vibration still occurs it's not a tire balance issue, it's something else.

 

[DOGMARLEY]

The inner and outer lip weights are superior to center balancing (sticky weights in the middle). Are these for your steelies or your factory rims? Make sure they use the correct weights for your metal type and lip type. Kauffman in brookhaven attempted to put weighs for a steel wheel on the LX over and over but it wouldn't stay on, so the fool kept hammering and hammering. They had to buy us a new set of factory wheels. Now, I only use tape weights and they never seem to be as balanced as before. You could always use a touch up marker to color the weight to match your rim.