Balancing wheels with weights

[Rune]

How do you do the balance job on wide wheels ? The tyre shop put lots off weights on the inside on mine ,it was nice but not practical. I belive that I have to place them visible on the outside, And might have to paint them same as rim. I do not have a good feeling with 270gram on one side of a tyre only for the estetic. I like safety before beauty better. Any pictures ?

 

[Morten]

Did you try to move the tyre around different places on the rim and rebalance. Sometimes this helps, as the imbalance can cancel each other out.

 

[Bill Kearley]

Technology in newer tire balancing will balance a wheel/tire without weights on the outside, try them out before getting concerned. 270 gram is a lot. Are they quality tires, was a good lube used? Deflate, rotate rubber 180, use a good tire grease, not a runny soap, inflate to 40 psi or so, deflate completely to relax the bead and inflate to spec and balance

 

[Jac Mac]

Try balancing the bare rims first without tires fitted, castings may be non concentric and able to have weight removed. Also ensure the balancer has or you may need to provide a suitable locating ring for your wheels to ensure they are concentric with spindle of balancer.

 

[Bill Kearley]

Hay Jack, Do you know Walt Williams?

 

[Jac Mac]

Hay Jack, Do you know Walt Williams?

Yep, he is the guy that reckons my old eyes are stuffed and uses all capital letters to try & help me out, so Im using bold print to help him!! I used to use Ford Blue as well, but need some to paint my engine so you guys will have to make do with black for a while!! Gotta shout a bit from down here in NZ so you fellas up in Trumpville can hear us!!

 

[Bill Kearley]

Gd Diy Jack
Love It, laughed for ten minutes with that one. Please don't let Walt from Florida know about this.
I will have my 40 on the road in the spring, cooling of here now. It's time to lite the woodstove in the shop and get back to work. I was looking for longer drive pins, I only have 9/16 in. going into the wheel. ( I would like a bit more if I could find them ) I was told by a very reliable source that I'd be OK.

 

[Jac Mac]

Gd Diy Jack
Love It, laughed for ten minutes with that one. Please don't let Walt from Florida know about this.
I will have my 40 on the road in the spring, cooling of here now. It's time to lite the woodstove in the shop and get back to work. I was looking for longer drive pins, I only have 9/16 in. going into the wheel. ( I would like a bit more if I could find them ) I was told by a very reliable source that I'd be OK.

Think you might have spilt the beans yourself Bill, this is on your thread , not a PM. All is not lost if you have the fire going, couple of slices of thick toast bread & a slab of (KIWI) butter and cook the beans up.

 

[Bill Kearley]

THIS MAY NOT BE THE RIGHT THREAD TO GIVE WALT A BAD TIME SO i WON'T

 

[Alex]

Did you try to move the tyre around different places on the rim and rebalance. Sometimes this helps, as the imbalance can cancel each other out.

That's usually the best idea - it took the tire shop almost an hour to find the most ideal place to mount the tire on the rim on one of my 345/15s .... when we started it wanted about 40 wheel weights, lol (we ended up only needing about 4 on one and 0 on the other side)

 

[Cliff Beer]

Many tires have a yellow dot on the sidewall...this is the lightest point of the balance of the tire. Generally, the yellow dot should be placed proximate to the valve stem so that the add'l weight of the valve stem counteracts the light weight position of the tire. Doing so will contribute to lessening the number and amount of weights.

Amazing how many tire shop workers don't know this kind of stuff.

There's nothing wrong with weights on the inside of the wheel.....provided there's clearance with calipers and anything else. In fact, the better balance machines balance in a location-specific manner across the wheel barrel...not just the face. Weight placed only on the rim lip loses this location-specific fine balance ability.

Incidentally, there's also a red dot on most tires. This is the point of maximum radial runout. This is a helpful piece of data, and can be used to your advantage when mounting the tire if you know what you're doing. Again, most tire shop workers are clueless about this.

We're fortunate enough to have a couple places in Seattle that do prep and maintenance for some very exotic racers (everything from ex-Formula 1 to Hillman Imp vintage racers), including wheel work. These guys really know what they're doing, and it's worth the extra cost to get it right.