Tire Balance - Reasonable Weight?

Engineer

Engineer

New member
Is there a general guideline or logic that experience techs can use when balancing tires as to when the tire/rim combo is so out of balance another method should be tried such as rotating the tire on the rim, new tire etc?

I ask because I just had my tires rotated and balanced at discount tire and when they were done I had a terrible shimmy at 55-65mph. Went back and they rebalanced them and I had a chance to talk with the tech that did the work and he said the passenger front was the problem/bad actor. The others took about 4oz to get balanced that one was 13oz. I am not a tire/balance guy and the truck now drives fine so I don't really have any concerns but it got me thinking is there a line as to when weight won't do it and to try other options.

Any Tire Guys/Gals here?
 
Last edited:
Register to hide this ad
I'd call around and look for a shop with a hunter road force machine. Match mounting will match the tire to the wheel in the best possible orientation, and often times is creates a balance with much less weight.

It's interesting technology-- check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WpNsa3bFhU
 
Last edited:
Engineer said:
Is there a general guideline or logic that experience techs can use when balancing tires as to when the tire/rim combo is so out of balance another method should be tried such as rotating the tire on the rim, new tire etc?

I ask because I just had my tires rotated and balanced at discount tire and when they were done I had a terrible shimmy at 55-65mph. Went back and they rebalanced them and I had a chance to talked with the tech that did the work and he said the passenger front was the problem/bad actor. The others took about 4oz to get balanced that one was 13oz. I am not a tire/balance guy and the truck now drives fine so I don't really have any concerns but it got me thinking is there a line as to when weight won't do it and to try other options.

Any Tire Guys/Gals here?
Click to expand...

Good shops start to wonder if there's something up if the weights are going all around the rim.

It's also easier to balance if you put weights on the inside and outside of the wheel, but some people don't like the look (assuming you don't use the glue on weights inside an alloy wheel).
 
13 oz is pretty extreme.
4 oz seems a bit much as well.
a good balance job sometimes requires the tire to be turned to another position on the wheel.
My tire guy refuses to install any more than 1-1/2 oz
Always does a great job.
You should get a second opinion on that balance......
 
I would say 4-5 ounces is the outer limits of what I would find reasonable for *most* tires. On my bias ply super swampers it's a different story.

That said, 13oz is far enough out even a shop without a roadforce balancing machine should mark the tire - dismount and rotate it 180* and try again. At that weight I'd be pulling the tire off to look for something weird like water or a shop rag that got left inside or something. If it's new I'd send the tire back and ask for a new one.
 
4 oz is ok on 17" tire - 13 is too much, poor tire in my opinion. If no warranty relief on tire, run it on the rear next rotation and keep it there.
 
Tire mount orientation

I am not sure how this would affect "remounted tires" if the dot's have worn off. Usually on initial mount, if the rims are in good shape you would use the red and yellow dots on the tire as described here..

Bridgestone Commercial Truck Tires

or

Performance Tire Mounting | Yokohama Tire Corp.

To make sure high point and wight run out are aligned properly. The hunter machine should not be necessary for new tires, but might help with remounting used tires that have the dots washed off. Also not all aftermarket manufacturers may not put the red dot dimples on their product..
 
LandCruiser said:
(assuming you don't use the glue on weights inside an alloy wheel).
Click to expand...

Glue on weights? I am aware of the sticky weights that are mounted on the inside of the rim and the hammer on type that are mounted to the outer lip. I have always asked for the stick on as my previous truck has the hammer on ones and they looked like crap and when taken off there was always corrosion under/around them.

As far as bad tire, maybe but I have over 15k on them and hadn't notice this issue in the past rotations but hey maybe it was just perfectly balanced with the last set of weights that were on it and this time around not as much. ( thats what I get for agreeing to a rebalance even though there was nothing wrong )

I will call around for a road force machine, looking on hunters website there are plenty of shops that offer in the area but depending on price i may just not worry about it as mentioned before on the final drive back after the second attempt the shimmy was gone.

Thanks for the replies, next time I will have enough of an idea what things "should" look like to ask them to remount the tire on the wheel and try again.
 
The amount of weight required is going to depend on both the tire and the rim. Not all tires are perfectly round and the same goes for rims. more aggressive tire usually needs more weight's to get it balanced. If you end up with a lot of weight in one spot a good tire tech will break the bead and rotate the tire 90° or 180° on the rim and retry.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 302 (members: 2, guests: 300)

Forum statistics

Threads
278,309
Messages
3,554,075
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Share this page

Trending content

Back
Top