Mudbone
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2006
- Location
- Chatham County
I was reading the death wobble thread and thought I would share some relevent info on getting large tires balanced. When I dealt with my first set of over sized tires, SSR 35x12.50R16, I had a hard time getting them balanced. Apparently these tires are known for balancing problems. They are much heavier than your averager 35 inch tire. I had a friend with the same tires and the inside of his wheels were just plastered with stick on weights. They even had problems getting enough weight in one point to obtain a balance. Most of the balancing problems in a tire occur in the tread. The further from the axis of rotation, the greater impact an out of balance spot has. In order to correct those problems at the wheel you have to use more weight than exists at the problem spot. The larger the tire the bigger the problem. A 44 inch tire with a 4 oz imbalance is going to take far more weight at the rim than a 35 inch tire with a 4 oz imbalance.
There are two balancing tricks that your average local tire shop can't or won't do. I forget the term for the first method. What is done is the balance of the tire and the wheel are detemined seperately. Then the tire is oriented on the wheel such that any imbalace in the wheel is opposite of that in the tire. This minimizes the amount of corrective weight needed. One note. Often this is not very effective with modern forged or spun Al wheels which are basicly in balance when they are made. However steel wheels and even beadlock rims, which are known for being unbalanced, can use this method.
The other method is to pad balance the tire. Its also called patch balancing. I am not sure how many folks out there know about this. It took me three months of looking for solutions before someone even told me about it. This method is time intensive and costs more but is very effective. Basicly a weighted pad is laminated to the inside of the tire, opposite of any imbalance. This means that the tire has to be mounted on the wheel and spun on the balancer. The operator has to set the machine to give weight determinations for "at the tread" instead of at the wheel. Then the spot for the weight is marked, the tire and rim are marked so that they can be realigned, and the tire is removed from the wheel. Inside the tire, the back of the tread is scuffed, heated with a heat gun or torch and an adhesive backed weighted pad, also heated, is applied. Basicly once its on there it ain't coming off. The tire is remounted on the wheel and rotated so the alignment marks match and then inflated. The wheel and tire are re spun on the balancer and fine tuned with a few wheel weights. When I had it done on my SSRs, one of them took 17 oz, yeah thats right, AT the tread! Obviously there would have been no way to balance that tire by conventional means. For larger tires, it may be your only option. I know alot of guys just don't bother with it, esp if their truck spends more time off road than on. In that case, something like the golf ball trick will get the job done. However, if you are running big meat on the road you should consider this.
I am aware of only one place in NC that does this and that is Galloways in Richfield. If you know of some place else that is doing this please let me know.
There are two balancing tricks that your average local tire shop can't or won't do. I forget the term for the first method. What is done is the balance of the tire and the wheel are detemined seperately. Then the tire is oriented on the wheel such that any imbalace in the wheel is opposite of that in the tire. This minimizes the amount of corrective weight needed. One note. Often this is not very effective with modern forged or spun Al wheels which are basicly in balance when they are made. However steel wheels and even beadlock rims, which are known for being unbalanced, can use this method.
The other method is to pad balance the tire. Its also called patch balancing. I am not sure how many folks out there know about this. It took me three months of looking for solutions before someone even told me about it. This method is time intensive and costs more but is very effective. Basicly a weighted pad is laminated to the inside of the tire, opposite of any imbalance. This means that the tire has to be mounted on the wheel and spun on the balancer. The operator has to set the machine to give weight determinations for "at the tread" instead of at the wheel. Then the spot for the weight is marked, the tire and rim are marked so that they can be realigned, and the tire is removed from the wheel. Inside the tire, the back of the tread is scuffed, heated with a heat gun or torch and an adhesive backed weighted pad, also heated, is applied. Basicly once its on there it ain't coming off. The tire is remounted on the wheel and rotated so the alignment marks match and then inflated. The wheel and tire are re spun on the balancer and fine tuned with a few wheel weights. When I had it done on my SSRs, one of them took 17 oz, yeah thats right, AT the tread! Obviously there would have been no way to balance that tire by conventional means. For larger tires, it may be your only option. I know alot of guys just don't bother with it, esp if their truck spends more time off road than on. In that case, something like the golf ball trick will get the job done. However, if you are running big meat on the road you should consider this.
I am aware of only one place in NC that does this and that is Galloways in Richfield. If you know of some place else that is doing this please let me know.
