[Guest]

I had been told that balancing my 36" swampers was pointless. I believed this for 6 months. I lived with horrible shaking on the freeway that threatened to destroy my beloved jeep. Saturday, I learned the truth. I took the jeep down to my local Les Schwab and had them attempt to balance the tires and to find the 2 that were the most round and put them on the front axle. Not only did they balance them, but they did it for free! I had been quoted 20 bucks a tire. They just said to remember them when I need new tires (and no, I did not buy these tires from them). Well I will remember them, and I just wanted to pass this along. My jeep is now much more comfy on the freeway. Not exactly a Cadillac, but I think I could drive cross country now. Thank you Les Schwab.

 

[1663]

i work in a tire shop. our machine will do upto 44 inches. More if we have to. I have seen tire and rims come in that are so bent and banged up balance almost perfectly. Mind you some of that has to do with a well placed hammer shot to bend things back some. But what i am sayong is if you dont mind a lot of weights, there is nothing that isnt balancable.

And yes i have seen 14 inch car tires take over 5 ounces of wiegth to balance, and i have seen 32 take less than 1 onch. Tire and rim quality is a big thing.

 

[Guest]

Mine now have a rather large stack of stick on weights on the inside of the rim. They mentioned they might use the powder that goes inside the tire, but I guess they did not do that. I was a tire mounter at a busy Anchorage store, and I knew my tires could be balanced, but was told it would not help. But it did! Its like driving a different jeep! Keep in mind I have radials, not bias. I can see bias tires being pointless to balance.

 

[GRQster]

I just replaced my 33" MTR's with a set of 33" LTB Swampers. Now I beat the crap out of the MTR's and never balanced them after original mounting. They were loud and I could feel them bouncing as I went down the road.
Mounted the new LTB's and figured I'd have a massive wail from the new treads but lo and behold, they were so quiet and smooth. They are not broken in yet so I may get a surprise in the future.
Anything can be done right

, and anything can be done wrong!

 

[RRich]

It's interesting that some tire shops think that larger tires can't be balanced, yet big truck's tires sometimes dwarf ours, and they balance fine.

I just bought 5 35x12.5 MTR's for my Rubicon - 2 didn't need any weights at all.

 

[1078]

It seems to me that using the adhesive "stick on" weights insde of the rim would be better for off-roading, as they are less likely to get torn off. Just remember to cover them with some heavy-duty tape before putting the wheels back on. That will help in holding them on and also in keeping moisture from the original adhesive.Just a thought...

 

[RRich]

The adhesive trick is good - but to balance a tire properly, BOTH sides of the rim usually needs to get weights. Tires seldom are unbalanced only on the inside.

Ya got a choice looks - or a good balance.

If someone doesn't like the way your wheels look with the weight on the outside - give them Dr. Kevorkian's number - he can help them.

 

[Guest]

With the amount of weight my tires needed, I think the stick on was the way to go. They were able to stack the weights on. If they had done the standard mag clamp on (hammer on) weights, I don't think they would have been able to come up with enough weight without making it look really horrible. I mean come on, I already drive a rambler, so SOMETHING has to look good

 

[1663]

we have up to 3 ounce hammer on wigth. not any worse looking than a 1 ounceweight in my opiion.

The stick on weights if done right, will be almost impossibe to fall off. think, they are designed to do 100 mph plus with out coming loose. I alos know that with proper cleaning before yuo put the on, and a little heat on the glue on cold days, the weights have to be scrapped off.

Also i know a lot of litle cars that are running only one row of stick on weights on the inside of the tire. The machine that we have has options on where to place the weights. so you can have hammer ons on both beads, or stick ons on the inside both edges or just on, or any combination.

also use a jiffy marker and mark your rims where the weight is, and the size. that weight if you do loose a weight, you dont have to rebalance a tire, just grab a weight and replie it.

I also believe in proper rotations. every 6 months or so for daily drivers. What it will do is prevent your front tires from wearing out the edges faster than on the rear.

and dont get me started on oil changes and regular maintance. oh the horrors ive seen...

spell checker broken. It just gave up...

 

[294]

Stick on weights work well, I balance race tires for the rolex 24 hour and other cup races with stick on weights with a piece of duct tape over them, they work great.

All tires can be balanced, swampers have a different problem with being out of round a lot of times. By far the best balancing tires I have ever had are MTR's, even 37's don't need much weight. BB's are beter than the equal sand stuff, equal tends to plug up the valve stem, bad for off roaders who air up and down a lot.

 

[1663]

ive also seen golf balls used. just be sure to tell your tire guy when he goes change your tires. Just imagagine my excitement when a whole bunch of golf balls go every where in the shop. I was not happy picking them up. Also id think it would work as a form of run flat protection. and keep the inside of your rim clean. I dont know about noise though... hmmm, something to try..

 

[1078]

I got the duct tape idea from drag racing. That's how we balance slicks. I couldn't care less about cosmetics. I just hated having the clamp on weights scraped off when 'wheeling.

 

[GMH]

When I bought my 35's I had them mounted on white spoke rv rims.The guy who balanced them had to glue a balance patch on the inside of one tire.Then he balanced them all with clip on weights.Then I painted the rims with black rockerguard,making it easy to see where and what size weight came off if I should lose one.

 

[1201]

Just a suggestion when getting your tires balanced. Have them mounted and bubble balanced first. Then drive them for about 75-100 miles and then take them back in to get computer balanced. New tires will move and adjust during the first 50 miles or so and should be rebalanced. I use to use the computer balancing machine at my work at least once a month of my 428 CJ Mach 1. 120-140 mph and no vibes in the seats or steering wheel.
If you know the person doing the balancing job, ask him to dead zero both sides. This might take to runs of the machine to get done........but it does work. I usually took the wheel off the machine and rotated it a quarter turn, then mounted it on the machine again...for another cycle. It worked great on getting the tires to zero on the machine.