Tire balancing

ok... how often should the tires need to be rebalanced? If after not loosing any weights (and being balanced 5K miles before) 3 out of 4 tires need weights in different spots and one needing a big mofo of a weight (thing is about 8 inches long I think) are the tires bad?

Kejtar

I am not a tire mechanic and I am sure you will get other info from other sources also but in my experinence I have found that you could take a brand new tire to 5 different stores and get them balanced 5 different times and each of them might modify it and charge you for the balance job!!

If you drive rationally, and only on the street, with no significant bumps (driving up and down curbs etc) then it is unlikely that they would be off that much. But if you do any off road driving I think it is very possible.

Also, is there a chance that the wheels are not perfectly strait? Could that affect the balance depending on how the wheels were put on the machine? did you have the same shop do the work? same mechanic?

Just my thoughts,
Michael

I had to get my ATs rebalanced everytime I went offroad BC the weights got ripped off. I just have a set of MTs for trail use and they will eventually pay for themselves in the $$$ saved in balances/

You should get your tires rebalanced atleast every 5k miles. I worked at Discount tire and people always asked me this question. its not just that weights come off, your tire's tread wears down on the street. and even though it might not look like it sometimes, they neer wear 100% evenly so the balance gets thrown off. And you should get your tires rotated every other oil change, so that you will always have the best set of tires up front and the onces that were up front will be in the back. The front tires always wear quicker bc of steering. Most people think that the best (or new if you buy 2 at a time) should go in back for traction, but thats not the case. If you have a blowout on the highway you rather it be in the back bc its more dangerous at highspeeds if a front tire goes. And one more thing, dont worry about cross rotating your tires, it doesnt do anything extra, just a fancy way to rotate tires. Sorry so long, i get excited when i know something.. LOL

not what I wanted to hear....

Anyways, same shop always does the rotation (one by my work) and rims look straight (when he's got it on the machien I can see it spinning and it looks right as in nice smooth circle at high RPM).... Anyways the reason I was asking is that I have the warranty on the tires and I was hoping that maybe they are all bad and I can upgrade to 32's or maybe 33's

Kejtar

If you've taken that rig muddin', then it is entirely possible that you spun the rubber on the rim. If you go from 0 RPM to lead foot RPM in mud, that puts a lot of load on the entire system including the beads, thereby creating a potential for spinning the tire on the rim.

With regard to the the huge weight, it is sometimes possible for a shop to spin the tire on the rim until it is balanced as best as possible before adding weight. This makes sense since the rims themselves are not perfect, so putting the high sections on the rim and tire opposite eachother provides some degree of offset. This way, the weights that are put on are minimal.

This however, takes more time and effort, so it is not likely that a shop will do this unless specifically asked to do so.

FWIW, this info comes from talking with my cousin who has worked at a tire shop for many years.

Also, some shops may give you a lifetime balance program. Call around, and don't make it a point to tell them you'll be offroading.

well I do have lifetime balance and rotation and tire hazard so that I could slice them up and they will swap them out (prorated)..... America's tire rocks... and they don't care if I offroad or not

Kejtar

youre damn right, americas tire and its brother discount tire are badass companies. Ive worked with them for 3 years until i moved to Milwaukee. I bought my MTRs from them for my Blazer and got the Road Hazzard warranty. No matter what happened, as long as i didnt just shove a nail in my sidewall(they would replace that too) i could get them replaced. I got a stick through by sidewall offroad, i came in covered in mud and my manager came out laughing...he ordered my tire and i was back on the road in a week. They are a good company to go through.

bigoltrux77 said:

And one more thing, dont worry about cross rotating your tires, it doesnt do anything extra, just a fancy way to rotate tires.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but you're wrong. You cross rotate your tires to prevent the tires from cupping. When you rotate straight front to back, your tires are prone to developing high and low spots (especially more aggresive treads, such as MTs and high performance directional tires). Cross rotating prevents and in some cases helps soften those spots. Nothings worse than having a tire with over 10/32nd of tread left but it's unusable because it's cupped so bad.