Can snow throw off balance??

My g/f was complaining about a shaking and wobbleing in her steering wheel last week one day, i think it was actually a day after the snow we got on saturday....but regardless, the way she explained it (on her stock 98 xj) sounded to me like an out of balance wheel. Now the only problem was come time for me to drive it, it went away and she agreed. Now yesterday we went into an unplowed parking lot i tought her how to do some drifting and what not, then on the way home we felt it again. When we got home, we decided to put the spair tire on...and change eventually all four until it went away to prove it is an unbalanced wheel...thats when i noticed there was snow packed in between the spokes of the 5 spoke "classic" wheel. So we stopped b/c it was so cold and thats what i told her musta been doing it. Mainly b/c i didnt think a tire can unbalance and re-balance on its own so the fact it went away for a week had me thinking. Could the snow have been the problem?? This was just last nite so i dont know if she drove yet. Thanks for any thoughts.

Absoultly, I've lived my entire life here in the snow region of West Michigan
and have had the "snow inbalance" many times. Infact just last weekend when we got 18" of snow I had to clean out my rims.

JeepXJ93 said:

Could the snow have been the problem??

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Yes

Mud will do the same thing.

awesome, simple problems are great. Thanks guys

When out in remoter areas, there's a real easy and relieving way of fixing this problem. Also works for unsticking frozen brakes.

Eagle said:

Yes

Mud will do the same thing.

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yup - when it happens it seems like a crazy woblle that happens and it will be speed related. when the harmonics of the rotating tire add together they will cause the tire to move up and down - making a DW type scenario...

I have a little expierence here...

Timber said:

When out in remoter areas, there's a real easy and relieving way of fixing this problem. Also works for unsticking frozen brakes.

Click to expand...

And that way is???.....

JeepXJ93 said:

And that way is???.....

Click to expand...

You have to ask? :laugh3: :laugh3:

The key term is "relieving."

LMAO...now i feel like such a retard.

if you dont have to "relieve" yourself, then then you can go to wally world and get one of those pump bottles that you use to put weed killer stuff in. Fill it with water and take it with you wheeling. its easy just to pump it a few and pressurize it. Also works good for cleaning off side mirrors so you can use them on the way home from wheeling.

Until recently i just thought my tires were out of ballance, cause they would shake when ever i went above 40mph. I hsould have realized it only happened after i went muddung, and then stopped after i cleaned it. lol.

Mud and snow will do that.

I recall a Car and Driver test of a GC a few years back when they couldn't beleive how heavy the thing was. This was after off-road testing. They climed to have over 200lbs of mud caked into the framework below, relatively out of sight. if I rememebr right, they kinda ripped on the truck for this.

Funny, the snow packed to the inside of my wheels last week actually balenced my tires.

--Matt