How many weights does it take to balance your 35" tires?

After my latest rotation and balance, I noticed that all 4 of my 35" BFG Mud Terrains have between 27 and 47 weights on the inside of the rims. I was told by a friend that used to work for Ford that you shouldn't have to worry as long as there aren't more than 50 required to balance a tire.

This just seems like an awfully large amount of weights. I would assume that the better the quality the tire, the less weights it requires to balance. So do I just assume that my tires are just poor quality?

I'm just trying to see if the number of weights that I have for my 35's is abnormally high or if it's normal. It sure seems like I have a lot more road noise and interior vibrations that are hard to locate, and I have a suspicion that it is being caused by the tires.

Anyway, how many weights do your 35" tires take to balance?

None. I run beadlocks and ProComp 35's and no tire wobble.

Have you considered running Airsoft BBs on the inside of you tires instead? The 24g ones work well for balancing tires.

Weights come in all different.. weights.. so it's not the number, it's the cumulative weight that matters. So are you talking like 3 oz, 8 oz or what?

Don't forget there's alot of steel inside these tires. Plus no matter what wheel you buy, nothing stops the fact there could be the slightest imperfection that not even the best tech could ever find none the less see. I run 33 x 12.50 x15 and there's a few weights, but have never had a single wobble ever. main thing is the tire installer needs to match up the valve stem to the dot on the tire, usually orange or white. That's just something I learned back in the earlier years of working in the pits around stock cars.

Each one of the weights on the rims on mine are labeled as 1/4, if that means anything.

Don't forget using antifreeze. I use a turkey baster needle to inject it straight through the core-less vlv stem.

jeeperguy21 said:

Each one of the weights on the rims on mine are labeled as 1/4, if that means anything.

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Yeah, that means everything. It means your tire shop was out of all wheel weights except the smallest ones available so they had to tack a brazillion of them on there. Sounds like you're averaging about 9 ounces of weight which isn't unreasonable for what they are.

Most shops to get 9 oz of weight would simply use 3 3oz weights, not 36 little bitty ones.

BFG's normally tend to be better than that for balancing, so either you've let them get very cupped or your wheels aren't very round/ balanced.

My wheels are fine I would assume. Never been damaged or bent and they were great on with my last set of tires. What would cause my tires to become cupped? I rotate and balance them very regularly...

jeeperguy21 said:

I rotate and balance them very regularly...

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How often do you have them rotated and balanced? I work and Discount tire and we tell almost everyone that buys a mud terrain to come back and have them balanced and rotated every 3,000 miles to prevent them from cupping... You may just need a simple alignment. Oh and if you are that concerned about that much weight on the wheels then ask to have the tires "Road Forced" since there is no "dot" on the BFG's that is the easiest way to align the cent of the tire with the stem so it will ask for less weight.

How competent is your tire shop?
I watched a guy at a Discount tire here in Phoenix put a 38" on his machine, got the computer to say it was perfect, loosened the lock, rotated the tire 1/2 turn, tightened it back up and re-ran the test. The tire came back out of balance. They had to mount the tires on a special hub because the rims wouldn't center on the machine. "Looked like a real pain in the a**, but they did it.
When they were done, the tires had very little weight on them

Twisted_Dakota: What is "Road forced"? I've never heard the term.

tbburg said:

How competent is your tire shop?
I watched a guy at a Discount tire here in Phoenix put a 38" on his machine, got the computer to say it was perfect, loosened the lock, rotated the tire 1/2 turn, tightened it back up and re-ran the test. The tire came back out of balance. They had to mount the tires on a special hub because the rims wouldn't center on the machine. "Looked like a real pain in the a**, but they did it.
When they were done, the tires had very little weight on them

Twisted_Dakota: What is "Road forced"? I've never heard the term.

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x2, I haven't done tire work since I was 17, but back in the Fred Flintstone days I would break the bead and rotate the tire on the rim to locate the "sweet spot"--where the least amount of weight was required. This was done on a manual tire changer and bubble balancer from the 1940s in our service station. Of course, minimum wage was $1.10 when I was 17, and I worked for my Dad, and he liked to say "Do the damn job right or don't do it at all." Not doing it was not an option--regrets for the double negative.

T3hk1w1 said:

Have you considered running Airsoft BBs on the inside of you tires instead? The 24g ones work well for balancing tires.

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X2 running those lead weighte is STUPID!!!! If you wheel your Junk, they ARE going to get knocked off!! Then you are stuck driving to the tire shop trying to hold on to the steering wheel..........just to get charged to balance them AGAIN!!! Do it once, do it right and your tires will stay balanced for their life on your Rig!!

He probably has stick on wheel weights that are all 1/4 oz. I doubt the tire shop would have used that many hammer on wheel weights! Oh, and the road force balancing actually pairs up the tire/wheel combo's high/low spots the best it can making the final assembly as round as it can be. Also, on that machine you can make it tell you what assembly should go on which corner of the vehicle to make it track the best down the road (of course they can't be directional tires). Its a pretty wild machine - the Hunter GSP7000 or something like that...I was in one of the first shops with one years ago dont know if they've improved them now or if any other company has one now.

Just run Airsoft pellets. I run 33 x 10.50 x 15 on Allied beadlocks with 10oz of airsoft pellets in each tire and no issue. I started down this path when I put tires on my motorhome and the tire shop just tossed a bag of plastic bb's inside the tire and told me when the bag breaks open the tires will be balanced for the life of the tire. They do this with buses and semi tires. It works well and this is the third set of tires I' running airsoft pellets in and will continue to run them. Super easy and you don't have to pay a tire shop to keep your tires balanced. Just my $.02...

Here is a link to innovative balancing. It a tire size chart that show how many ounces of pellets you would need.

http://www.innovativebalancing.com/BigTirechart.htm

tbburg said:

How competent is your tire shop?
I watched a guy at a Discount tire here in Phoenix put a 38" on his machine, got the computer to say it was perfect, loosened the lock, rotated the tire 1/2 turn, tightened it back up and re-ran the test. The tire came back out of balance. They had to mount the tires on a special hub because the rims wouldn't center on the machine. "Looked like a real pain in the a**, but they did it.
When they were done, the tires had very little weight on them

Twisted_Dakota: What is "Road forced"? I've never heard the term.

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This is what we use at work:
http://www.hunter.com/pub/product/balancer/4159T/index.htm

Just an FYI on using Dynabeads or similar dynamic balancing media.

http://www.innovativebalancing.com/BigTirechart.htm

They're generally ineffective below roughly 25-30 MPH . This appears especially true as tire size increases. Above 30 or so and they are somewhat to very effective. Also be aware the amount of media truly needed may vary a fair amount from their charts. From my experiences the more aggressive the tire tread (e.g. Boggers, etc) the more media is probably needed.

I've run Dynabeads on two rigs running 35's and 31's for roughly 3 years. Current combined mileage is roughly 45k. Dynamic media has extended tire wear on both rigs very noticeably , with both running Baja claws (bias and radial). These tires generally have fairly short lives (20-25k) and tend to cup etc. My TJ (31's) now has 32k on current set with roughly 50% tread left and virtually zero cupping. The XJ has about 10-12k also with no visible cupping.

I also tried Centramatics as they seemed a great design on my XJ. With the 35's these devices appears virtually worthless. Could be due to the amount of media limited by ring size, or perhaps having the rotational balancing closer to the hub etc. Bottom line these didn't do anything for my 35's. I'd guess the smaller the tire the more effective this design might be.

Hope this helps..