Balancing tires, weights or beads

Worked for a trucking company for 36 years, 22.5 tires, never balanced a tire. If the dot on the tire is matched to the valve stem you are good to go.

CENTRAMATIC! Maybe balancing the tire first would help but if you install Centramatic dynamic balancers it should not be required. I did the install when I had new Michelin's installed. They did not balance the tires in any way and I have the best front end ride ever. Even today when I was rolling down a hill at over 75 MPH, there was not a shimmy.

All tires need to be balanced.

The other day I noticed a truck that had an out of balance tire. How did I know?

I never saw anything looking the tire but the mudflap bracket was bouncing up and down very violently.

I am sure the suspension on that tire was taking a beating.

I use beads and have had good luck with them.

On trailers a big advantage is the beads will also balance the brake drums which are not balanced on trailers like they were on cars and trucks that had drum brakes.

noteven wrote:
As a young feller working in the "energy sector" where the pickup truck is everywhere and endless discussions about them abound - we used to have endless discussions on wheel balancing - "them computer machines don't work" "you need to spin balance on the vehicle..." blah blah blah

Go forward a bit to a trip to our very first Indy Car race, Vancouver BC. 3 dummies standing there confounded at the tire tent... technicians were balancing 200mph racing tires using the exact machine our local tire shop had, spinning the wheel/tire at exactly the same speed, and attaching lead weights to balance them... Tire tech looked at me standing there with a stupid look on the face (still easily done) and said, "Yes, we can do passenger tires, truck tires, Indy Car tires on the same machine..."
I use Centramatic balancers on a won ton truck that sees mud roads from time to time and some can dry inside the wheels causing imbalance etc etc. The balancers adjust the balance in the way beads in the tire work - by balancing the whole rotating assembly (inc hubs and brake rotor) instead of only the wheel and tire.

One advantage is a tire can be dismounted for repair without needing to deal with beads inside it.

A tire shop in our region would not mount new tires on "warped" or "bent" wheels - if your wheels were not true this would normally be explained and/or shown to you. There may be some runout tolerance - I don't know what that would be - but if outside of tolerance they would refuse the wheel...

Having blabbed on - you are on the right track - sound wheel and tire assembly in balance is the first step.

I'm in total agreement, when the wheel is straight, the machines do perfect. I haven't seen one 19.5 steel wheel that doesn't have runout, I've only seen 10 used ones. I did buy 2 brand new ones and they were good before they were used.

As a young feller working in the "energy sector" where the pickup truck is everywhere and endless discussions about them abound - we used to have endless discussions on wheel balancing - "them computer machines don't work" "you need to spin balance on the vehicle..." blah blah blah

Go forward a bit to a trip to our very first Indy Car race, Vancouver BC. 3 dummies standing there confounded at the tire tent... technicians were balancing 200mph racing tires using the exact machine our local tire shop had, spinning the wheel/tire at exactly the same speed, and attaching lead weights to balance them... Tire tech looked at me standing there with a stupid look on the face (still easily done) and said, "Yes, we can do passenger tires, truck tires, Indy Car tires on the same machine..."

I use Centramatic balancers on a won ton truck that sees mud roads from time to time and some can dry inside the wheels causing imbalance etc etc. The balancers adjust the balance in the way beads in the tire work - by balancing the whole rotating assembly (inc hubs and brake rotor) instead of only the wheel and tire.

One advantage is a tire can be dismounted for repair without needing to deal with beads inside it.

A tire shop in our region would not mount new tires on "warped" or "bent" wheels - if your wheels were not true this would normally be explained and/or shown to you. There may be some runout tolerance - I don't know what that would be - but if outside of tolerance they would refuse the wheel...

Having blabbed on - you are on the right track - sound wheel and tire assembly in balance is the first step.

jyrostng wrote:
I recently bought a 2000 v32 on a ford F53 chassis with 102,000 miles on it. One of the first thing I did was change the 12yo Bridgestone tires, I decided on Hankooks They looked good and were $225 each 2.45x75x19.5. After they were on, I found out they were 2 years old on the dot,separate issue. I had vibrations I finally couldn't live with on our first trip to Loffland, Nv.

The new tires had been balanced with lead clipped on the rim. I suspected bent steel rims, I wasn't there to observe the balancing and see how much the rims were off. When balancing a tire, if the rim is warped, the balancing machine sees this as a out of balance and adds weight so the machine eliminates it.

I had a new spare, it had never been on the ground, I figured the wheel was straighter. I bought a new matching tire and had it mounted on that rim, when they did it, they used 6 oz of beads inside the tire to balance it. When I thought about it, that's a much better option with steel rims than having a machine actually make the tire statically imbalanced by compensating for the warp with lead weights.

just wanting others opinions, I'm not buying aluminium rims or even replacing these accuride steel rims that cost $300+ each.

I've been told by tire experts, that computer balancing on the front is best and not to even bother with the rears, so.....that's where I'm at now and so far, so good.

I have ran Equal in all 6 of my tires for over 12 years now with no problem.
http://www.imiproducts.com/products/equal-flexx/?gclid=CK7H7_Dw5dQCFVG2wAod8C8I6w

Jyro,

Many in my community use balancing beads only. Some buy the beads and others just get "Airsoft" pellets and put 4oz. (16" wheels) in each tire. They seem to be very happy with the result.

I mentioned this to a truck owner/driver that I know and he gave me this very dead pan look and said,"I use golf balls." He then went on to explain that he has stock of collected golf balls that he puts 4 or 6 (I forget) of in each tire.

Matt