Need your opinion on this tire balance
- Thread starter eastbloc
- Start date
From the little research I did ( as in very little because I honestly didn’t care if these balanced due to them being my crawler set) they only seem to work on bigger tires when compared to traditional balancing.
I recently had some issues with my KO2’s. After going to 3 different Discount shops my wheels looked just the same, weights were everywhere with very little difference. I got tired of fighting them and just bought some new tires. I’m not sure I’ll ever run another set of BFG’s.
I will say I didn’t try the beads but I used beads on my F250 and absolutely loved them. Never had one issue and I (hate to admit this) never rotated those tires. If you get beads I do highly recommend the ABC balance beads.
I will say I didn’t try the beads but I used beads on my F250 and absolutely loved them. Never had one issue and I (hate to admit this) never rotated those tires. If you get beads I do highly recommend the ABC balance beads.
I know that not all new tires have them, but have you checked inside and out? They will only be a mark on one side, and modern tire guys seem to have no idea what those little paint dots indicate.
If no paint marks can be found, another thing to do would be to have the tire broke down and rotated on the rim, then rebalanced.
This happens to me all the time, that's why I suggest always mention that you know your Jeep is a part of the problem even if it isn't. It lets them know you aren't going to instantly blame them and I think they work with you better knowing that. I think often people go into a shop saying another shop messed up can you fix it? That puts the new shop into defense mode right away. Uh oh, customer has a busted up rig, another shop already couldn't do it, why would we be any different? They say to themselves lets just get this over with and you end up with another poor balance job. These shops all do generally think of themselves on one side and customers on the other no matter how nice they seem to you, they have more respect for the shop down the road than for you.
Tire rotation might have had a bit to do with it, did you do the whole 6k without?
When I priced some tires a few months ago, my tire guy said the BFG would be like what you're experiencing. He said some would balance with 4oz or less, and others would never balance. He's trying to push me to Falkens for that reason. I just can't imagine Michelin letting BFG tires develop that reputation.
I'm interested to see how you get this resolved as I need a new set of tires.
This is a gift that keeps on giving.
After initial success with putting a spare into rotation, i have decided to do it again, and once again i was able to single out the worst tire. Doing so resulted in the best ride i have had so far:
55 - smooth
60 - smooth
65 - slight shake
70 and above - stabilizes to tolerable levels.
By "tolerable" i mean not perfect, it is not bad, but if i had to be a picky princess then there you have it. Actually it is on part with driving on a highway in north east region - road seems smooth, but not smooth enough.
Got tires into another shop for another rebalance and reading:
LF: 15 RF: 5
LR: 16 RR: 7
Spare (the worst) : 19
So they are withing acceptable 20 lb range, but persisting issue is persisting issue. Personally i don't care what this numbers mean, what matters to me if there is a correlation between a high number and bad riding characteristic of a tire, which in this case seems to be the case. The spare tire is a trouble maker and balancing machine singles it out as well.
This time a "precision" method was used to balance tires. I went from static, to dynamic and now precision.
After rebalance, things have stayed the same, it is as smooth as it ever was up to 65, shaking at 65 and gets better at 70.
When i move spare (the worst) to the front, ride gets worse.
When i move spare to the rear, ride gets better but it is difficult to say if it is better than without it. At this point i need to purchase a vibration analyzer that can keep track of this mess.
Balancing beads - as if did not have enough shit on my plate as is.
How much beads does a tire need? One maker calls for 4oz, another say 6oz, and of course another one would say 8oz.
I went with 8oz because <enter your reason>
One tire at a time i started replacing wheel weights with beads. I did it this way to see if i can single out another bad tire.
*NOTE 1* Beads will not work with wheel weights, they need unbalanced tire to work. I tried and i thought my wheel was gonna fly off.
*NOTE 2* Tires were rotated, front and rear swapped. Additionally bad spare tire is now on RR.
LF tire went well, just as good or better. This tire also needed the most weights (12 oz: 6oz and 6oz diametrically opposite of it), and this i think is key factor to why this experiment went down the hill from here.
RF tire did not do so well, shakes starting at 50 and persisting to 70 and above. This tire was asking for 2.75oz
RR tire with beads has also worsen the shake, this one called for 3.25oz and shake felt bias to passenger side.
RL tire evened out the shake.
At this point it does not matter what is going on with 5th tire.
Based on what i have experienced, now i have a theory that amount of unbalance has to be proportional to amount of beads put into a tire. In another words, i think there is a threshold after which beads will do more harm.
After initial success with putting a spare into rotation, i have decided to do it again, and once again i was able to single out the worst tire. Doing so resulted in the best ride i have had so far:
55 - smooth
60 - smooth
65 - slight shake
70 and above - stabilizes to tolerable levels.
By "tolerable" i mean not perfect, it is not bad, but if i had to be a picky princess then there you have it. Actually it is on part with driving on a highway in north east region - road seems smooth, but not smooth enough.
Got tires into another shop for another rebalance and reading:
LF: 15 RF: 5
LR: 16 RR: 7
Spare (the worst) : 19
So they are withing acceptable 20 lb range, but persisting issue is persisting issue. Personally i don't care what this numbers mean, what matters to me if there is a correlation between a high number and bad riding characteristic of a tire, which in this case seems to be the case. The spare tire is a trouble maker and balancing machine singles it out as well.
This time a "precision" method was used to balance tires. I went from static, to dynamic and now precision.
After rebalance, things have stayed the same, it is as smooth as it ever was up to 65, shaking at 65 and gets better at 70.
When i move spare (the worst) to the front, ride gets worse.
When i move spare to the rear, ride gets better but it is difficult to say if it is better than without it. At this point i need to purchase a vibration analyzer that can keep track of this mess.
Balancing beads - as if did not have enough shit on my plate as is.
How much beads does a tire need? One maker calls for 4oz, another say 6oz, and of course another one would say 8oz.
I went with 8oz because <enter your reason>
One tire at a time i started replacing wheel weights with beads. I did it this way to see if i can single out another bad tire.
*NOTE 1* Beads will not work with wheel weights, they need unbalanced tire to work. I tried and i thought my wheel was gonna fly off.
*NOTE 2* Tires were rotated, front and rear swapped. Additionally bad spare tire is now on RR.
LF tire went well, just as good or better. This tire also needed the most weights (12 oz: 6oz and 6oz diametrically opposite of it), and this i think is key factor to why this experiment went down the hill from here.
RF tire did not do so well, shakes starting at 50 and persisting to 70 and above. This tire was asking for 2.75oz
RR tire with beads has also worsen the shake, this one called for 3.25oz and shake felt bias to passenger side.
RL tire evened out the shake.
At this point it does not matter what is going on with 5th tire.
Based on what i have experienced, now i have a theory that amount of unbalance has to be proportional to amount of beads put into a tire. In another words, i think there is a threshold after which beads will do more harm.
When I did mine I found a chart that showed how many ounces per tire by size. Used 10 ounces for a 36x13.50R15. Also, if you have ever at any point used slime or any type of fix a flat you would have to break it down and clean the inside of the tire out then let it dry.
Okay i was wrong, i have not seen detailed chart for all makers, they all call for 8oz for my size of tire.
weird. I've had lots of KO2's and never had a problem balancing. The worst I've ever had are the Coopers I'm running now; they got there eventually but took a lot of weight.
When there is a moisture in the tires, does it ever dry out?
I am almost confident that my beads are clumping together, at 45 mph it drives as if all 8oz of beads are sitting in the same spot and with speed up it does not get much better.
What would cause them to clump together, other than some moisture inside, i have no idea.
I am almost confident that my beads are clumping together, at 45 mph it drives as if all 8oz of beads are sitting in the same spot and with speed up it does not get much better.
What would cause them to clump together, other than some moisture inside, i have no idea.
Not permanently. It may all evaporate when warm, but it'll condense on the surfaces when it cools off outside.
Ive never used balance beads but if they're steel then it's quite possible they could have rusted together into a clump.