Those of you guys that are pro technicians or are savvy in the realm of auto wrenching know what it takes to mount and balance tires correctly. I see crappy jobs done all of the time and most people have no idea they are victims of shoddy work.

These guys arent bad, but didnt emphasize enough about the seam of the tire and where it goes on the wheel. When tires are not mounted properly they dont balance right. Balancing is more important than people think and an excessive amount of weight is used more commonly than people actually know:


A lot of shops either will not take the time to dismount and remount a tire that is taking an excessive amount of weight for a couple of reasons. Reason #1 is that it takes more time to do so. Reason #2 the tech isnt properly trained and doesnt know the difference between **** and apple butter. Beware of places like Sam's club and Walmart for these reasons.

This thread is pretty good and also links to another thread that is informative about balancing. Like the thread says in most cases 3 oz of weight for most car and pick up tires is a lot of weight! What kind of condition your wheels are in factors as well as what kind of quality the tire is:

How much weight is too much to balance a tire? | Tires & Wheels | Bob Is The Oil Guy

I am by no means an expert and I hope others with opinions and experience will add to this thread.

Thanks guys in advance for any participation!

 

I don't know how many times Ive got onto the techs years ago at Discount that I go to on the useage of weights. They will hammer a weight on then spin it again it says it needs a weight here and they add another weight there.

No that's not how you do it take time and do it right pull the weight and move it slightly towards where the other weight should go and mount it and try again. Ive been able to balance my own tires with some time to where they have just one weight on each side. But not Discount.

Now they do that but if only I could get them to slow down on my **** and quit rushing and actually give me everything back that the truck came in with. So far last week I went three times to Discount, first was to have one of my newer tires patched after a wood screw went through the tread. This resulted in one hex head valve cap being lost this was number three as when the tires were mounted almost two years ago they not only left off the stainless steel beauty rings on the rear but they also lost the two original valve stem caps. Then I went in Friday to get two tires put on ended up getting a deal on four since the KO`s are not made anymore. Well now I lost a lug nut and had to go back in yesterday to get a lugnut replaced which in the end I still had to order a set of lug nuts as this one is a 3/4" lug while the rest on the truck is the OEM 13/16".

Personally I wish the tire machines were not so expensive I would invest in the balancer and the mounter and just buy the tires out right and do the work myself.



Also I did not know that about those paint dots. I wonder what the different dots mean how ever. Tires I got from Sears for my '56 due to the size and the design of the tire they have a yellow and a red dot. The tires from Discount only have one dot but I just checked my BFG`s All Terrains KO2`s and theres not a single dot, maybe they washed off with the rain we had the day I got them or they washed them off.

 

This is a good article about the dots and what they mean.
http://www.tirebusiness.com/article/...rkings-serve-a

 

This is a good article about the dots and what they mean.
http://www.tirebusiness.com/article/...rkings-serve-a

 

All that would not mean a thing to some show car buffs. I know some guys that when they get there tires mounted on their show cars, they specifically have the valve stems positioned in a certain relationship to the lettering on the tire, and this must be the same on all 4 tires. They are the same guys who make sure the screws that hold the license plates on are all pointed the same direction.

Didn't know there were crazy people like that did you?

 

With any rotating assembly there is balanced, and then there's balanced. It's worth taking the time to make sure it is not just "within limits" but as smooth as practical. It takes a little longer and can be a PITA with tires, but it's worth doing. If you find a good tire guy, use him. Since they are charging for labor it should not be any trouble to get him to go the extra mile. A technician will take the time to do it correctly. With wheels and tires it means less linkage and suspension component wear, less noise, better tire life, etc.

 

Stainless license plate screw slots all horizontal....guilty until I started using the smooth chrome caps with the chrome plate frames

 

Interesting, Yellow dots are for helping the tech balance the tire by installing it inline with the valve stem which only one of my tires out of three vehicles that has the dots are lined up. The Red dots are for out of round ness and should be installed where the dot is for the rim that shows its lowest spot to correct the run out. So reguardless I will always ignore the red dot unlike they say because my rims are 30+ years old I highly doubt they were doing the dots for low spots on the rims.

As far as uniformity goes, I am guilty of it but I am not that **** about it. I don't mind where the letters match up on the rim but the stainless steel beauty rings has to have the valve stem cut out centered not off to one side and defently not up against the valve stem. Also the driving lights have to be identical in their direction. Sure they should be angled off center to spread the light out some but it just bugs me having them not straight side to side with the front of the truck.

 

Before the dots I believe the tire seam was always postitioned opposite of the valve stem or vice versa for a starting point. If I recollect the extra rubber where the seam is is put offset to counter the valve stem. If you put them on top of each other it puts too much weight in that one spot.

 

You are correct in that long before "painted dots", that the seam was placed directly opposite of the valve stem as it was considered an off-set for balancing.

 

Tires are injection molded meaning there has to be a weak point, and that is at the injection site. The injection seam can be seen on most tires at the bead and should be mounted opposite the valve stem on the rim if a painted dot is not present.

 

Theres a name for that.... it's called "screw clocking"

On realy high end stuff, every screw is "clocked" or "timed" for appearance.

Once people take part in the practice of clocking screws, they tend to always have to continue.

 

And here I thought it was OCD
Dave ----

 

I tighten things until they are tight.

 

When i worked on wooden boats this was mandatory for all visible screws.
Lining the slot with the flow of the rail, gunwale, or coaming.

I still do this with switch plates in houses.

There was also "fairing the kerfs" , where the gap between planks (left for cotton caulking) was to be consistent everywhere on the hull.
Man, that's tedious and exacting work.
I could see if it were for a teak deck, but below the waterline?