Just had my tires balanced, still shakes between at 55 mph to 65 only. Do you have to remove the weights on a car tire first? Been told both ways are correct. Anyone work for a company that balancing tires? Going to move the front tires to the back and see if the steering wheel stops shaking.

 

The correct way is to balance the wheel first, find the offset weight and mark the wheel. Install tire and if needed rotate tire on wheel to lowest offset weight. Then you apply final weights. However this is rarely done correctly and people just jam a ton of weight on a wheel.

 

I worked at a tire shop for almost 2 years. We had a machine that you put the mounted tire/rim on (with no weight). It spins the wheel up to 100 MPH and then shows you the exact spot to place wheel weights and how much weight to put there. I'd recommend going to a tire shop and asking them to balance. We only charged $10 a wheel, but then again it was a mom and pop shop.

A bent rim will cause a shake and vibration. You could try jacking up the truck and manually spinning the wheel to make sure the rim is true first.

 

That would only be applicable if you were installing new tires. No one is going to take the chance of damaging the tire bead by removing it to balance the wheel by itself. If a wheel is bent you should be able to see that while the wheel is spinning. ​​​​​​If a tire is “calling” for a lot of weight in one spot you can break down the tire and spin it on the rim to see if it get any better. More often than not there is something wrong with the tire: if new a manufacturing defect or if used than maybe they hit something (curb?).

I would balance the tire and see if it needed weight. If not then nothing to do but reinstall. If it needed weight then I would remove the weights that were on the rim and retest and then install the weight(s) where needed. Always balance once more after the weights were added to make sure it came up as zero weights needed.

 

some tire shops hire brain dead zombies. other hire lazy people. then you have the guys that care.
when i had my knee replaced i needed a ball joint on my new to me 2014 replaced. i took it to a shop i trusted.
the brain dead zombie that took the tires off and "balanced " them told me two rims were bent and could not be balanced. so he put them on the rear of the truck.
a year later i was checking the brakes and decided to look a the tires.
i put them on MY machine at the home shop and the rims WERE NOT BENT
HE PUT THEM ON THE MACHINE WRONG, THEN TRIED OT BALANCE THEM WITHOUT TAKING THE OLD WEIGHTS OFF.
i stripped the old weights off and spun the first tire up, and only had to add 2 ounces to hit zero. the other tire was zero after removing all the old weights.

 

Thanks for the info.! I learned you have to watch EVERYTHING they do and asked questions before hand. I think there's one way I can find out, I marked the location of the weights with a white marker. And I know what size weights that were used yesterday, they let me watch. I also read for small car tires remove rocks from treads first. I found a tire balancing manual online it doesn't state removing weights first. The manual looks like it's written for mounting new tires only.

 

If you still experience a vibration, find a shop that has a Hunter Road Force balancer. It costs a little more than a regular balance, but it is the most accurate balance you can get. And most shops that have one really know how to use it (aka don't have braindead morons balancing your tires).

I bought a set of 31x10.5-15 Kumho Road Venture AT51s last year and had them balanced 3 times at 2 shops before taking them to another shop that had a Road Force balancer which finally eliminated the vibration.

 

I called shops with Road Force balancers for prices in my city and they all say they don't remove the weights before spinning the tires. Very strange ???

 

cause they are lazy. you will never get a proper balance without stripping all the old weights off first.
that is why i bought my own tire mounting machine and wheel balancer.
with the 14 cars and trucks i was maintaining back then, i was spending close to $400 per year just on tire maintenance.
i paid $400 for the tire machine, and $300 for the balancer 15 years ago.
so they definitely paid for themselves.

 

Even a Harbor Freight bubble balancer will get you close(or closer then Billy Bob at the tire discount place).

Just a few more and it will be PURRRFECT!!!

 

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

what size are those weights Larry?
they look like 2.5 ounce each.

 

Tjctransport is correct about the help at tire shops.

I took a set of tires and rim in to have new tires put on and balanced. When I got the tires and rim back, it looked like a tiger had been on meth and clawed the hell out my rims. They had to buff them and then gave me a discount on new tires since the guy didn't clamp my rims down when balancing the new tires.

This place has been in business for almost 30 years.

 

I have play on both front tires on my car (front wheel drive) when I grab them at 9 and 3 o'clock. Is that normal? When I grab them at 12 and 6 there's no play?

 

Normal? No

Generally, movement at 3 & 9 is worn steering while 12 & 6 indicates worn wheel bearings or ball joints.