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I bought 4 wheels and tires from Coker Tire. they mounted the tires on the wheels and shipped them to me. One of the wheels looks like there is excessive wheel weights, picture attached. On one side there are 2 weights totaling 7.5 oz. The other side has 3 weights totaling 7.75 oz. Combined weights of 15.75 oz. I called Coker but haven't heard back yet.
Depending upon who you ask, I see ranges from 4 to 16 ounces per assembly as guidelines for maximums. It also has been expressed as 1% of the rim/tire assembly weight.
The real questions are, is the rim straight and relatively balanced?
Is the tire itself relatively balanced? Could be a manufacturer defect.
Likely one or both are instigating this and could be considered for corrections/replacement.
I would definitely start by having a call with Coker and understand their specific weighting maximum guidelines as well as express your concern/displeasure and see where that gets you.
I've never had any personal dealings with Coker, but from this and the experiences shared by many others, I'm saddened and less than impressed. I hope they take care of you on this. Keep us posted please.
The tire may need to be rotated on the wheel to offset the weight needed. Basically if the tire and wheel are both out of balance in the same place you get a compounding issue and it takes a lot of weight to offset it.
You may want to take one to a GOOD tire shop and have them re-balance one of the wheels and potentially adjust the tire on the rim to see if you get a better result. If so, then go back to Coker and see if they will give you a credit for the re-balancing.
I just noticed looking at the picture, the weights are generally opposite one another....
I'm guessing they are like that (not quite opposite each other) because they just couldn't put enough weight at the point needed (between the two sets of weights). I have to believe the wheel is bent. That one large weight won't stay on very long either.
I had excessive wheel weights with my Coker Firestone repo original style bias ply 6:50x16. Then I found a shop that shaves the tires- had them rebalanced and 2/3-3/4 of the weights came off the wheels and truck drives so much better after that! Best thing I ever did.
I'll bet they have some new kid balancing tires, that certainly is wrong. I would ask if they will let you take them to a good tire shop and they pay the bill to correct.
On the other side of the tire, is there a paint dot? If so is it inline with the valve stem? The heavy point on the rim should be the value stem and the lightest point on tire is where the paint dot is located. If they are together they should offset one another.
I would avoid wheel weights entirely since they look kind of ugly. Use beads instead. Mounting a new tire on the rim is easy and can be done at home without chipping any paint. Napa sells the beads. A package has four little bags inside. Beads are cheaper than what your tire shop will charge you for mounting and balancing and you won't have to worry about them chipping the paint. To mount a tire you simply lay the rim on blanket on the floor. Lay the tire on the rim and work the one side in with your foot. Throw in a bag of beads and work the other side in with your foot. You may heed a tire iron if it won't go on. It's about as easy as changing a bike tire. The little bags of beads break when you start driving. I did my tires this way except I already had mounted the tires and had to feed the beads through the valve stem which is no fun and takes about 20 minutes per tire which is still less than the time it would take to drive to the tire shop, wait for them to do the work and drive home again. My 52 F1 truck drives smoothly on the highway even at 70 mph. I understand that even big trucks use beads for balancing. The bigger the tire the more beads you need.
Here is an update on my Coker wheel weight problem. I talked to Coker and they were going to replace the tire and wheel until I told them I painted the front side of the wheel. Now they won't replace the tire and wheel. The reason was that they couldn't get a replacement from their manufacturer of the wheel if it was painted. Told me to use it like that, it was balanced and should be OK. I thought about disputing the charge with my credit card company. I installed the wheels/tires and they seam to be OK. The whole thing kind of put a bad taste in my mouth for Coker.
That is a disappointing. It seems to me if there is a written warranty, unless your gobs or paint caused the bent or imbalanced wheel, they can't reject it (Magnuson Moss Act).
I would avoid wheel weights entirely since they look kind of ugly. Use beads instead. Mounting a new tire on the rim is easy and can be done at home without chipping any paint. Napa sells the beads. A package has four little bags inside. Beads are cheaper than what your tire shop will charge you for mounting and balancing and you won't have to worry about them chipping the paint. To mount a tire you simply lay the rim on blanket on the floor. Lay the tire on the rim and work the one side in with your foot. Throw in a bag of beads and work the other side in with your foot. You may heed a tire iron if it won't go on. It's about as easy as changing a bike tire. The little bags of beads break when you start driving. I did my tires this way except I already had mounted the tires and had to feed the beads through the valve stem which is no fun and takes about 20 minutes per tire which is still less than the time it would take to drive to the tire shop, wait for them to do the work and drive home again. My 52 F1 truck drives smoothly on the highway even at 70 mph. I understand that even big trucks use beads for balancing. The bigger the tire the more beads you need.
Balancing beads are a great solution, especially for a truck still running RH5. My F-6 cruises at smoothly at 60+.
