Hey guys,
I have 285/75/16 of the BFG All Terrian flavor on 16 x 8 American Racing wheels on my 98 F-150 (in sig and gallery-even though those pics are stock size). I am having trouble keeping them balanced - it seems like I keep losing wheel weights. It was in last week and got em balanced and it was great for about 2 days but now it feels like they need to be balanced again. Anyone else have this problem?

Thanks
Jake

 

I have the same size wheels and same tires and I have never had a problem. Could be a bad tire.

 

Thanks for the reply. These are nice tires and have about 25,000 miles on them with very little wear. The last time it went in two of the tires lost weights and today I noticed that the front right one has no weights on the outside. I guess after only 25,000 miles it would really suck to have to eat the price of another set of tires (especially since they aren't cheap at all).

EDIT - They were just fine on my brother's old 97, but now we put em on the 98 and we have problems. The only thing I can think of is that he had rotation and balance every 5,000 miles.

 

There are about a dozen different wheel weight types these days and if you don't use the right one, they will often just come right off. Make sure your tire guy is using a weight with a profile that fits the lip of the bead correctly. For the inside bead where it doesn't show, use tape weights. They will stay on because centrifugal force keeps them on instead of throwing them off.

Good luck,
Doc

 

Right on!

I tend to get very ticked when I see a tire tech, with a framing hammer, trying get get a chevrolet weight on my rims which take MC weights.

I really get ticked when I tell them specifically which weight I want used, and they still don't know any better!

Not only do the wrong weights fall off, some of them can actually cause the tire to leak at the bead.

BTW, Bigger tires are not impossible to balance, they usually tend to take more weight than a small car tire. The reason is the difference in tire mass.

 

Yea thanks for the replies guys. That makes perfect sense about not using the right weights. It will go in Thursday to a different shop (actual tire shop this time - not the front end shop) to get em balanced, and this should fix me. I was just wondering what would be the cause for losing the weights and now I know!!!!!

 

Don't count on that being the end all fix. It sounds like Superrangerman and myself share the same frustration with tire stores.

I got so tired of messing with them, that I found and bought my own computer balancer. I could teach an attentive teenager how to use it properly in probably 15 minutes. The problem is ATTITUDE. Most people that balance tires just don't care, except about their paycheck.

Not only do they COMMONLY use the wrong weights, they also will simply run the machine in STATIC mode. This means weights only on the inboard of the rim. This will keep the wheel from bouncing up and down, but will allow it to wobble. On our trucks this wobble usually does not cause too much vibration because the suspensions are not real nimble on a truck. On a car, however, it wreaks havoc.

If you can find a tire store, shop, dealer, service station or ANYBODY that has a complete assortment of wheel weights, a computer balancer and MOST IMPORTANTLY someone who CARES about what they are doing, then make mental note of who they are and make sure that same tire man does your work.

It is such a simple thing to do, but it requires a desire to do it right.

Good luck,
Doc