Technical information on tire and wheel balance

Everything from simple balancing through radial force variation down to conicity and per-plane imbalance.



http://www.micropoise.com/engineering/

happy new year

Albertj

albertj wrote:

Everything from simple balancing through radial force variation down to conicity and per-plane imbalance.



http://www.micropoise.com/engineering/

happy new year

Albertj

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Thats a pretty TECHNICAL website................. i do alot of tire balancing at my school........... and i ACED tire balancing........... and i HAVENOT heard 1/3 of that stuff............ LOLZ public schooling

The company, "Micro-Poise" makes machines that auto, wheel and tire manufacturers use to match-mount tires at the factory, spot-reject defective tires, assure uniformity of wheels, and so on. If you hae some time on your hands, there is other interesting stuff on the Micro-Poise site.

happy new year

Albertj

Do we know if the newer "stick on" wheel weights that are glued/taped to the inner surface of the wheel can be used on the stock supercharged 16" Riviera wheels successfully versus the old style edge clip on weights?

I ask because I may get my wheels refinished or buy some refinished ones and would like to avoid the edge of the rim getting chewed up over time with weights being pounded on and pried off.... especially the front edge.

Al

The sticky weights can be used on anything, as long as the wheel balancer has the option to balance them that way. Most newer balancers can properly balance a wheel about 4 different ways. I know ours does. So, the answer is yes they can. You'll have to ask whoever balances them to do it that way.

Abaddon wrote:

The sticky weights can be used on anything, as long as the wheel balancer has the option to balance them that way. Most newer balancers can properly balance a wheel about 4 different ways. I know ours does. So, the answer is yes they can. You'll have to ask whoever balances them to do it that way.

This. There is a setting to measure differently because stick on weights are placed in a different location than bead weights. I prefer the bead weights due to ease of use but we have to use stick ons for most modern wheels.

Personally I find stick on weights are much worse to the rim over time because either a) you scrape the crap out of the inner flat surface removing the glue/foam or b) you can't remove the glue/foam completely and it leaves a very crappy look behind or c) you use adhesive remover to get the old weights and foam off and it takes a lot of time.

Most shops don't have time for c) so you are pretty much stuck with the shitty look of a) or b) unless you remove the wheels from the car and do it yourself. With bead weights you might have one or two spots to touch up. Much easier but not always 'show' ready...

Ask for "static balance" when you have your tires mounted. Most shops will do this no problem, and being that our wheels have such a positive offset, there's plenty of area to get the right balance. I've used Firestone for 10 years and never allowed rim mounted weights to be used until last year when my chrome 16" wheels were moved over to full time snow tire duty.

AA wrote:

Ask for "static balance" when you have your tires mounted.

This has nothing to do with the type of weight used. You can static, or dynamic balance with any style of weight. It depends on how the machine is set up. Asking for a "static balance" won't get you sticky weights. Most good wheel balancers measure static, and dynamic balancing at the same time.

EDIT: You shouldn't have to ask for a static balance unless you're going to Big Bobs Backyard Wheel Balancing and Mammoplasty. I was just clarifying that asking for a specific type of balance won't get you different weights. You have to ask for sticky weights, not clip-on.

Having a car that was driven in Buffalo winters for its first 170k miles might make my situation a bit different than others but the fact that my wheels had always had clip on weights made for ALOT of work to get rid of all the corrosion that formed around and underneath them. After we finished them and put the new tires on, we had them balanced at Firestone with sticky weights on the inside. It has no vibration at any speed so I am a supporter of the sticky weights. I have never heard of static balance though and that sounds like a very good way to go if possible!

Quote :

This has nothing to do with the type of weight used. You can static, or dynamic balance with any style of weight. It depends on how the machine is set up. Asking for a "static balance" won't get you sticky weights.

I see what you're saying. The shop I use must have their static balance machine set up for using the stick-on weights. They won't use them unless I ask for "static balance". I've never any other shop for the OEM wheels, so that's good to know for the future.

Thanks for all the great replies.

I'd likely remove all the old weights myself and clean up the residue before new tires were fitted.


Thanks again!
Al

[quote="AA"]

Quote :

I see what you're saying. The shop I use must have their static balance machine set up for using the stick-on weights. They won't use them unless I ask for "static balance". I've never any other shop for the OEM wheels, so that's good to know for the future.

I have a tendency to forget about ALLLL the aftermarket shops that aren't necessarily caught up with technology. The particular machine that we have balances statically and dynamically at the same time. We can balance using clip-ons, stickys, or both depending on the wheel style. Almost every single wheel nowadays uses clip on weights for the inner edge, and sticky weights for the inner/outer face. We can even mark (with the machine) where the spokes of the wheel are and can hide the weights....the machine splits the differences on its own and compensates for the imbalances.
Now patch balancing (another option on the machine)....never had to use it. I can't honestly tell you what that's all about. All I know is that our machine has 4 different options for balancing, which all refer to weight types used. Clip/Clip, Clip/Sticky, Sticky/Sticky, and Patch balance. It's a pretty cool machine.


Al, If you can get the tires off yourself, you may want to sand the lip of the wheel where the bead seats because that corrosion that gets behind the weight can spread into that area and cause leaks. Nothing some cleaning and some bead sealer can't fix.

Dynamic balance means they put weights on the inner and outer sections of the rim. This results in a 'better' balance. This can be done with sticky weights or bang-on weights. There are different settings on every machine depending on where you are putting the weights. Static balance means you are only putting weights in one position (inside only for example).

You can generally use adhesive remover pretty safely on most finishes. (note how well I disclaimed that!)