BillR or Winifred: Tire Balancer questions...

[Tiger]

Hey, what a day. I went to my uncle's shop to change out 4 tires on my tire changer that I paid half with my uncle... geez! They don't know how to use it nor did they install the replacement parts right that scruffed up wheels... After I fixed that... everything is sweet again. Okay... enough of my rant...

Now, the other part, is the wheel balancer and that is what I want to ask you guys about today... He has Coat 700 balancer and we calibrated that machine many time, but all in all, I can never get the wheel balanced with the first set of reading... maybe 1 of 10 attempts it will do so.

The wheels are alloys... should I be using alloy mode or dynamic mode... since with this type of wheel, you can't put the tape weight near the front edge of the wheel (no dish)... it set back like maybe 1.5" or so... I figured that is so I must use the alloy mode... but geez! Can never balance the tire on first set of readings...

[Tiger]

On one wheel, I had to get 4 sets of weights to balance that sucker... Ripped all that weights off and try again many times. Tires are brand new and wheels are 5 years old... not abused.

The question is, is it me or do you think the machine is bad? What machine do you recommend? What do you use? Now, let's not get and tell me I should invest in Hunter GSP9000 Roadforce for my own personal use...

Any opinions or suggestions? I just want tires balanced perfectly so that when I drive 75 or so that won't shake on me! Alot of tire shops sucks as they have those newby or don't care 'mechanics'.

[winfred]

it almost takes voodoo to get it right with tape-a-weights on a older machine when you don't put the weights at the front edge (another reason i put the weights out at the edge ignoring aesthetics), the weight will never add up because you are changing the calculated position of the weight without changing the weight. the best advise i can give is use the setting where the machine puts all of the weights on the back (called static on my machine) and either put them on the back or in the center if you wanna play with it, if you wanna try a dual plane balance add around 25% to the front weight # it may still take a few trys as you are ****ing with the machines calculations

[Tiger]

Mmm... I see what you are saying. You are right... such a pain. I almost wished they put a laser beam to mark the spot where it needs to be exactly.

I did do static balance to test it out... Takes two tries... balance out statically... then I figured why not try the dynamic after it is statically balanced... and boom... tells me I need more weight! I was like... geez! Forget that...

Maybe there is a good point to mark the wheel with eraseble marker and then later stick the tape weight where it needs to be.

I know when there is a dish, I can simply use dynamic balance to do the job.

Ya know... I am so pissed that I figured I should buy one and stick it in my garage... LOL...

What machine are you using now?

[winfred]

it's not precise enough that about 12:00 when the lights are blinking won't be close enough, with in a inch or so generally doesn't matter unless you are going for the 1/10th oz where you don't really add weight as much as you move it around. mines a old ass coats one of the more common 10-15 year old ones, i can't remember the model at the moment

[Tiger]

Ahh... okay... This Coat 700 is around 5 years old... maybe plus 1 or 2 more... so newer than yours...

I thought so on placement... so I can't be that far off... I was thinking... geez... my eyes are going bad that I can't get my wheels balanced the first shot!

[winfred]

they are all pretty much the same up till the modern super duper $10k wonder machines

ps i just remembered it's a 1001, theres companys still rebuilding and selling them

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

I am lucky enough to have time when doing my tyres. I balance the wheel alone,then put the tyre on, if its more than 100g, reject it, less than that, deflate and rotate until less than 25g, weights on inside between the calliper and front edge.Balancing wheels alone shows why you should not use cheap-**** wheels,my original ones are all 5g,two are 0g due to having moulding opposite valve.

[Tiger]

Human Hunter Roadforce! LOL... gee... that must have took a long time to do that. But from thinking about it, you made it easy to do so.

1. Static Balance the wheel alone to determine the heavy spot.
(100 grams is alot of weight... .5 oz is like 15 grams...)

2. Mount the heavy side of the tire (according to the paint on the tire) where you put the weight... Since the weight spot is the light side to balance the heavy side....

3. Then balance the whole thing and should use minimal weights. Probably all less than 3/4 oz...

Great idea!

[Tiger]

Anyone else who has their own or used wheel balancers? I want to hear from you too....