How much lead weight is too much on a wheel balance?

[alittlebitconcerned]

Hello folks.

There was a thread not too long ago that ended up talking about how much weight ended up on a blokes tyres after he got them balanced, the general concensis being that the tyre shop used too much. Iv'e searched but cannot find it again so am left wondering how much is too much.

Iv'e just had five new 235/85/16 Yokohama geolandar ATS's put on and am surprised by the amount of weight it took to balance them compared to what was used to balance my old tyres that came off. 2 tyres have 160g's of weight. Is this excessive?

[mike_ie]

For new tyres, 160g per wheel seems on the high side, unless your rims are pretty bent up. I don't know a huge amount on the subject, but don't some newer tyres have markings that are supposed to line up with the valve stem on the rim?? Last time I had a tyre put on, they rotated the tyre on the rim and rebeaded it, to make it balance out better.

[alittlebitconcerned]

I should add that the two tyres with 160g worth of weights, had two 60g weights side by side and then another 40g weight about a third of the way around the rim.

Just got back from showing a couple of mechanics. One said they werent done correctly, the other said no issue. Still confused.

[mike_ie]

Did the mechanics that said it wasn't done correctly give you any idea of exactly what was wrong with the setup??

[alittlebitconcerned]

His opinion was based on the the tyre being a good quality tyre (shouldn't be out of round I guess?), the amount of weight, that the weights were spread out so far, and he suggested that the rims I have (standard puma alloys) can sit be a bit difficult to put correctly on the balancer. He said they have the tendency to not sit completely flat which throws evrything out.

[ugu80]

Take it onto the freeway and all the way up to 110km/h. If it has no shake or shudder at any speed, why worry.

[bblaze]

wheel weights that are not placed together indicate the weight wasnt correctly placed in the first place and had been put seperate to counter balance a shoddy job. the bigger the wheel and the more weight the harder to get a good balance
cheers
blaze

[isuzurover]

wheel weights that are not placed together indicate the weight wasnt correctly placed in the first place and had been put seperate to counter balance a shoddy job. the bigger the wheel and the more weight the harder to get a good balance
cheers
blaze

What he said. If the rim was an old battered series rim with a cross ply it might be understandable, not an alloy.

[rick130]

Big, high profile/flotation tyres may require more lead than a similar OD tyre that uses a larger diameter wheel purely as the lead/rim is further away from the OD of the tyre.

[isuzurover]

Big, high profile/flotation tyres may require more lead than a similar OD tyre that uses a larger diameter wheel purely as the lead/rim is further away from the OD of the tyre.

Agreed, but in this case we are talking about a 31.9" AT radial on an OEM 16" alloy rim.

My modified, hot dip (not spun) galvanised disco steels with 33's didn't need that much weight.

[rick130]

I agree, just pointing out that you'll often need much more lead on a 16" rim than, say a 20".

As mentioned, a good shop will try and spin the tyre on the rim to reduce the need for that much lead, but I'll always remember a Bridgestone tyre engineer telling me a long time ago that the hardest thing in the world was to make a tyre round and consistent (and the smaller they were, the harder it is too)

[edit] It seems some tyre balancers struggle with 4WD size tyres too, and interestingly we found out last week my tyre blokes balancer can't isolate static from dynamic balance either, which made it a little difficult for him with my new rims and new 255/85 762's.

You'd expect Yokies to be pretty consistent/round/relatively evenly balanced though.

And a little OT, pulled up beside an Audi version of the Taureg a few weeks ago in Uralla and it was sporting 22" rims. :eek:

There was bugger all sidewall, I'd be very scared even on the highway here.

[uninformed]

I agree, just pointing out that you'll often need much more lead on a 16" rim than, say a 20".

As mentioned, a good shop will try and spin the tyre on the rim to reduce the need for that much lead, but I'll always remember a Bridgestone tyre engineer telling me a long time ago that the hardest thing in the world was to make a tyre round and consistent (and the smaller they were, the harder it is too)

[edit] It seems some tyre balancers struggle with 4WD size tyres too, and interestingly we found out last week my tyre blokes balancer can't isolate static from dynamic balance either, which made it a little difficult for him with my new rims and new 255/85 762's.

You'd expect Yokies to be pretty consistent/round/relatively evenly balanced though.

And a little OT, pulled up beside an Audi version of the Taureg a few weeks ago in Uralla and it was sporting 22" rims. :eek:

There was bugger all sidewall, I'd be very scared even on the highway here.


22 or 21? I was shocked to see the pile of what i thought pure bling tyres at my mates shop...All were original fitment to the likes of X5, Q7, X6, etc...oh and I got to find out how hard it is to change a runflat on a standard BMW rim :o

My superswampers wanted upto 300g dynamic on rims that were very good (we spun them tyreless prior)

My spare on my defender, which is my worst, is a stock 130 steel rim (16x6.5) with Goodyear Wrangle MTR 235/85/R16 and it has 40g inside and 70g outside (dynamic)

I would ask them to rebalance...if they give you any greif, tell them to strip the tyre and spin the rim to see if it is buggerd.

Now the more knowledgeable can confirm this, but you can have a balanced rim that does not run true??? I had a rim spin within 5g of balance with no tyre and no weight, but visually you could see it was not running true :confused:

[Reads90]

Have you ever tried to balance a 36" /12.50" x16 Simex extreme tracker.
Last time I did it the garage did the front two and ran out of weights so I had to go back a few days later to get the other two done.

[SuperMono]

Looking at Mum's new Jeep Compass the other day and noticed that 3 of 4 rims had enough lead added to stock a decent sinker factory.
I have never seen that much lead added to any small vehicle wheel, let alone something with new alloys and name brand radials.

[isuzurover]

Have you ever tried to balance a 36" /12.50" x16 Simex extreme tracker.
Last time I did it the garage did the front two and ran out of weights so I had to go back a few days later to get the other two done.

As mentioned, the OP has a 32" radial, not a 36" cross ply.

For big offroad tyres it often makes more sense to use a dynamic balancing compound, as the balance will change every time you go offroad anyway.

[B.S.F.]

I just had some 7.00-16 lt 8-pr. mud rag tyres on 231601 rims balanced.These days I put the tyres on myself because I want to inspect the rims before I put new tyres on. One wheel needed 185gr on the inside and 110 gr on the outside.I don't know how many times that 50+ year old rim has been "reconditioned".Every Time you use a file ,emery cloth ,grinder etc. on a rim the material taken off has to be replaced with lead weights. Some of the more chunky Asian made tyres are probably a bit out of balance to start off with. .W.

[Blknight.aus]

300g with 150 on each side.

a good balance wont have all the weights on one spot on the rim.

anything over 150g per side means you rotate the tyre on the rim and go again.

[Grimace]

No Help to the original poster, but to give you an idea of how much weight can be used.

37" Maxxis Creepie on 16x8 Dynamic steel wheel was my worst ever at 440g.
But they were balance and did not wobble and were fine at all speeds.

Also have four 37" BFG Krawlers on 17x9 Dynamic steel wheels;
105g
180g
195g
310g

All weights are inside the rims (centred) so assume would be slightly less if using the outer edge of the rim?

[clubagreenie]

I have the shop (I always use the same now) run them without tyres, mark them with the required weight then fit the tyres and trial and error until they are as close to the tyreless weights as possible. Usually takes a couple of hourrs, they let me run amok these days until I'm happy.

[Blknight.aus]

yep, I spent 2 days prepping my final wheel balance assesment tyres marking up the rims and tyres, turned up, assembled them IAW my hidden marks put them on the balancer and got 4 0/0's on the machine walked away leaving the assessor scratching his head.