sperkins

Concerning tire slippage on the wheel, I'm wondering how many of you have your track tires balanced.

UstaB-GS549

Walmart does not charge that much for balancing, but $5 would buy another beer!

I had some scrubs mounted that had a lot of pick-up (track turds) on them. I was surprised that the balance seemed OK after it was scraped off on track.

Next time, I will ask them to balance the rims and see how the balance looks after mounting the tires.

turbo50mike

I've run Kuhmos, and now the A6's. I have mine balanced any time I change the tires, but to be honest with you, I think I have rarely found all of the weights stil lin place after two days at the track.

Plus, I find about 4 lbs of rubber snakes inside the rims....That can't be good for the balance. Never really felt any shaking or anything like that either.

Balance them if it makes you feel better, but not sure its really needed.

GeorgeZNJ

, I have lost every weight on the first track day every time.

GettReal

Mine are balanced and weights are taped... but I havent marked mine to check movement so who knows how they are weighted now.. but until theres a reason for them to come off the wheel... i dont worry about it

eogel

Always have them balanced. Have thrown weights off a couple of times and the resulting vibration is distracts your focus at a minimum. This is on a full race C4. Voted.

For racing weekends, there is always a tire dealer set up on site. When weights come off, I have them rebalanced at the track.

Jason

Yes they are balanced.
No it probably doesn't matter.

TedDBere

I get 20 minutes out of a set of A6s in autox. I never balance them.

imp zog

Get a good balance done on just the rims, and tape down and/or mark the weights in case they get thrown so you can replace them. There is little point to balancing them with the tires installed because the tires will rotate on the rims at least the first time you run them hard enough to heat them up. What I have found is that after heat cycling them once and leave them to cool for 24 hours, movement on the rims generally stops. The heat must help form an adhesive bond or something, or possibly is enough to get the rest of the beading fluid out of the seal. Put a chalk mark on them by the valve stem, and when you don't see rotation any more and think you need to, then balance them.

L98Terror

Nope

redtopz

I was balancing my track tires until I realized my tires were rotating on the rims. So on my current set of tires I told them not to balance them. I had no vibrations at the track that I could feel.

Everett Ogilvie

I had my A6's balanced initially but I did not mark the tire, so I assume there is some slippage. I like the idea of balancing the rims only, but that might only be needed if you have a "bad" rim - at least if you have it done once you will know the status of your rims. When you get a new set of tires, you almost need an initial balance to see if you received any "bad" tires, but I guess you could use the seat-of-the-pants method and if you don't feel anything too terrible, call it good. When it is time for my next set of track tires I may have my tire guy check the rims separately to see how good or bad they are, and then have him mount the tires and check them again to see how much Road Force (the Hunter system) is added by the tires.

The Spark

The race shop that mounted my Hoosiers uses tape weights on the inside of the rim (not the metal weights that clip on the edge of the rims). Then they put some racer tape over the weights. Haven't lost one yet.

I had Discount Tire mount some scrubs. It was going to be the first time to use slicks and was looking forward to it. One tire was out of balance and the car would shake pretty bad when I hit ~ 60mph.

SIK02SS

I get enough tire pickup and I don't feel an vibrations, so no I don't..

throwit

Used to, but weights get thrown/torn off, no vibration issues, so not any more.

Ernesto Roco

Never

NV MY C5

I had my wheels balanced before the tires were installed.

varkwso

keeps vibrations to a minimum. I always get it done. I guess we do not drive fast enough to spin them on the rim...

jpobrien

I have always had mine balanced, but this year I got a new set of wheels and R888s they were initially balanced, but, after a few track days, I was feeling a lot of vibration. I had the Hoosier guy rebalance them, and the left front was 7.0 oz out of balance. With no weight, it was still 3.75 out.
I'm pretty sure it spun again after getting balanced, as I could feel a vibration again. That particular tire must be way out of balance.

By the way - 3 of the 4 had rotated on the rim, based on that rebalancing at the track. I'm not sure the others were enough to worry about (the next worst was something like 1.75 out).

I think I like the idea of balancing the empty rims for next time...

jpobrien

I forgot to mention that the vibration feel was probably amplified due to a loose lower ball joint that I found later (when the suspension is unloaded). It was actually bad enough (on the LF going around 4 at putnam - to the left) that I got black flagged by the corner worker.