Has anyone static balanced their tires themselves?
12-09-2014, 09:50 AM
#1
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Has anyone static balanced their tires themselves?
I have a Harbor Freight bubble balancer I used to balance some trailer tires. I just took off my summer tires and put on my snow tires 
for the season. Before I put the snow tires on, I remembered they had a shake to them last year. So, I decided to balance them myself with the HF balancer. Not feeling very confident- knowing wide low profile sports car tires probably won't balance too well with a static balancer, I tried anyway figuring if it's that bad I'll just have them spin balanced. They needed about .5 oz to 1.5 oz to balance, with the weight put in the center of the wheel barrel.
Crossed my fingers and took the car out for a spin. I was pleasantly surprised even after taking the car to highway speeds- they ride smooth and have no noticeable shake or shimmy in neither the seat nor steering wheel. Guess I was lucky the imbalance must have been towards the center mass of the tires, otherwise the static balance likely wouldn't have worked.
Not sure if I want to attempt mounting new summer tires on my Magnesium rims with the HF manual tire changer
Anyone balance your own tires?
for the season. Before I put the snow tires on, I remembered they had a shake to them last year. So, I decided to balance them myself with the HF balancer. Not feeling very confident- knowing wide low profile sports car tires probably won't balance too well with a static balancer, I tried anyway figuring if it's that bad I'll just have them spin balanced. They needed about .5 oz to 1.5 oz to balance, with the weight put in the center of the wheel barrel. Crossed my fingers and took the car out for a spin. I was pleasantly surprised even after taking the car to highway speeds- they ride smooth and have no noticeable shake or shimmy in neither the seat nor steering wheel. Guess I was lucky the imbalance must have been towards the center mass of the tires, otherwise the static balance likely wouldn't have worked.
Not sure if I want to attempt mounting new summer tires on my Magnesium rims with the HF manual tire changer
Anyone balance your own tires?
12-09-2014, 10:02 AM
#2
Melting Slicks
I have a Harbor Freight bubble balancer I used to balance some trailer tires. I just took off my summer tires and put on my snow tires for the season. Before I put the snow tires on, I remembered they had a shake to them last year. So, I decided to balance them myself with the HF balancer. Not feeling very confident- knowing wide low profile sports car tires probably won't balance too well with a static balancer, I tried anyway figuring if it's that bad I'll just have them spin balanced. They needed about .5 oz to 1.5 oz to balance, with the weight put in the center of the wheel barrel.
Crossed my fingers and took the car out for a spin. I was pleasantly surprised even after taking the car to highway speeds- they ride smooth and have no noticeable shake or shimmy in neither the seat nor steering wheel. Guess I was lucky the imbalance must have been towards the center mass of the tires, otherwise the static balance likely wouldn't have worked.
Not sure if I want to attempt mounting new summer tires on my Magnesium rims with the HF manual tire changer
Anyone balance your own tires?
for the season. Before I put the snow tires on, I remembered they had a shake to them last year. So, I decided to balance them myself with the HF balancer. Not feeling very confident- knowing wide low profile sports car tires probably won't balance too well with a static balancer, I tried anyway figuring if it's that bad I'll just have them spin balanced. They needed about .5 oz to 1.5 oz to balance, with the weight put in the center of the wheel barrel. Crossed my fingers and took the car out for a spin. I was pleasantly surprised even after taking the car to highway speeds- they ride smooth and have no noticeable shake or shimmy in neither the seat nor steering wheel. Guess I was lucky the imbalance must have been towards the center mass of the tires, otherwise the static balance likely wouldn't have worked.
Not sure if I want to attempt mounting new summer tires on my Magnesium rims with the HF manual tire changer
Anyone balance your own tires?
12-09-2014, 11:42 AM
#4
Le Mans Master
12-09-2014, 12:24 PM
#5
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Never heard of Dyna beads. Interesting. Maybe I'll use them for my motorcycle. Their website does not seem to recommend the use on passenger vehicles though- it's geared towards heavy trucks, off road vehicles, motorcycles and antique cars.
12-09-2014, 02:03 PM
#6
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St. Jude Donor '03-'04
Bubble balancer, 1950's technology... when rims were 7 inches wide, and tires where nylon belted.
You would think that after 60 years, technology would offer a better alternative then a bubble balancer.. there is a reason why high performance shops and manufactures use a 5,000 dollar balance machine. when tires can cost 500 dollars each, or in the case of the Bugatti Veyron, 5,000 dollars each, and only last 10,000 miles... they do not use a bubble balancer.
You can't get a bubble balancer to effect radial and lateral balance. A poorly balance tire my not vibrate but it can erase it self prematurely when improperly mounted and balanced. A top end machine can identify problems In the mounting process. But the machine doesn't do it by itself.. the operator has to be passionate enough to recognize a perfect balance.. and not just a good enough balance.. same thing with an alignment... the operator has parameters,( + - tolerances ) but the " mean " number is the perfect set point in the suspension geometry. but there is only one " mean " number.. the absolute perfect dimension. A bubble balancer is like putting nylon belted tires on todays high performance cars. Nylon tires are tires.. but very poor by todays standards.
You would think that after 60 years, technology would offer a better alternative then a bubble balancer.. there is a reason why high performance shops and manufactures use a 5,000 dollar balance machine. when tires can cost 500 dollars each, or in the case of the Bugatti Veyron, 5,000 dollars each, and only last 10,000 miles... they do not use a bubble balancer.
You can't get a bubble balancer to effect radial and lateral balance. A poorly balance tire my not vibrate but it can erase it self prematurely when improperly mounted and balanced. A top end machine can identify problems In the mounting process. But the machine doesn't do it by itself.. the operator has to be passionate enough to recognize a perfect balance.. and not just a good enough balance.. same thing with an alignment... the operator has parameters,( + - tolerances ) but the " mean " number is the perfect set point in the suspension geometry. but there is only one " mean " number.. the absolute perfect dimension. A bubble balancer is like putting nylon belted tires on todays high performance cars. Nylon tires are tires.. but very poor by todays standards.
12-09-2014, 03:58 PM
#7
Le Mans Master
I have mixed feelings about this.
There is no doubt that with good equipment and a good operator, the dynamic is better. The bubble balancer can get you in the ball park and is probably acceptable for most drivers.
However, when I was a senior engineer at an auto manufacturer, I was responsible for setting up our mounting and balancing operation. We had great equipment to support production line quantities and were producing a very accurate balance. Our cars were susceptible to minor imbalance causing noticeable vibration so we did a study of big and small shops statewide to see how well they could balance so we would know what to expect when customers had their tires replaced. The results were that although all of the machines were dynamic balancers and they knew we were watching and planning to check their results, we found about half the shops were not within 1/4 ounce of being correct.
So when you consider that the dynamic machines should be much better, but the actual results were not so good, it gives me mixed feelings about how much better these machines are than a bubble balancer.
There is no doubt that with good equipment and a good operator, the dynamic is better. The bubble balancer can get you in the ball park and is probably acceptable for most drivers.
However, when I was a senior engineer at an auto manufacturer, I was responsible for setting up our mounting and balancing operation. We had great equipment to support production line quantities and were producing a very accurate balance. Our cars were susceptible to minor imbalance causing noticeable vibration so we did a study of big and small shops statewide to see how well they could balance so we would know what to expect when customers had their tires replaced. The results were that although all of the machines were dynamic balancers and they knew we were watching and planning to check their results, we found about half the shops were not within 1/4 ounce of being correct.
So when you consider that the dynamic machines should be much better, but the actual results were not so good, it gives me mixed feelings about how much better these machines are than a bubble balancer.
12-10-2014, 06:50 PM
#8
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Good discussion. I went up to 85 mph and then the wheel only started to shake a little. Otherwise, even at 65 it's dead smooth. I don't plan on doing high performance driving on my snow tires 
but I'll continue to get my summer tires spin balanced. 
but I'll continue to get my summer tires spin balanced.
12-11-2014, 09:59 AM
#9
Team Owner
Wasn't sure you were keeping the TPMS sensors for the snow tires. I can tell you they work great on my car dolly, but the TPMS sensors will be external.