I've been thinking about this for a while. I will usually end up re-balancing my tires 3-4 times during it's life. I find that as I wear down the thread, the tires get out of balance and start to shimmy. Nate and I have discussed this and he pointed me to some tools that allow you to DIY. Between two cars and what shops around here charge for balancing, this could be money saver. Not to mention that it would probably extend the life of the tire. Does anyone here do this?
Have any of you ever heard of or used tire beads? I'll find the link, but this guy seems on the level and seems to really believe these work.......
So do you need to be on a level floor, or is this self balancing? Also, I am reading that bubble balancers are fine for static balancing, but not so much for dynamic? Is that much of a concern?
Not to rain on the DIY parade, but Discount Tire rotates and balances tires for free if you buy from them. I think it's about $50 for life-of-the-tire service if you bought elsewhere.
The balancer has adjusters at the bottom to first center your bubble. The biggest concern will be in the location of your weights. A bubble balance is static or manually achieved and a Dynamic is on a wheel machine that spins the assembly and finds the location and size for weight placement. With practice and comparing a bubble(static) to a machine (Dynamic) you should with a little practice achieve the same zero balanced results. I have been doing my own bubble balance for year only because I do not also trust that the tire technician takes the extra moment to re calibrate the Dynamic Wheel Balancer for my job.ut: I know that you will be able to accurately balance your own wheel with bubble balancer.
Sometimes old tech is the best tech............I used to use one of these every day back in the mid-late 60's. However, if they didn't run smoothly we'd get out the powered balancer - it spun the tire up to 100mph or more and would find the balance point down to a tiny fraction of an ounce. It was pretty cool cause sometimes it would be smooth at some speeds and vibrate like crazy at others. It was especially good for wire wheels on Jags and such....
Sorry guys I don't think the bubble will do a good job on a wheel. You may get close, but it's only sensitive to radial weight distribution, not distribution along the axis of rotation. If you do things like a hunter road force system, not only will you get the radial weight distribution, and the axial distribution, but you'll also detect tire out of round and hard spots where they don't flex well (more common on cheaper tires where belts overlap). Also, a good shop with good tools can match the radia wheel offest with the radia tire offset (after all, nothing is perfect) to really minimize overall tire/wheel radial offset. the shop I use that can do this only really reccomends this for cars that see real high speed use though... But in the price vs performance, I don't know which is the best way to go. And really, you can always use the bubble and if you can't get rid of all vibration pay up for a road force job... Matt
My thought is to use this between Hunter Road balances. I was getting it done every 3k on both cars and while it certainly needed it, the money starts to add up.
I've never had to rebalance anywhere near that frequency on any car I've owned. My last set (Michelin Exalto PE2) went their entire life without needing ANY rebalance after the initial mounting. Could you have some condition (suspension or alignment) that contributes to the issue?
Wow... here's how it works for me: 1) buy new tires 2) have them mounted and balanced 3) drive the snot out of them until they're bald 4) repeat I've had no need to rebalance since I've had the MINI, 73,000 miles, 5 sets of tires. Of course, for me, tires are soft of like disposable contact lenses. Just heavier.
The conditions are many: 1. Aggressive alignment set up on both cars 2. Crappy roads 3. Lead foot. All those let their effects be noticeable after tire rotation, specifically on my vert. Every time I rotate, I get a vibration that requires a balance. Having spoken with my tire guys, who are very good, it seems that the tire will go out of balance simply by buying used and the rubber being worn down. Even if the rest of the conditions are ideal.
It really is impossible to go thousands of miles on a tire and not effect balance. Hitting curbs, potholes, or other road hazards, normal tire wear may create an unbalance in the tire, along with alignment, racing, tire pressure, other rotation assembly wear like rotors etc etc.......:lol: Someone participating on this thread should actually try a bubble balance and then have it compared to a properly calibrated other balance devices. Post the results.:idea: Having often done this I well know the result.opcorn:
Well, my uneducated feeling is that while bubble balance might not be as good as the other method, it is better then doing nothing. Also doesn't look like it is too hard or takes too long. Lynn, where do you get the weights from?
Try: wheel weights items - Get great deals on eBay Motors, Business Industrial items on eBay.com! Also the Tire rack and other similar places will sell them to you.
Just a thought, not knowing what weights you will need, you could end up with a large inventory of weights and not have the one you do need. Jim
I was looking at some other sources for weights. Few things that struck me is that they come in different weights ( 1/4 vs 1/2 oz) and different thicknesses (.1", .15", etc). I think a mix of the 1/4 and 1/2 oz should be enough to get you through the day. These are all stick on types, of course.