Problem with balancing tires?

[mwalls54]

any one have problems with balancing tires on the 05-07 fordged 17" wheels?

I bought some 285/75/17 BFG All terrains back in november at Sams club and they had a hard time balancing them when they were installed. Sams offers free tire rotation and balancing. well i had them rotated at the first of the year and they rebalanced them. there was a slight vibration after they were done but i was also on some bad roads so i couldn't tell and i left for a 500 mile trip that day. I went to a different sams today and had them check the balance and sure enough they all needed to be rebalanced and they found one of the tires to be out of round that they replaced for free. I started out down the road and the balance job was worse than the it was when i took it in. i went back and they didn't really believe me and kinda got rude but did it anyway. they only jacked up the truck for 1 wheel because the of the statement above. well sure enough it was way out of balance. they ran it a few times and it came up with different weight numbers. it was close to 5oz on the front lip which is alot. so they took it off and rotated the wheel and tightend it back down and this time they were able to balance it. they put it on another machine to make sure and it was good to go. they jacked the truck up off all 4 and rebalanced them. the guy came back in with a look on his face and said it should be good to go. He also told me they have ran into that problem once before with a defect in an aftermarket wheel but they havn't ever had a problem with 4 stock wheels that had been used for 2 years. after driving down the road its much better but up around 80 i can tell they are still a little out.

I know back a few years ago(10) most balance machines couldn't balance heavy/oversize tires. my buddy had 2 different machines, one for car tires and one for truck tires and large off road tires. Could this be the problem? Mabey some guys on here can shed some light on this.

 

[01platinum]

I haven't had much luck with BFG's, find someone to do a road force balance, that will show you if there's a problem with the tire. I balanced mine with the road force and the most weight it took was 60 grams, they ride great at 90+ mph.

 

[platinum01]

I never had much luck with kids balancing tires. I have been known to stand next to them while they are working. If they mount the tires and then balance the tires and it takes almost any more then 5 ounces of weight I'll tell them to take them off the rim and remount the tire on the rim. Usally if the unmount the tire and move it around on the rim and then mount it again the balance comes out to almost perfect. I have not tried the force balance yet but sounds like something else to look into.

 

[JLDickmon]

a lot of times, the tire will stick in the lip of the wheel instead of seating properly, them when you go down the road, the lip walks it way into position, and affects the balance.

the other thing that can happen, is the tire will actually walk around the wheel, affecting balance.

there is a dot painted on the sidewall of every tire, that dot goes opposite the valve stem on some brands, aligns with on others. have them line the dot up opposite first, if it doesn't balance worth a crap, deflate it and spin it 180 to align it.

all a road force machine does is
1. Seat the beads, like I already discussed
2. find the high and low spots, like I just discussed
3. does it quicker.

but you don't necessarily need a road force machine, if the dumbarse that mounts & balances the tire knows what he's doing, not like the stock monkey at Sams Club... "here, mount & balance these, then clean up on Aisle 3 and then stock the peas.."

 

[mwalls54]

the other thing that can happen, is the tire will actually walk around the wheel, affecting balance.

there is a dot painted on the sidewall of every tire, that dot goes opposite the valve stem on some brands, aligns with on others. have them line the dot up opposite first, if it doesn't balance worth a crap, deflate it and spin it 180 to align it.

i believe the tire was walking around some and i believe the wheel might have been walking some on the machine.

the dot on the sidewall is something new for me. Thats good info to know.

it was a young kid that was doing it at first then a older gray headed guy came over and he is the one that got the first one to balance. then i guess he told the young guy how to do it and he watched as the young guy did the rest. i can say the young guy was the first guy in 2 years that actually waited until the glow plug light went out to start it. I have had 12 sets of bfg at's and most of the those didn't require much work to get them balanced.

 

[bushpilot]

makes me laugh...they wanna blame FOUR wheels...instead of the
tire or the GUY doing the work !

if they think the wheels are the problem tell 'em to put 'em on the
balancer ALONE (no tire)....

 

[silverF250]

If I remember correctly on bfg's the white dot lines up with the valve stem. BFG'S are some of the easiest tires there are to balance. The problem you are having seems to be with the way they are coning them up on the balancer. I'm not sure if the 05 wheels are hubcentric or not but if they are they need to be coned from the back of the wheel. Their balancer may need to be recalibrated, it should be done about every 6 months. I would also suggest taking about 5psi out of the tires and run them and see if that doesn't help.



I understand what you guys are saying about the younger guys not having the experience, but would like to tell you I started balancing tires at 17 and learned how to correctly balance tires on my own. I worked at a tire shop through college and was the one the older guys came too for assistance.

 

[silverF250]

makes me laugh...they wanna blame FOUR wheels...instead of the
tire or the GUY doing the work !

if they think the wheels are the problem tell 'em to put 'em on the
balancer ALONE (no tire)....

In my experience most times it is either the tire or the way the wheel is coned on the machine.

 

[big_rooster]

i've been told on bfgoodriches you have to match the 2 o's to the valvestem to get them to balance out

 

[bushpilot]

regardless of the color of the dot or circle, its there to mark the
HEAVIEST spot of the tire & is intended to tell them that the
valvestem should be aligned w/ the dot.

fwiw the dots are green or yellow on motorcycle tires (which typically
need almost NO weight, if mounted properly).