damn tires

[Christ]

I usually mount my own tires, then I take them to wally world to get them balanced... it's only $5 each... I NEVER stick anything inside the tire to balance it... having something bouncing around inside my tire kinda gives me a weird feeling inside..

I don't that there is any reason not to put stuff in your tires, but I prefer stationary weight... I never allow weights on the outside lip of my rims either. (They look like crap.)

[Offspring]

dude, i thought this forum was about saving as much weight as possible. thats way too much weight for 3 ozs . if your putting 3 oz's in thats because you have one hell of a bent wheel. some need that much but the majority dont.

and if you dont like the hammer on wheel weights cause you think they look like ****, just ask the tire guy you would prefer if it was balanced using stick on wheel weights.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Offspring

dude, i thought this forum was about saving as much weight as possible. thats way too much weight for 3 ozs . if your putting 3 oz's in thats because you have one hell of a bent wheel. some need that much but the majority dont.

and if you dont like the hammer on wheel weights cause you think they look like ****, just ask the tire guy you would prefer if it was balanced using stick on wheel weights.

Yep, I get them as close to zero balance as possible, if they're w/in a .25oz, I don't worry about them... if they need more than .25oz, It gets sticky weights.

The only problem with sticky weights is that they fall off sometimes.

[Offspring]

clean the rim with a solvent then dry the rim. then apply the stick on wheel weights then tap on them with a small hammer to make sure they are on there good. but on very few wheels the adhesive wont stick so you have to scuff up the surface so the wheel weight can stick.

[Christ]

I've never had them fall off immediately after putting them on.. I used to be a tire-tech at Sears.

The only time we had a problem was with lifetime balance service, sometimes we'd get people who would come back b/c they felt a vibration, and sure enough, the weights would be gone.

On one set of tires I put on my Escort, we actually tried putting sticky weights INSIDE the tire... stuck to the rims, of course. It worked out pretty well, and I sold those rims and tires to a friend, who promptly noted that "they're not balanced" (He couldn't see the weights...) when he took them to his shop to get the tires changed, he called me immediately to let me know that there were balance weights "stuck" inside my rims.... LOL.

I must note it was a PITA to get them balanced that way though.. we kept having to mark the rim, break one side of the bead, press the tire away from the rim's lip, and stick the weight on at the mark, then check the balance again.

One disgusting thing that I've found that many tire shops do is double balance... i.e. when you see two weights on one surface of the wheel, and they're more than 1/2 inch from each other. This is NOT the way to balance a tire... Sears would actually write up techs for doing this... it's plain laziness.

[Memorytwo]

3oz is how much they dyna beads people say to put in 215 tires.

[Johnny Mullet]

Truck tires can be balanced with a similar product called "Equal". Drop in a bag per tire and when you get rolling the bags break open and the small pellets do the rest.

[GasGuage]

I just bought some tires from tire rack & took 'em to Walmart. It cost me $3.50ea to mount. I drank that much of their coffee while waiting. $5 ea to balance. I just stayed away from all the other add ons. The $2 per tire fee for disposal. I'll either do the free recycling offered here or make a swing for my grandkids. The fee for new valve stems. Mine doesn't leak, so why replace them? Fees for lifetime balancing, nix that. And a few other odds & ends, all no's. So I ended up spending $34 for mount & balance. That's about a third of what it cost for me to fill up several months ago. I still have all my hands & eyes, & the coffee was good.

[Memorytwo]

yea, see, i put 215s on rims that normally fit 235s or 225s at the smallest.
most tire mounting places do not do that.

i also got an increase of mpg of roughly 2mpg.
there was not a need to "fix" the odo, because believe it or not, my 235s were SOOO low on tread that new 215s were bigger than the 235s.

[DifferentPointofView]

aren't 215 75R's gonna look odd on a ZJ? they came stock with 225's 75R. Not only is the tire going to be narrower but smaller as well. If I were you I would have gotten 215 80R's

Try this for Tire calculations.