Balancing Tires...What's Up !

[CharBaby]

I failed to mention that my package also came with the Hunter Road Force and have talked to others who have spent good money on packages that included the road force and still experience shimmy at speed.

 

[Blake Sobiloff]

Even a Hunter Road Force machine can't make up for bad tires and/or wheels. If either are out of round or out of balance, you can be out of luck. If the tech knows his stuff, he'll show you the balance and thrust sheet to show how he's cancelling the thrust tendancies of each wheel/tire combo. But, if there's a lot of thrust or out of round present he probably can't get it perfect. He should advise you of that so that you can replace the poorly constructed tire with a better one.

 

[VelociRacer]

If you give up on balancing, just jack up the car and spin the wheel/tire combo by hand. You will often be able to SEE the out-of-round tire or bent wheel. Put a pencil up on a jackstand for a crude point of reference to detect axial and radial run-off.

Just as other mentioned, not even the hunter can cancel out a bent wheel or bad tire. I bent a Rota C8 wheel in a pothole. Despite the fact that it holds pressure, it is now slightly out of round so that it balances OK but around 75mph it vibrates. Spinning it on the hub demonstrated a visible amount of radial run-off.

 

[CharBaby]

VelociRacer, good idea! I tried that just the other day and everything lood good. I think that I'll just have the tires rebalanced and go from there.