Highest reasonable balance weight for light truck tire

[nutdriver]

My 2021 GMC 3500 Sierra equipped with Michelin LT275 65R 20 tires.


These are road force balance by Discount tire. Two of the tires were balanced with just a little over 2 oz. The other two have required 4.5 oz. I would definitely be upset if these were car tires but it wasn't sure what's a reasonable limit for light truck tires. So interested in hearing from the group as to what you would consider to be an excessive amount of balance weight for this light truck tires.


The next time I go in for rotation I plan to ask them to rebalance and to move the tire in relationship to the rim.

 

[slo town]

I think you'll be fine. Unless you have a balance problem now I wouldn't bother re-orienting the tire on the wheel.

Scott

 

[JohnnyG]

Doesn't matter. Whatever it takes. The bigger the tire, the more weight it might require.
As long as it goes down the road nice and smooth, I'm good.

Hypothetical question; Has anyone ever tried to spin balance a rim without a tire on it?

 

[Oily_Thing]

You can use multiple weighs if needed to balance a severely out of balanced tire.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

Your wheel and tire combo is probably around 80 lbs. No big deal if it needs 4.5 ounces. Two strips of normal weights is 6 oz, if I were doing the actual balancing I would probably redo it if it wanted more than that.

 

[MNgopher]

A 34" ish Load Range E tire... I wouldn't worry about that amount of weight...

 

[nutdriver]

I appreciate all the input. Was curious and thought I would check with this group.

 

[atikovi]

Hypothetical question; Has anyone ever tried to spin balance a rim without a tire on it?

Wheels are precisely cast and machined (or stamped) hunks of metal, unlike tires that are flexible hunks of molded rubber. Unless bent, they will balance to 0.

 

[MNgopher]

Wheels are precisely cast and machined (or stamped) hunks of metal, unlike tires that are flexible hunks of molded rubber. Unless bent, they will balance to 0.

Wheels are no different than tires. They are built to a tolerance, and as a result have high and low spots, and thicker and thinner spots that lead to weight imbalances. That's part of why you rotate a tire on a wheel to match them up to minimize the weight needed to balance.

You could build perfectly balanced wheels, but you'd struggle to afford them. Also not required due to the overall balancing performed on the entire assembly.

 

[Timmastertech]

On a truck tire thats fine, I like to stay below 6 ounces on an LT tire

 

[CapriRacer]

The next time I go in for rotation I plan to ask them to rebalance and to move the tire in relationship to the rim.

No, don't do that. In the process of "RoadForcing", the tire has a force value and the wheel has a force value and the each is oriented to minimize the force value. The balancing is a separate function and minimizing the amount of balance weights doesn't get you a better balance, but it can screw up the RoadForce values..

Hypothetical question; Has anyone ever tried to spin balance a rim without a tire on it?

Yes, and they require balance weights and are out-of-round just like tires are - only less so.

Wheels are precisely cast and machined (or stamped) hunks of metal, unlike tires that are flexible hunks of molded rubber. Unless bent, they will balance to 0.

No, they aren't!

Story: When I was working in the warranty department for a major tire manufacturer, we would get tires returned that "did not balance". We sorted through a whole bunch of wheels to find some that were almost perfectly round (Zero RoadForce), then added balance weights until we got zero for both static and dynamic balance (that required turning off the round-off function on the balancer and using trimmed tape-on weights).

We then used those wheels - one in 13", 14", 15" etc. - to determine how much out-of-round and how much imbalance each returned tire had. This was important to see if the factory specs were too loose.

So, No! Wheels are imperfect, too!

 

[atikovi]

I've put bare wheels on my balancer and they checked out perfectly balanced if they ran true. Maybe if they were bent they might show imbalance. I'd think the center of mass on a wheel alone is such that manufacturing tolerances would have to be far off for it to be unbalanced, and they get balanced at the factory, don't they?

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

It depends on the wheel, like anything else there are good and bad. Most modern wheels are actually a bit light at the valve stem because they expect a tpms sensor to be installed.

 

[Braapdaddy]

When I doubt I note the amount of weight and mark the location on tire discreetly .....remove weights and take them back and request a Re- balance

If it still seems excessive i do the same in the parking lot and then request they break the beads and rotate tire on wheel and Rebalance

Discount is usually the best but sometimes they let Newby kids mount tires before they have gained knowledge and skill