Lateral Balance

[jnansley]

I have five Firestone Destination AT's in LT245/75R16 (C) on 16" Nissan alloy wheels, with about 7k on them. I don't have any balance problems as far as I can tell, and every single one has wheel weights on the inside rim only.

The same shop did not do this on my previous tires and (alloy) wheels, they put weights on both the inside and outside.

Does this mean that every single wheel/tire is seriously out of whack laterally, or there some way that they avoided putting weights on the outside as a fashion statement?

This comes up because I was planning on using Dynabeads (http://www.innovativebalancing.com) and they recommend against removing the wheel weights if lateral imbalance exists. But really... five out of five tires?

 

[Steve S]

The best way is to split the weight needed to balance laterally.

 

[jnansley]

Yes, I understand that. But that's not what they did. I'm just wondering if the reason for that was cosmetic or actual balance issues.

 

[Quest]

actual balance issues. This is more prevalent as you get wider tires (wider wheels).

Q.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: Steve S
The best way is to split the weight needed to balance laterally.


Sorry, the best way is to dynamically balance them - which obviously the OP's shop did not do. Spliting the weights is a "Static Balance only" situation.

But if there isn't any vibration felt, then there isn't a problem to correct.

 

[jnansley]

So... do I have lateral imbalance without the weights?

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: jnansley
So... do I have lateral imbalance without the weights?


Maybe, but why bother about it if there isn't a vibration?

 

[jnansley]

Well, the primary purpose of using the beads is to avoid rebalancing in the future as the tread wears. But if I leave the weights on as the tread wears, won't they slowly cease acting to balance the tire and imbalance it instead? I'm banking on these lasting 50k miles.

I guess you're right, I could just not worry about it until if/when there is a vibration.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: jnansley
Well, the primary purpose of using the beads is to avoid rebalancing in the future as the tread wears. But if I leave the weights on as the tread wears, won't they slowly cease acting to balance the tire and imbalance it instead? I'm banking on these lasting 50k miles.

I guess you're right, I could just not worry about it until if/when there is a vibration.


I think you are approaching the longevity problem from the wrong end. The problem isn't balance, it's alignment - which causes irregular wear which then results in a vibration. Sometimes rebalancing doesn't fix the problem, sometimes it does - not to mention that the driving force is the alignment which has to be fixed or the problem will return.

You'd be better off getting the tires aligned properly - and the closer the car is set to the target value the better. There are a couple of exceptions where the vehicle's alignment settings are oriented towards handling and those settings may generate irregular wear. (plus a few vehicles where there seems to be a flaw in the suspension - relative to good tire wear.)