oversize tire balancing

[micscottj]

i have 39.5 inch super swampers on my truck and it vibrates very badly going down the road. the tires have never been balance b/c i was told you really couldn't balance a tire this size. what opinions do you guys have on balancing oversized tires?

[1972]

Originally Posted by micscottj

what opinions do you guys have on balancing oversized tires?

I have an opinion on swampers - they are out of round POS tires. An out of round tire will vibrate when driving down the road even if it is balanced. If you want to balance them the best way is to have the tire spun to see where the weight needs to go, mark the tire/wheel, dismount the tire, put the correct size "weight patches" in the tire, remount tire to where it was on the wheel. Often the weights around the wheel don't work because there is not enough room to put on enough weights to balance it. You could have the "stick-on" weights put inside the wheel, but they will fall off. Some people have put golf balls in the tires and claim that it helped.

[Budweis]

use what tractor trailers use, its like sand and comes in little bags that self balance.most tire shops have it. i would use two bags in each one. also some people prefer bb's. my tires arent as big as yours but have swampers and they couldnt balance so thats what i have done. ive heard it works pretty well but havent got it back together yet.

[1972]

Originally Posted by Budweis

use what tractor trailers use, its like sand and comes in little bags that self balance.most tire shops have it. i would use two bags in each one. also some people prefer bb's. my tires arent as big as yours but have swampers and they couldnt balance so thats what i have done. ive heard it works pretty well but havent got it back together yet.

It is called "Equal", and not as many big trucks use it as you think. The local tire shop here doesn't even bother selling it anymore. Most big trucks don't even balance their tires.

[Mudder]

I have alsways used stick ons and have never lost any. I always use duct tape over them and it seems to work good. Everything needs to be clean. They sell a product now just for this. You add the little balls through the valve stem I believe and the bags of balls are sold by weight. I couldn't find the link but will look again. I have heard of golf balls exploding and the bb's turning to powder (Rust).

[redz 1970 K5]

Hmmm... There was a shop I went to to balance my Mickey Thompson 39s on my old GMC (18" wide!!! on 14" wide rims)... Won't hurt to call around. Someone will balance them for you.

I think I got help at a Supershops... There is only so much a balance at the rim will do for those big boys though. They can add weight and maybe line up the low center on the tire to the high center on the rim and such.

Swampers are no punk!

[smokekiki]

I,also have not had any of the stick-on wieghts come off.Just make sure they clear Your caliper,if you have disc's.As far as TT tires,I never balaneced my rear tires.There was a local shop that would shave the high spots off.It worked real well.They balanced the front wheel/tire while mounted on the truck.The frontend machine was in a pit.You drove over a "bridge"and onto a set of rollers.It would high speed balance the front wheel.

[Destructo]

Best way is to either have them pad balanced, use golf balls, BBs, or water/anti-freeze mix.

[4x4Poet]

1972 has it right. Internal weight pads affixed to the inside of the tire carcass does the best job of fixed-weight balancing tires, especially large ones. Affixing the weight farther out from center has the benefit of needing less weight than wheel rim mounted weights (physics). Pads are more expensive to install, though, since they require tire dismounting each time pads are installed.

Hunter Engineering makes the GSP9700 balancer that makes the tire "ride" on a roller under weighted pressure while checking for balance abnomalities. Simulates weighted on-road conditions. Prolly the best balancing method by machine. Hunter's site has a GSP9700 locator.

[Budweis]

on swampers that may not work too well as when they spun mine it said need almost a half pound of weight. my wheels and tires were new and they tried unmounted and remounting with same result. overall swampers arent good for street driving anyway. i figure most speed mine will see is 45 mph so i dont think it will really matter. if i was planning on ever going on the highway i wouldnt have got swampers. a friend of mine had a set and he drove his to work like 20 miles on the highway up to 65 mph and they split apart within a week.

[a28doc]

find a shop that still uses a bubble balancer they are very accurate and will handle oversized tires.... Doc

[Budweis]

Originally Posted by a28doc

find a shop that still uses a bubble balancer they are very accurate and will handle oversized tires.... Doc

yeah but what if it needs a half pound of weight to balance? where would you possibly put half pound weights?

[Mudder]

I've had Swampers that take as much as 16 0z's. It can be done, and for th most part drive pretty good.

[JIMs70GMC]

What about having the tires "trued" first. Where excess rubber is scrapped off. I think there is a shop here in SE VA that can "true" tires.

[454_72_4X4]

A friend of mine has 33" Boggers and he used normal lead shot. (the kind you use to reload shotgun shells). Not sure what size though.
I think he used 10oz. in each tire.
He says it's working pretty good so far.
(On a side note, he also says those Boggers cost him a few mpg compared to his "street" 265-85-16 tires).

[4x4Poet]

Originally Posted by JIMs70GMC

What about having the tires "trued" first. Where excess rubber is scrapped off....

Great idea!

[MAC67]

we balanced my 39x18 inch mickeys ,, my 39.5 boggers seem like they are balanced really good with no wieghts , when me and my brother worked at the local neal tire we balanced all of those big tires , find a shop that has a semi tire balancer , they will do it no problem if theyre any good anyways ,,,and yes 1972 , the big trucks do balance theyre tires , and no swampers are not pos tires lol , if they were they wouldnt sell some of them for upwards of 400 dollars per tire or at least people wouldnt pay that if they were

[1972]

Originally Posted by MAC67

we balanced my 39x18 inch mickeys ,, my 39.5 boggers seem like they are balanced really good with no wieghts , when me and my brother worked at the local neal tire we balanced all of those big tires , find a shop that has a semi tire balancer , they will do it no problem if theyre any good anyways ,,,and yes 1972 , the big trucks do balance theyre tires , and no swampers are not pos tires lol , if they were they wouldnt sell some of them for upwards of 400 dollars per tire or at least people wouldnt pay that if they were

Some big trucks do balance thier tires, about 5% of them. The other 95% don't even worry about it. I have never seen a trailer tire balanced unless it was on a fancy stainless sided spead axle super trucker chicken-mobile trailer. Swampers sell for $400 and people buy them because Sears RoadHandlers sometimes won't handle the tasks that Swampers are needed for, and what are the other options? Swampers don't have much compitition in the marketplace, that's why they rape the consumer. They get $400 per tire because people need them for a certain terrain, not because they are a high quality round tire that is capable of being balanced, because they are not. Interco uses the same molds for the TSL's that they used in the early 80's, all of the heating and cooling of the mold has warped them bad enough that it is impossible to get a round tire from them. That's why the newer Interco tires such as the Boggers and Iroks are much more round and easier to balance.

[Budweis]

Originally Posted by 1972

Interco uses the same molds for the TSL's that they used in the early 80's, all of the heating and cooling of the mold has warped them bad enough that it is impossible to get a round tire from them. That's why the newer Interco tires such as the Boggers and Iroks are much more round and easier to balance.

im not sure which type he has a prob balancing but the ones i have are boggers.

[MAC67]

sorry 1972 , i thought you were talking about steers or drives on a semi not the trailer , we balanced very few trailer tires

[1972]

Originally Posted by Budweis

im not sure which type he has a prob balancing but the ones i have are boggers.

The tires that I have are 36/12.50-16.5 TSL SX's. They aren't really very big and should not ride as rough as they do. I had mine balanced when they were new and they balanced perfectly, but I could see as the tire spun on the balancer that it was very out of round, which will never ride smooth even if it is balanced. As JIMs70GMC said you can have the tires "trued", where they will spin the tire and make it round by shaving down the high spots. I bought mine for traction though and can't justify spending even more money to loose a 1/4" of tread or more so I just deal with the rough ride. A friend of mine had some new 44's trued once and lost about half the tread on one side of one of the tires and it took over 6 pounds of weight patches inside the tire to balance it (you have to compensate for the weight of the rubber shaved off) but it did ride nice

[toddol1971]

Hey, 4x4poet & jims70gmc Have the answer. Ive read several times that 4wheeler & 4wheel & off road used those exactly & said they work great. Thats what id do cause i cant stand an out of balance tire.