Tire and wheel question

[JPGLSG1234]

My GMC truck was purchased primarily to take our three times a year out west trips to have plenty of room to take hiking and some camping gear with us. A three to four week adventure the Wife takes a lot of stuff.

Along with a reprogramed computer and new cams installed I had the factory wheel balanced to perfection just after the purchase. Took the truck to the tire shop and had the best Michelins installed and the shop added wheel weights, the ride for the last 40K miles has been smooth as silk at 79mph and higher. Got into some metal rods on the local roads here which damaged the side wall of three of the tires. Took the truck to the same shop as before and purchased four new Michelins of the same.

Now I don't recall this ever happening to me before on any of my vehicles. I got home and decided to give the truck a good once over cleaning and detail. I noticed there were no wheel weights stuck to the inside of the wheels, looked a little closer and sure enough no weights anywhere. Thought what the heck did they forget to balance the wheels. Called the shop and talked to the owner told him what I had noticed, he checked with his shop guy and said they didn't need any wheel weights that they turned out at high speed perfect. I thought to myself this has got to be BS, so I took my truck to the interstate about twenty miles away and took it for a run at 60 - 65 - 75 - 85 - 90, and sure enough it rides as smooth as can be.

I explained in detail all this to my Georgia State Trooper why I was going 90mph, never saw his hidy place at all. After a lengthy conversation as to why he should have my truck impounded and take me to the local police department to post bail for reckless driving. He returned my DL and reg. & ins. card and told me his brother owns that tire shop and had put some supper tire on his Vett some time back and had the same thing happen, no wheels weights.

My luck day or what.....

 

[Shotgungibbs]

Yes, it was! Good for you, and amazing that no weights were needed!

 

[turd]

Good story. Yes, it is possible to have them all balance out, but not too probable. Good for you.

 

[Cholo]

Fun story! I had Michelin tires put on a vehicle and only one wheel had about a 1/2" weight. It's a testament of not only great tires but of great wheels, too.

 

[Mobuck]

That would be VERY strange indeed for all 4 tires to come out 'perfectly balanced'. I've seen maybe a single or very seldom a couple of tires balance out with only a small weight. More often, there'll be at least one that is so bad that I demand the guy mark it, break it down, and re-inflate it after moving it half around the rim. Sometimes this works but it still takes some weights.
The tire shop guy may have misled you a bit by using 'balancing beads' rather than external lead weights. Some vehicles literally don't have room between rims and suspension for clip/stick on weights.
I use beads regularly on re-tread farm vehicle tires and they work fine at moderate speeds.

 

[Dave P.]

Good quality tires can have that happen. Some high speed rated stuff even has a small "dot" to be placed opposite the valve stem on the rim.
Sometimes it's just luck on how the tire is clocked on the rim. Better tire shops will break a tire back down and rotate it on the rim if it needs more than normal weight. I've never had more than 2 out of 4 not need weights.
As for no ticket, well that is pretty amazing.

 

[eveled]

I had the oposite happen to me once. Must have been 2 lbs of weights on 1 wheel. I refused to accept that tire. Had to be something really wrong with it.

I’ve never heard of no weights but I’m impressed.

 

[blume357]

I keep swearing I'm going to put Michelins on my work van next time around.... my local guys put what they consider good tires on it but I've had to replace two over the last couple of years... tread was coming loose... not a blow out... just at real slow speed it feels like the van is swaying a little side to side.... should go with Michelins anyway to keep my money local. Besides that, I get some good money for inspecting the fireplaces and chimneys in homes of Michelin executives who are being relocated..... I have a contract with some relocation company that does this for the company.

 

[Mobuck]

You can brag on 'Michywinns' if you want BUT the only carcass failures I've had in 15 years of running 're-cap' tires occurred with Michelins. Total carcass failures from 2 of 4 tires @ 50% tread wear.

 

[contender]

Jim,
I hope you have a meg-a-million lottery ticket for tonight!

 

[wolfsong]

The roads around here will knock the wheel weights off, mess up the alignment, destroy upper and lower ball joints, bend axles and melt shocks. I'm putting 'dozer tracks on my truck...

 

[blume357]

You can brag on 'Michywinns' if you want BUT the only carcass failures I've had in 15 years of running 're-cap' tires occurred with Michelins. Total carcass failures from 2 of 4 tires @ 50% tread wear.

I'm having a problem putting the blame on "michwinns'. that have been redone. Way back when I was a teenager my father only bought retreads for the car(s) I drove and I remember numerous times having a tire fly apart. In fact it was not unusual to carry two spares in the trunk.

 

[eveled]

I’ve had exceptionally good experiences with Michelins on my work vans. For my company to buy Michelins they must believe in them too.

This is a large corporation that had a huge fleet of ford vans since the 60’s at least.

 

[bisleyfan41]

Yeah, Michelin can't be blamed for a retread failure. Retread save money, but that's a disaster waiting to happen depending on who did the work.

Michelin makes really good tires. They are pricy, but they use virgin rubber for their tires while most other manufacturers use recycled tire materials in their rubber compounds. Whether that makes them better or not can be debated, but it's one reason they cost more. Michelins have great tread life, often doubling their warranty's mileage. Only downside, they tend to suffer from dryrot later in their life with small cracks forming between the tread blocks and on the sidewall.

Toyo is another quality manufacturer. They would actually mount each new tire at the factory and "shave" the tire as it was being spun to perfect the balance of the tires before they shipped them. Any need for wheelweights on Toyos indicates asymmetry in your wheel. They are pricy too.

 

[Mobuck]

OK, just to clarify: I'm not describing a 'retread failure', this was a 'carcass failure' as in broken belts & sidewall collapse.
The 'retread failure' is a totally different problem--never had that happen with 'TREADWRIGHT'.

 

[Jeepnik]

Three ways to balance wheel/ tires. Static, spin and road force.

I don’t know of any shops that static balance any more. I’ve used it when remounting a tire that lost its bead from running low pressure off road. But that was only long enough to get it to a shop for proper balancing.

Most shops spin balance which is fine for tires used on most cars and light trucks. Today’s machines make it “almost” idiot proof.

Road force balancing takes into consideration vibration from lateral movement and run out. Its more expensive, time consuming and requires a well trained worker.

I road force balance all my tires. It makes a significant my difference on my Jeep tires and pickup. My ‘78 Ford is big and heavy and while it probably doesn’t benefit from road force balancing as much as the others it seems to help handling and tire longevity.

All that being said, I’ve seen fools try to balance tires /wheels with a bent rim.

Also, a good shop will check the balance when they rotate your tires. If it only a very short time to rotate you tires, or if it’s “free” they probably aren’t checking the balance.

Where I buy my tires I pay for road balancing. They always check the road balance when they rotate the tires.

They usually have a small stack of new tires in the corner. These are ones that won’t balance properly. They are sent back and some other guy buys then at chain tire outlets.

One last thing. Most large outlets use an impact and when they install tires they slap it on the car and tighten the lug nuts without any attempt to pull the wheel up evenly. Even a well balanced tire will not wear properly if it’s not tightened using the correct pattern and torqued correctly.

 

[any ruger]

They have bead balancing. A bag of beads is matched by weight to the tire size.