Topic: Tire balancing methods/types

[Complete Loser]

Im getting curious what all different types of tire balance is out there. I been reading and hearing lots of DIFFERENT methods and advice being mentioned.

I remember years back someone told me to only get my tires 'static balanced'. So thats what ive done since. Seems fine so far.

But my question is, what different types of balancing are there, and what do each of them do differently?

[FourbangerYJ]

The 2 most popular are static and dynamic.
Static is putting the weights on one side of the wheel. More than likely it will be on the inside lip with clip on weights. Or it would be on the inside portion of the wheel kinda where the wheel spins around the calipers using tape weights.

Dynamic is putting clip on weights on both sides of the wheel. This is real common with steel wheels. Some wheels are designed so weights must be either clipped on the inside only, or tape weights.

Then there is the equal or simular type stuff. The only reason I could see using this way if your tires are real huge and it's taking a ton of weight to get them to balance.
Same goes with BB's, airsoft pellets,golf ball etc. Don't think I would do these type of balance cures. Over time they either fall apart or rust. Plus with the airing up and down moisture get's in to the wheel and could cause clumping.

[Jeffy]

The 2 most popular are static and dynamic.
Static is putting the weights on one side of the wheel. More than likely it will be on the inside lip with clip on weights. Or it would be on the inside portion of the wheel kinda where the wheel spins around the calipers using tape weights.

Dynamic is putting clip on weights on both sides of the wheel. This is real common with steel wheels. Some wheels are designed so weights must be either clipped on the inside only, or tape weights.

Then there is the equal or simular type stuff. The only reason I could see using this way if your tires are real huge and it's taking a ton of weight to get them to balance.
Same goes with BB's, airsoft pellets,golf ball etc. Don't think I would do these type of balance cures. Over time they either fall apart or rust. Plus with the airing up and down moisture get's in to the wheel and could cause clumping.

Static balancing is pretty old school where the tire does not move and you use a bubble gauge to add and weights to the wheel.  Static = non-moving.

Dynamic balancing, aka: spin balancing is when you use a rotating tire balancer.  This can be either one spin or many and can be set for single-plain or double-plane balancing.

To confuse things even more, there are two types of imbalances, Static and Dynamic.  A Static Imbalance AKA: single-plane, is when the tire is only imbalanced on the Y-axis.  (ie., up and down).  While a Dynamic Imbalance aka: double-plane, is when the tire is imbalanced on two planes  The X and Y axis.  (ie., up and down as well as side to side.)

I've never run across any special steel wheels that prefer one type over the other.  I usually get a dynamic balance on a single-plane since it looks nicer and they are less likely to come off while on the trail.  This is how you can have nice aluminum wheels with no weights showing.  If you really want to piss off your Tech or he's got a lot of time on his hands, he can index the wheel and tire so they take the least amount of weights.  You can also have him stick weights on the inside of the wheel (in the tire) but that's a PITA since you have to balance the setup, then rotate the tire to find the sweet spot.  Then you have to dismount the tire so you can add weights and not rotate the tire.  

Your basic dynamic, dual-plane balance is pretty easy though.  The machine does all of the work and just has the tech there to do the manual labor.  Although some of the never machines even get rid of that.

Typically, once you go over 37" tires, you probably have to consider alternate balancing techniques.  Bias ply make it even harder as they aren't made as precise as radials.  Interco's are notorious for taking a lot of weight.  Lead weights are most common on passenger cars and trucks.  Once you get into commercial truck you start getting into alternate techniques.  Beads like Equal (not the sugar substitute) are poured into the air fill valve.  There are also bolt-on weights which slide on rails or have beads in channels.  They have been using these on RV's and Commercial trucks for many years.

[Complete Loser]

hey... where did all my posts go? 

[Bounty Hunter]

hey... where did all my posts go? 

http://4bangerjp.com/forums/index.php/topic,2899.0.html

[Complete Loser]

Thanks bounty. Nah I tried to post some stuff from that thread over to here, guess i was in to big of a hurry goin out the door and didnt click "Post". Then while at work, a big storm knocks the power out. lol    

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/WheelBalance/index.shtml
Wheel Balancing, some background:

Wheel/tire combinations can be balanced in many different ways, including static and dynamic, on and off vehicle, as well and various types of permanent balancing systems.

Static Balance:

Also known as "bubble balancing" uses a fairly inexpensive machine to balance the wheel/tire assembly at rest using a bubble level as an indicator. This technique takes some operator skill to perform good balancing as you need to carefully split the balancing weights on the inside and outside of the wheel to avoid dynamic imbalance.
Dynamic Balance:

Also known as "spin balancing" can be done either on or off the vehicle. The majority of tires are probably balanced on computerized spin balancers. After clamping the wheel on the machine, setting the wheel dimensions, it spins up and calculates the locations and amount of weight to apply to the rim to correct the balance. Most spin balancers center the wheel on a cone-shaped mounting device. This works fine for vehicles that locate the wheel on the vehicle via the hub (i.e. "hub-centric"). For vehicles, like Toyota, that locate the wheel on the hub via the lug nuts (i.e. "lug-centric") a special lug-centric adapter should be used to properly balance the wheel. On vehicle balancers avoid this problem, spinning up the wheel in place.
In either case, there are several types of balancing weight that can be used, depending on the application. The most common weight is a clip-on lead weight attached to the lip of the rim. As mentioned above, clip-on weights on the outside of the rim are prone to being scraped off in the rocks. They also may not be suitable for certain alloy wheels. Adhesive backed weights are another option and have the advantage that they can be placed in the center of the wheel, if needed. But once again, they are prone to being scraped off in mud, snow and sand.
Weights on the wheel have an inherent problem due to the wheel/tire geometry. Since the imbalance is probably located out at the tire tread, it has more affect on balance than an equal weight located at the rim radius. For example on a 33x15 tire, an ounce of imbalance at the tread (16.5" radius) would require over 2 ounces of weight on the rim to correct (16.5/7.5x1oz.=2.2oz.). A more effective (and expensive) method of balancing a tire involve the application of heavy rubber patches to the inside of the tire. This has the advantage that less weight is needed and the weight is safe from rocks and tire spinning, but the tire must be repeatedly mounted, spun, and dis-mounted to balance.
Another form of dynamic balancing involves shaving rubber from the tire to achieve balance. This is very helpful in cases where tires are physically out of round (as was the case with my Swamper TSL/SX tires). However, it can involve the removal of significant amounts of tread and is more expensive than balancing with weights. Some tire chain stores offer this service, but only up to about 31" diameter tires. Shops that deal with large trucks and tractors often have on-vehicle tire shavers that can be used for this purpose.
Permanent Balancing:

Several options exist for permanent wheel balancing. These include liquid and dry powder weight added to the inside of the tire and external weighted balancing rings the clamp between the wheel and hub. Both these options are commonly used for over-the-highway trucks, where tires can last 100,000 miles or longer. Frequent off-vehicle balancing costs could add up over the lifetime of the tire. One popular dry powder balancing product is known as Equal. Installation of the balancing material is done on a deflated tire, using a special tool to inject the powder into the valve stem. Alternately, it can be placed in the tire prior to mounting. Proper technique must be observed to keep water out, including being careful with liquid tire mounting lubricant and use of dry air for inflation. For a tire used in off-road situations, where frequent air-down/up cycles are common, user's may want to consider adding an air dryer to their on-board air system. Both liquid and powder in-tire balancers can cause problems with clogged valve stems, too.
The other option for permanent balancing is the external, or wheel-mounted balancing rings. There are two designs common in North America, one is Sun-Tech Innovations and the other is Centramatic. Sun-Tech uses liquid mercury as the balancing medium while Centramatic uses steel shot in oil. In either case, the balancers work by making use of centrifugal force to distribute the weight inside the tube to compensate for dynamic tire balance as it rotates. Assume some excess tread weight is present at one point on the tire. As it rotates, this causes an acceleration of the wheel and tire in the direction of the heavy spot. The balancing medium in the tube will flow away from this acceleration until such time as the out of balance situation is corrected. The centrifugal force holds the weight against the outside of the balancing tube. Since the balancing tube is located inside the rim, it is closer to the center of the wheel. These balancers require a certain speed threshold to activate, usually around 20-25 MPH. Below that speed, tire balance is probably not an issue. Several advantages of this type of balancer for off-roading is that they automatically compensate for tires that spin on the rim, or tread that gets chucked on sharp rocks, and are tucked safely away from trail damage inside the rim. Drawbacks are that the balancers have a fixed amount of balance medium and can only correct balance to that limit, on the order of 12 oz. of lead. Also, like external weights, the balancer operates at a smaller radius than the tire, making it progressively less effective as the tire diameter increases for a give wheel diameter.
Hub-Centric:
A hub and wheel design in which the wheel is centered on a raised center portion of the hub. The lug nuts/bolts then serve only to hold the wheel in place on the hub. Most tire balancing machines use a conical wheel mounting mechanism to locate the wheel/tire on the machine for balancing.
Lug-Centric:
A hub and wheel design in which the wheel is centered by the lug nuts/bolts themselves, often with clearance between the center of the hub and the cut out in the wheel. Toyota wheels are lug-centric and as such require a special lug-centric fixture to be properly balanced on a cone-type balancing machine, as the wheel center hole may not be exactly centered on the lug center point.

http://www.centramatic.com/Home.aspx
Bolt on balancer.

http://dynabeads.net/
Dynabeads


http://www.deltatiresealant.com/tire_balancers.php