Balancing tires without weights ?

[anlauto]

Okay, this question is specific to painted steel wheels like the famous factory 450's when mounting PolyGlas tires.

I've used PolyGlas tires on just about all of my restorations since my Duster Twister back in 1993. (over 22 sets) One thing in common all those tires required was a lot of weight to get them to balance correctly. For years I just had them balanced with the "clamp on" lead weights like the factory used placed both on the inside and the outside of the wheel....

I've always thought they looked ugly on a nice painted wheel, but until reading another thread on here yesterday, I didn't think there was any other choice.

Any tire experts out there ? Can anybody explain how to balance a 450 type steel wheel properly without putting weights on the outside ?

[JH27N0B]

A couple of years ago a friend of mine who is in the tire business mounted my vintage Polyglas tires on 450 rims for me at their shop.  He used those stick on weights that are pretty much what all tire places use now instead of the clamp on lead weights, to balance my tires.  They weren't visible from the outside of the car, but for high level judging wouldn't cut it because those didn't exist 50 years ago.  You could see them if you had the car on a lift and you looked closely at the inside of the rims.
I later replaced the vintage tires with repro Kelsey polyglas at a shop near me, and asked them to use the lead weights as that is period correct.
I can't see that there would be any way to balance a tire without weights of some sort. Someone with a tire machine and lots of time on their hands could maybe figure out where the weights were needed to balance, carefully remove the tire, put stick on weights on the inner surface of the rim, and reinstall the tire exactly in the same orientation as it was on the rim before he removed it?

[anlauto]

I thought about that, but with the 50/50 offset, you can't really get the weights very close to the outside of the wheel ? Do the weights being in the center of the rim replace both the inner and outer weights required ? Does that even work ?

[JH27N0B]

From what little I drove the car with those prehistoric tires installed,  I didn't detect any sign of them being out of balance.

[76orangewagon]

Alan,
I have weights on my set up but only have weights on the inside of the wheels. I'm sure they aren't balanced perfectly but I have done this for years and can honestly say I never noticed any vibration at highway speed.

[Swamp Donkey]

I've used balancing beads for about the last 10 years.  Mostly just on my personal truck tires. The smaller the tire, the less effective balancing beads are from what I hear.  Last set of tires I used airsoft pellets.  Haha

[76orangewagon]

Stick on weights work on some wheels like my Ram R/T but on a Mopar rallye or "450" wheel the face is close to being centered in the barrel and I'm not sure there would be much advantage over a lead weight on the inside.

[screamindriver]

Technically you could reduce the amount of weights needed if you have the lighest spot of the tire {usually a dot on the sidewall} and match that to the heaviest point of the rim...This assumes those repop tires have that for the process...All the aftermarket wheels I've used were balanced with the stick on weights centrally located...I've only ever had one tire and rim spun balanced and come out perfect requiring no weights..The tire tech said it's never happend to him at that point...

[dodj]

Just ask for static balancing instead of dynamic balancing. Ive done this for all my vehicles since about 1995. Done properly it is just as good as dynamic, but takes a little more time as the tech has to clean the inside of the wheel where the stick on weight needs to go.

[RUNCHARGER]

So these "professional car restorers" don't put on wheel weights the way they were done from the factory? I don't get it.

[GoodysGotaCuda]

I've used balance beads on my old 37" Jeep tires. They worked just fine, especially if the car isn't going to see a ton of miles.


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[Brads70]

Circle track guys can't have wheel weights as they could come off like a bullet, so what they do is keep moving the tire around on the rim till it gets as good as it's going to get, take awhile to do it though....

[anlauto]

Just ask for static balancing instead of dynamic balancing.

Can someone explain the difference to me ?

[torredcuda]

Static vs Dynamic Wheel Balancing
Ok so before we deal with the physical aspect of wheel balancing let us first address a significant issue of Static Balancing!!! Unless you are balancing a vintage car with very narrow wheels, you SHOULD NOT !!! be using the static balance setting. People will often use this parameter to make balancing easier or merely to save weights.
Static balancing uses one set of wheel weights in the centre of a wheel whereas, Dynamic balancing uses two sets of weights. See the cross-section below for example.

https://e-quipfix.co.uk/wheel-balancing-101-static-vs-dynamic-wheel-balancing/

[dodj]

Just ask for static balancing instead of dynamic balancing.

Can someone explain the difference to me ?

Static balancing uses regular rim edge weights on the inside and instead of using the same style on the outside rim edge, uses a correspondingly suitable weight a couple inches inside the outer edge. Then it is spun like dynamically balanced wheel to ensure proper balance. The end result is identical.