Tire balancing isn't rocket science

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TrailBeast

TrailBeast

AKA Mopars4us on Youtube
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The place I used to go to get tires done can't ever seem to get the balance right, so I started looking for alternatives.
Three out of four times now I have had to take the car back and get it re balanced and I'm done with them.
I had them do the last front tires (mount and balance) and one of them shakes the car enough to make my hood shake side to side between 60 and 80mph.
Sure, the original place wouldn't charge me for the rebalance but why would I do that?
That's like getting free shitty gas.

We have a Mopar Brother (has 66 Barracuda) that works at a local shop and when I called them they won't do just the new ones that are out of balance.
They said they would balance all four for $10 each or nothing, so I skipped it because I will be getting new rear tires pretty soon and I'm not paying 20 bucks to balance old tires that are coming off before long.

Not asking for a solution, but just a bit of a rant that a shop won't do what I ask them to do.
Tire mounting and balancing is the one and only thing I let someone else do on my car, and that even seems to be ending.
 
keep looking for a new tire shop. it took me a few tries but I finally found a discount tire that will do damn near anything I ask them to do and without bitching up my wheels
 
Doesn't take much to screw up the new balancers. We calibrate ours every morning. ran into a similar issue with a string of customer complaints. (vibrations) called the hunter rep in to check it out. here there was a weight stuck in the hub! also a bunch of weights under the machine making it not sit level.
 
wow - I have been dealing with the exact same problem. I bought a set of tires for my truck recently and I had to go back 4 f-ing times (hey, thanks for wasting my time guys!) before they admitted that the tire itself was bad and would put a new one on.. the shake was so bad at 45-50 you could make your voice practically sound like you were yelling into a fan! I went back because I wasn't letting them get away with it - but they did lose a customer in the process.. I am convinced they were trying to sluff off a blem on me..
 
In my tire busting days of long ago, we would clock the tire 180 or 90 degrees on the rim to see if it would balance out. Other things that we did was to switch tires between rims to see if that corrected the problem. Lastly, we would put the rims on the bubble balancer to find the heavy spots on the rim, mark the spots, and go from there with the clocking. All of that was done at no charge on tires that were purchased at our store. Customers coming in with used or competitor's tires were charged a basic fee to do all of that.
It isn't rocket science.
It's customer service.
 
73AbodEE said:
keep looking for a new tire shop. it took me a few tries but I finally found a discount tire that will do damn near anything I ask them to do and without bitching up my wheels
Click to expand...

Exactly what I'm doing and in the meantime my front end shakes DAMMIT. :D


skep419 said:
Doesn't take much to screw up the new balancers. We calibrate ours every morning. ran into a similar issue with a string of customer complaints. (vibrations) called the hunter rep in to check it out. here there was a weight stuck in the hub! also a bunch of weights under the machine making it not sit level.
Click to expand...

Sounds about right, and such a simple thing to remedy if people would just take the time to check and do it.
 
ScampMike said:
wow - I have been dealing with the exact same problem. I bought a set of tires for my truck recently and I had to go back 4 f-ing times (hey, thanks for wasting my time guys!) before they admitted that the tire itself was bad and would put a new one on.. the shake was so bad at 45-50 you could make your voice practically sound like you were yelling into a fan! I went back because I wasn't letting them get away with it - but they did lose a customer in the process.. I am convinced they were trying to sluff off a blem on me..
Click to expand...

Yea, I'm done with the wasting my time part.
The one that pissed me off the most was when I bought all brand new tires a few years ago and drove the car home through residential streets on a Friday and parked it.
Saturday I had to go to a service call in another town via the hiway and the front end shook so bad it was making vibration waves in my coffee.
They were closed over the weekend so I had to wait until Monday (another work day) to take it back and get it re balanced.
 
so there just aren't many small shops in Prescott?
 
TrailBeast said:
Yea, I'm done with the wasting my time part.
The one that pissed me off the most was when I bought all brand new tires a few years ago and drove the car home through residential streets on a Friday and parked it.
Saturday I had to go to a service call in another town via the hiway and the front end shook so bad it was making vibration waves in my coffee.
They were closed over the weekend so I had to wait until Monday (another work day) to take it back and get it re balanced.
Click to expand...
yea - you know.. they were "good" about it and all, but the dicking around cost me time that I could have used for other things - I mean you know it takes time to mount and balance new tires when you get them so you expect to be there for a while... but each of the subsequent visits was at least an hour each - that pissed me off by the end of the fourth "extra" visit... and like I said, I am convinced they were trying to get a blem to work ...and knew it..
 
this little guy saved the day today.
it uses the lug holes to hold the wheel in the balancer.
get?imageType=Product&imageName=676-20-1847-1.jpg
 
I have my buddy mount and balance all of my tires, and every set I've had him to turns out great, no shimmies, shakes, or vibrations. he religiously uses the bubble balancer over the spin balancer, which he also has at his shop too. the best part is that he only charges me a beer or two and an hours worth of bull s***
 
twayne24365 said:
I have my buddy mount and balance all of my tires, and every set I've had him to turns out great, no shimmies, shakes, or vibrations. he religiously uses the bubble balancer over the spin balancer, which he also has at his shop too. the best part is that he only charges me a beer or two and an hours worth of bull s***
Click to expand...

I have been watching for one of those bubble balancers so I can just do them myself.
Swapping them on rims isn't a big deal, but I have no way of balancing.
 
I'm sure they can be had pretty cheap, but it's very simple and effective, plus you can do it yourself!
 
Don't go harbour freight on the bubble balancer. Not worth it.

Motorcycle wheels are easy to gravity balance. Car wheels not so much. gotta find the shop run by the old timer, or buy your own equipment and prepare to become that old timer.
 
I got a used snap on manual spin balancer off craigslist (turned out to be a pawn shop) for $200.

It's almost at the point where it's paid for it's self.
 
I bought the Harbor Freight balancer to do the wire wheels on my MGB. You think you have trouble finding a shop, try to find someone to do center-lock wire rims ("knock-offs"). It got to where no one would even dismount the tires, much less mount and balance new ones. So I got the Harbor Freight mounting machine and balancer and did it myself. I can't do tires with tire irons alone -- too skinny and light. The balancer seemed to work fine -- I only used one or two weights per rim, and no shaking on the highway.
 
KitCarlson said:
If that helps take step 2. If you have steel wheels, no hub caps, drive on a gravel road. Where the dust settles in lip, is the light spot. Add an oz or so there, see if that helps.
Click to expand...
wow, never heard that one.
 
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