I even Had my Radials trued and strobe light balanced................. I already posted this i think. Might try shops that do big truck tires. And keep us posted.
I guess I could see if I could find a tire shop with a shaver between here and St Louis....next trip for the car is on a trailer, to Drag Week, which is in about a month.
Out of round tires can be balanced, but this will not stop the vibrating when they are on the car. We used a Bear dynamic tire balancer. Two stages to balance tires: Static and dynamic. First we static balanced them and then spun them to see where to put weights for the dynamic balance. I have Diamondback Auburn Deluxe radials on the avatar coupe. They have the look of the vintage bias plus but are made of modern materials in modern tubeless radial construction. They are round and smooth and easily balanced. I highly recommend them.
Good question. Back in my mis-spent youth, with all the miles I put on bias ply tires I really can't remember having all the out-of-round issues people seem to currently have. Or, maybe I was just too blissfully ignorant to notice. These days, I might tend to put the blame on quality control. Or, maybe it's part of a larger conspiracy to get everyone to buy radial tires.
Yes, at Hershey I specifically asked the Coker Rep. about the out of round issue they re having. First he tried to say those with problems aren't balancing them correctly. When I informed him that some of guys I know how had the issue used the same machine they recommend, he back tracked and said some of their tires (smaller ones in particular) occasionally do have issues. The owner of K&L (the shop who shaved my tires) mentioned that he has called Coker approx. a dozen times about the issue. He said they just say thanks for info and hang up. When I encountered the issue, I just took care of it. I will speak to them again at Hershey and see what they say.
Way back when.... the best front-end/balancing guy I ever ran into, told me the best thing to do with new bias ply tires is...NOTHING! Put about 500 miles on them so they can stretch and normalize, THEN shave if needed, and balance. The stuff he did for me was night and day different..... smooth as your woman's butt!
Yes. I have use Dynabeads. They do actually work well. Largest and most ridiculous tire to date were 36" bias-ply Super Swampers, with not a single balance weight present. Smooth at 85mph. Ran them from new to bald, with even wear.
In the early 60’s I changes hundreds if not thousands of tires at the Sears auto center I worked. ALL were balance on a bubble balancer. The correct way I was taught used 4 weights on every tire; 2 on the back on first then back on the balancer and 2 on the front. 99% never came back. I still have a 5 gallon pail of the weights to melt down and a bubble balancer.
I knew a guy who had a PHD in engineering and worked for one of the big tire companies in Akron. He told me the same thing. Said no tires were perfectly round. Mount them, run them a little while and then balance.
I was working for a shop about a decade ago where we had a really bad run-in with Coker. We had a few cars that took a 5.60-15 on the front. Of the four pair that we had in at one time, just one proved to be round. The other three needed to be shaved to make them round, and only two of those three survived. The one that did not survive had full tread on the high side, and was bald on the low side. Coker refused to acknowledge it, or to do anything about it. One of my current customers just got a pair of 5.60-15s from them. They won't be mounted and balanced until next week, or so.
In 1970 I worked for a Ford dealer. This was the era of the "wide oval" tires and the boss found a source for out of round tires at a cheap price. He bought a shaver and we were in business. I got a set for my car and shaved them round. They didn't last all that long before there was a big bald spot on one side.
My m/t 275 radial pros took 14 oz. on one tire. After a day of test and tune there is no vibration that I can notice at 120 mph.
Concord Safety Center, 1969. I worked there for 2 yrs., bending axles on big rigs; Many out of round tires on passenger cars required shaving. The owner bought a shaver... Biggest question from customers: "Won't shaving all the thread make for short tire life?" His answer: "The amount of TREAD (sic) removed will give less rolling resistance, smoother and consistent contact with the road." In those 2 years, I saw the difference. Made me a believer. The balance machine was superior, as it balanced statically and dynamically, as Squirrel explained. I also later used that type machine in specialized shops for O.T. cars, (licenced Porsche, BMW, M.B.) Perfect balance is a must on these (O.T.) makes. Years...
Nope, they are not. At least Pontiac Rally wheels weren't in te 70's. I agree 100 % that moving the tire on the rim to match the heavy part of the tire with the light part of the wheel works. I've done that hundreds of times. I was doing tire and front end work at the tail end of the bias tire era and it was fairly common to use that much weight on a bias tire then.
Out of round new tires I don,t understand why there aren't more people complaining or concerned about out of round new tires. Many people think that by spending lot of money, by adding weights or rotating the tire on the rim that it will eliminate the problem although it might sometimes ?? I worked a in a tire shop for awhile and it was evident with many of the tires they sold, they were out of round, ;showed on the balancer, they were sold to the customers anyway. I won, t mention the company's name but they are a big company.. Shaving tires back years ago was common to get them round but seldom anymore. Just my 2 cents Do some of your own research Gene in Mn
The problem for folks like us is that The Coker Monster is gobbling up all of the smaller companies, and/or buying out the rights to produce designs. Our alternatives are getting slim. I am building a project now that is fitted with M&H Racemastres, specifically because they were still independent. I am not near done, and already Coker has acquired them.
The M&H slicks I have from 2014...one is way out there on balance. But they work ok, I don't notice any shaking at 130 mph. I guess I should have kept those old Firestones! but they were pretty hard
I can attest to using balance beads! I use Counteract Balance Beads for ALL my vehicles...Transport trucks, transporting trailers, collector cars! (except for the dually which uses Centramatics which are basically the same except that they are in a metal ring that goes between the dual wheels) Honestly I have no idea why anyone would use a lead weight these days? I have probably 200 lbs worth of them & will probably give them to guys who want to melt them down to make sinkers & jigs for fishing! Balance Beads not only balance the tire initially, but continue to keep the tire/wheel/hub balanced throughout the entire life of the tire which lead weights do NOT! I cannot attest to how well they compensate for way out of round tires, but I can say that they allow me to get close to 100K miles of wear on my transporting trucks, 80K+ on my trailers tires (both open & enclosed) & my collector cars run at highway speed free of shakes & shimmies! At one time in a past lifetime I was Cleveland Area Sales Manager for Bear Automotive for about 6 months & have had the opportunity to see a lot of balance issues. God bless Bill https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-transport-hauling-open-or-enclosed.614419/
My dad used beads in his Pete’s in the steering tires and (like Bill above) the the metal round tube full of ? Between the rear duals. Worked great.
We had an M&H many years ago that we had to fill up one hole spoke of a torque thrust with lead to get close enough to use stick on weights
I have and still do...my front tires are unshaved 16" Firestone Champions... I have battled to balance them...one in particular scored a near unbalancable on a roadforce balancer... Since the tread was very good I decided to run them...weighted and on top of that I added 3+ ounces of Balance Beads into the front tubes and that really tamed the bounce out to the point of a much smoother ride...it's not perfect but well worth the investment... The Bead Manufacturer says to run one or the other but I run both and still am very happy knowing how bad it was at 50 -65mph... I didn't even change my tube valve screw in assembly to the special valve they sell for these beads...I have not had any bead tube or valve problems at all since I put them in 2 yrs ago...
If it makes you feel better, my rear Cokers were 300gms each out of balance…… And yes we tried turning them on the rim etc. (Some of that may have been the rim, as we never checked the rims first) Was thinking of using the balance beads if needed although I haven’t tried them on the car yet.
"A long time ago and far, far away", I needed to have tires mounted for sporty car track racing. Through the grapevine, by asking around, I found a small shop that did it all regarding tire setups for the pros and the wannabe pros. I don't recall what it cost but it was painless.
I realize that technology has improved and tires tend to be less problematic with roundness and balancing.......and they seem to dryrot much quicker too. What I don't understand is why bias ply tires can't be improved as well ? Is there something in their construction/design that can't be corrected to provide better bias ply tires? Think about what has been said so far.........Its not like a lot of people aren't having "major" problems with roundness and balance........and the manufacturer knows it. Today most cars are going much faster on highways. At the slower speeds of yesteryear and the rougher roads, maybe it wasn't a big deal. I just don't understand the lack of any real interest by the manufacturer to address the problem.
Oh, BTW I still have two of the ones for duals , if anyone here’s an owner/operator of a 10 wheeler you can have them for whatever UPS wants to box and send them to you. My truck driving (well yard driving) days are long gone.
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