I have been fighting out of round front tires (two sets)for four years. Thinking shaving tires was the answer but unable to find service, I marked high spots and ground tires on the car using angle head grinder with 36 grit disk. It helped. So I came up with fixture mounted to extra spindle clamped in vise. Solid round was threaded on my lathe, stepped and threaded to fit wrist pin boss, then heated and bent to be parallel to spindle mounting face. The round threaded nuts were made from heavy wall tubing. Hold bracket for grinder (pipe and curved plate) pivots on shaft with extended handle helping to control grinder position (much kinder to shoulder muscles). Tire can be rotated back and forth or allowed to spin slowly using gloved hand as a brake. IT WORKS! I can finally drive my roadster at normal speeds confidant that horrific axle dance isn't going to take place. If you are running friction shocks, tighten them down to keep axle under control. Another vehicle had one bad front radial tire. I ground it and tire now drives great.
I had the same deal with a set of Cokers, I chucked on the back of my pickup and burnt about 5k off them right there in the driveway" Fixed most of the problem Still got the Marks on the driveway 3 years later He He
i am fighting this problem right now. i bought a pair of nexen 165-80-15 for the front of my coupe and mounted them on halibrand look alikes. my coupe drove flawless even over 100mph. i decided to buy the et 10 spoke rims for the front and i also bought another set of tires. exact same tires from the same tire store. i had them mount and balance them put them on my car and about 60mph bouncing starts i can drive it up to about 70 and it drives fine. took them back to tire store and wanted them rebalanced i watched them and they balance them right but i could see the tire bounce like it was egg shaped. they wanted me to have them shaved but i refused to do that with new tires and made them order me a new set. i was also talking to a friend that has a motorcycle dealership and he is having the same problem with bike tires. he believes that since they are made overseas it is all about production and they are releasing them from the mold to soon and they are distorting? i dont know but i will let you know how mine turns out hopefully this week. goodluck
O'Brien Tire in Racine, WI has two of those old tire-shaving machines. They use them on every tire they install....
Before shaving tires you should always try to re-seat them on the rims. I've had tires that appeared out of round, but once broken down and reseated they were fine.
great idea! out of round tires or rims are such a pain, i have had several too. i wanted to make something that i could raise tire and slide under without even taking rim off and do the same thing, but i haven't done it yet.
I am amazed at how well this method works. The 36 grit does an extremely nice job on the tire tread. As tires wear they can be touched up for smooth running. But why did it take me four years to try this??!! Fellow HAMBers, this is the solution we have been needing. Try it, you will be amazed.
Aside from doing this setup, I would think anyone who races roundy-rounds should be able to direct you to someone who shaves tires .....
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