Tire balancing, what to do?

[michaelmosty]

I just got a new set of wheels and a new set of shaved tires from Vilven. I got them balanced @ a Firestone I have been working with for quite a while and they came out with a bunch of weight (sticky weights). Of the 4 wheels they had the following weight on them: 2.75 oz, 3,50 oz, 5.00 oz, and 6.25 oz. I have never seen new wheels and tires balance out like this.

I took them to a Discount Tire and watched the gentleman doing the balancing and they came out with virtually the same weight on each wheel (+ or - .25 or .50).

All 4 wheels alone balanced out great.

I can look on the wheels and see the majority of the weight and then look 180 degrees to the other side of the tire and I notice that there is a little more tread than the side with weights. I can still see the cross-tread on the high side and the side with the weight is smooth.

Visually the tires look good and I would have never thought the slight difference would make it take that much weight. My plan is to go scrub in the tires at MSR-C next weekend. I am afraid that I am going to have to get them re-balanced, if not after the first session definitely after the first event.

Is this a normal amount of weight?
Should I run the tires? or send them back?
Any suggestions?

Thanks everyone,

[j3ffbrooks]

make sure the tires are round. While its on the balancer see if the tire tread moves up and down. This would be why you have so much weight on the wheels.

[jeffburch]

Sounds like a bad shave.
I've never had/heard of this from Vilven.
Others yes ;) but not them.
My last few sets have come from Phil.
He shaves them personally for me.

La-T-da

jb

[michaelmosty]

Just an FYI, the tires were made the 25th week of 2006. This seems a little old to me considering how frequently they cycle through Toyo's. :?

[GlennCMC70]

call Vilven before you use them. sounds like a bad shave job. i've seen these like this before from some place in downtown Ft Worth :roll: , but never Vilven where 99% of my tires have come from. if they are like you say, i would send them back.

[Rob Liebbe]

For a typical passenger car tire - 3 oz is considered the maximum weight before being problematic. You have a problem. You can try rotating them around the wheel 180 degrees and see if that helps, but it sounds like you got a bad shave job on those tires.

You could always do burnouts until they round out. 8)

[mitchntx]

Don't discount the wheels just because they are new.

I bought a set of wheels from American Racing for the 2500HD I had and I had one that was egg shaped.

Spin a wheel unmounted and see what happens.