Wheel Balancing Issues...

I'll preface this by saying that I am NOT a wheel/tire balancing guru and I'm sure these people do their job much better than I can. That said, here's the deal.

Replaced my stock TRD Off Road rims with a set of black TRD "Beadlocks." Took everything to the local tire shop and had them do the swap. Well, the balancer was down (something broken) so they balanced them temporarily using an "old" balancing machine - whatever that is; they referred to it as "the dinosaur." Needless to say, the balance was NOT perfect. They told me to come back in a few days after the computerized machine was up and running.

I go in today and after 45 minutes, the guy comes out and tells me I'll need to take them somewhere else and have "beanbags" put in the tires and that they can't possibly balance my wheels/tires. I was more than baffled...they were balanced just fine on my previous set of rims and they aren't exactly WEIRD tires (Pirellis) or even a weird size (265/75/16). I know the rims balance with no issue because the friend I got them from had 1 or two weights per wheel; no more.

I asked to go back and see what was going on. The smallest amount of weight on a wheel was a little over 2 ounces. The worst wheel I've included a picture of here. You can also see the multiple tape marks from previous attempts at balancing they made.

After 1 and a half hours I finally took the truck out for a drive and they SEEM to be balanced. My question is this...

Do these guys know what they're doing? As mentioned, I know the wheels are fine and the tires took NOWHERE near that amount of weight to balance on my previous rims. Do I need to go somewhere else?

I'm exceedingly nervous about driving around with that many weights on my wheels...doesn't seem legit.

Don't know.

Tell me I'm being crazy or tell me to take it somewhere else. I've heard about "Road-Force Balancing" but I'm not sure of anywhere out here in BFE that'll do it.

Thanks in advance.



Oh, and I know the inside of the wheel is dirty as f***...lol.

 

Haweka adapter for the tire machine ... do a search
Are the rims lug centric or hub centric ?
Road force balancing is a must

 

Good question. The TRD Beadlocks take conical lugs so I'm assuming they are lug-centric? Not sure though. The road-force thing is gonna be tricky...not sure where I can get that done. The adapter looks like something the tire-shop should know about...so basically it boils down to the fact that they didn't do their thing right, eh?

Thanks for the input.

 

One way or another, they screwed up.
They either screwed up the balancing, or the mounting.

As with tires, rims also have a heavy side. On a new tire, there is usually a small white or yellow dot of paint. This notes the relative balance of the tire, and it should be aligned with the valve stem.
Problem on a used tire is the dot is most likely gone.

When that much weight is needed, the tire should be popped and rotated, then checked again for balance.

 

Those guys don't know what they are doing. The wheel in the picture is whats called "counterbalanced" weights on both sides. If you think about it, weights should never be opposite of each other, if u need to add an ounce on one side, and the opposite side of the wheel already has two ounces on it, removing one ounce from the side with two ounces already on it will have the same effect. Whoever was balancing you're wheels just kept adding weight wherever the machine told them. Clearly didn't know what they were doing.

 

Well. before you do anything, try this...

Take your rig out on the highway, somewhere that you know
is somewhat flat and straight, not too many potholes, and
take your speed up to the limit, then go 10mph past that.

Do a couple of lane changes.

Does the steering wheel shake a little?

If not, your wheels are balanced.

If the steering wheel shakes, then the wheels are not balanced.

Up here in Canada, I think we call it something else, but I'll explain.

You may need to go somewhere else, maybe a tire speciality shop.

I had to have my wheels re-balanced after some damage that stripped off the weights.

Most shops do something called "Static" balancing, good for city speeds, and off roading, while some speciality shops do "Dynamic" Balancing, which give your wheels the ability to travel at higher speeds/rpms
( over 70mph) without shake.

If you do a lot of Highway driving, then this is for you. If not, and
you rock crawl, or go mudding, I'd say leave it as it is, and go somewhere
else if your gut tells you that you don't like the place.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice; looks like I'll be finding a place that knows what they're doing and taking it there.

Thanks again!