Balancing Wide 5s

[Martin L]

Struggling to find a tyre garage to balance my wheels after having new tyres fitted, nobody seems to have the large cone to fit on the balance machine!
Anybody recommend somewhere in the Midlands area? I'm near Atherstone.

 

[Moseley]

Never found anyone either myself, but Buttys Bits do a handy adapter to allow wide 5 wheels to be balanced on a more typical wheel balancing machine.

Bought one recently myself, and will be finding out this week how accommodating my local tyre shop will be in swapping this between the wheels!

 

[ozziedog]

Luckily my local VW specialist Nick at CJ Motors uses a tyre place in St Paul’s in Bristol, Because he’s such a regular customer, they still have these facilities. It might be worth a phone call to any older VW styled specialists localish to yourself to ascertain if there’s anybody local that’ll be accommodating to wide five rims. Anybody that comes across a tyre place that’s capable of balancing wide 5s, might be worth making a note of or a list of.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,it just gets a bit trickier every year

 

[james_stan]

Struggling to find a tyre garage to balance my wheels after having new tyres fitted, nobody seems to have the large cone to fit on the balance machine!
Anybody recommend somewhere in the Midlands area? I'm near Atherstone.

do they obviously need balancing?

 

[Martin L]

Never found anyone either myself, but Buttys Bits do a handy adapter to allow wide 5 wheels to be balanced on a more typical wheel balancing machine.

Bought one recently myself, and will be finding out this week how accommodating my local tyre shop will be in swapping this between the wheels!

Let me know how you get on.

 

[Martin L]

do they obviously need balancing?

Not obviously, but with the way things are manufactured today I wouldn't trust the tyres to be perfect. I have driven it back from a VW specialist Sat who fitted them for me, didn't notice anything untoward......but with the state of the roads you never have a smooth drive anywhere!

 

[james_stan]

The reason I ask is that I generally fit my own motorcycle tyres (if tubed) and don't bother balancing them - seems to work OK. Not like you're breaking any speed barriers with a T2..

 

[kleinbusRonnie]

Buy one of these, or similar. Then any tire company can balance.

 

[Moseley]

Let me know how you get on.

All good!

Garage were a bit funny at first when I said I didn’t want my steel wheel littered with hammer-on weights, so the fitter just got them as close as he could using stick-on weights on the rear of the wheels. He said the adapter made life considerably easier.

 

[Martin L]

All good!

Garage were a bit funny at first when I said I didn’t want my steel wheel littered with hammer-on weights, so the fitter just got them as close as he could using stick-on weights on the rear of the wheels. He said the adapter made life considerably easier.

I'll look into getting an adapter then. My tyre man is good, never uses hammer-on weights, always stick on. Just hasn't got the ability to fit wheels on machine.

 

[Moseley]

I'll look into getting an adapter then. My tyre man is good, never uses hammer-on weights, always stick on. Just hasn't got the ability to fit wheels on machine.

I won’t be using the same place again. When I asked them to not use hammer-on weights, the manager said they have to because they are steel wheels. I asked why and he said it was because they are heavier than alloy wheels. I think my expression said it all at this point because the fitter intervened and said he’d sort it as best as he could.

Heavier wheels = can’t use stick-on weights

 

[Gabs]

Someone once said to me if you’re not driving past 55 they don’t need weights as it’s based on high speeds. Not to sure myself

 

[redgaz54]

Someone once said to me if you’re not driving past 55 they don’t need weights as it’s based on high speeds. Not to sure myself

Funny you should mention this. My stock wheels have no balance weights on at all and don't appear to need any.

 

[Mikek]

I used airsoft bb pellets after reading an article on dynamic balancing. I asked the tyre place to try one on the balancing machine after putting the beads in and it came out perfectly. I’ve been up to 65mph with no viibraton. I can’t find the article now but there are loads of others out there. The pellets were cheap and nothing on the rims to damage the finish on come off.