do you balance your tires?

Richard Thoms · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 7:37 pm Post subject: do you balance your tires?

When I used to road race I would be sure to balance my tires but then we were going 100+ mph. Now I'm sprint racing and I don't think folks pay as much attention to this (running ~60mph). What do you do?
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Ken Schilling · Joined: 01 Dec 2005 Posts: 1338

Nobody that I know of in SKUSA dynamically balances their tires/wheels (we use MG tires which have unsurpassed quality, performance, longevity, etc... sorry for the "plug"...).

That being said, I personally put the wheel/tire assembly on the front hubs and spin slowly to see any obvious imbalance. If there is a noticeable amount, I simply rotate the wheel on the hub for the least amount.

I don't check the rears...

Your results may vary.

In road racing, which I've done a couple of times at ~110 mph in my sprint Stock Honda, it does matter. Case in point, I was on track during a race and a small bit of rubber got caught on the inside of the rim of one of my front wheels. WOW!!!! The steering wheel felt like a jackhammer in my hands.
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Jim Russell, Jr. · Advertiser Joined: 03 Oct 2001 Posts: 1535

Ken,

Contrary to your post I do find that I have to balance the MG tires for sprint. They tend to be spot heavy and out of round. This leads to vibration on track which is tiring to my hands. I would say about 75% of them need balancing.

Now on the Dunlops I also use I only need to balance maybe 20% of them for sprint.

On road race we static balance everything.

Richard,

If you notice vibration on track then balance the front tires when you come off track.

Jim jr.
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Greg Wilkinson · Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:48 am Post subject:

5 years back in Karting, we have ran Vegas (blue & white), Bridgestones (YHC-YKC), Dunlops (SL4) and MGs (red HZ & yellow) and all but 1 single tire needed balanced both front and rear. A balanced tire is faster than one that is not.
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Scott Heavin · Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:02 am Post subject:

I can't imagine not balancing tires. If I lose a weight it is very noticeable. And I've had a few that were so far off I debeaded the tire and spun it 180 so it wouldn't take as much weight.

I'm no Mike Burris ('cause I don't have the patience to do them the way he does), but I can get them pretty close inside of 5 minutes each.

Spin it, stick a weight to the high side. Spin it. stick a weight to the high side. When the weights are no longer on the high side, stop.
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al nunley · Joined: 13 Nov 2006 Posts: 3026

In sprint, I never did, not until the first time I ran Road Race, where the tires started jumping up and down long before I reached top speed. After that, every tire got balanced, sprint or road race.
I made a balancer. Just a 2” square piece of aluminum bored to hold two 5/8 ID bearings. A bar of 5/8 steel to mount the front wheels and adapters to hold the rear wheels. Held it in the vise. When the tire stopped spinning, I put what I felt would be the right weight, one half off set to the left from the top, one half off set to the right side, to balance the amount of weight. I never put all the counter balance weight opposite the heavy side, I spread it out.
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Mike Martz · Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 2:18 pm Post subject:

Scott - remember New Castle is a little different with the length of the main straight. So at New Castle, always the fronts but at shorter tracks, generally not.
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Richard Thoms · Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:42 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the replies. Sound like it is worth it to at least balance the fronts. I've never had really bad vibration but have felt some. Where can you get the stick-on weights (and are they really lead any more). I stopped by AutoZone today but they don't carry them.
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John Mulvihill · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:33 am Post subject:

You might try a tire store. If you tell them its for your racing kart (bring a picture), you might even get some free ones.

Most speed shops should have them or can get them. Mail order if all else fails.

On the ground at many race tracks......

I re-use mine using double sided carpet tape (the thin type) with a layer of duct, oops, Racer's tape over the top. That way I've ended up with a bunch of different sizes that makes it easy to fine tune.

I put a piece of the double sided tape on the light spot and lightly stick weights in place until I get a balance. Then I 'tap' the weights with a small hammer, so they stick well to the double sided tape, followed by a layer of Racer's tape over the top.

Never lost one.

John
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Scott Heavin · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:22 am Post subject:

Ever seen the metallic tape that they use to hold them on Indy Cars? Buddy of mine had a roll one time. It's like a thin lead sheet that's sticky. It's pretty cool. And the force (I won't get into the centrifugal vs. centripetal argument-we'll just call if force) of the wheel spinning sucks it down tight to the rim and molds it around the weights.
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Ihor Bilyy · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 1:17 pm Post subject:

The crappier tires are, the less you have to hop in MiniMax Smile

Lance Zabrowski · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 3:28 pm Post subject:

If you really want them to look trick and stay on, get some aluminum duct tape for home heating ducts, it works great, and looks cool too.

Richard Thoms · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 3:32 pm Post subject:

joseph hollinger · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:04 pm Post subject:

Scott Heavin · Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:15 pm Post subject: