Large tire balancing

Isaac3384 · Mar 31, 2012

I know there's different methods/tricks to balancing large tires, and I have a few concerns about mine. What I have is a set of 37/12.50/16.5 Goodyear MT/R hummer take-offs with 16.5x9.75" steel wheels. I've heard from several people that these tires are a pain in the @$$ to balance. I was wondering if y'all thought it would be best to have a shop such as 4 wheel parts get these mounted, or if I would be better off to have a truck stop/rv place put these together?? Any input is greatly appreciated.

Marty · Mar 31, 2012

Find out how many ounces of dynabeads or bb's you need and throw them in there. Mine are balanced like that and pretty steady at 70mph for a 200k mile truck. Have done the same for 35's too.

Biggreen96 · Mar 31, 2012

I run 37 nitto mud grappers and had 4 wheel parts balance them. I would recommend them to balance them as they are used to balancing a mud tire that big

Isaac3384 · Mar 31, 2012

Thanks guys...I was thinking 4wp, but they're about an hour from where I am...the reason I had considered having a truck stop do it is because they're used to doing large tires too, and there's one about 5 min from where I live...I'm gonna make some phone calls Monday and get this figured out.

MAC · Mar 31, 2012

[rant]

I had those tires and they were a pain in the ass, I couldn't get any tire shop to touch them, finally I went to a Petro truck shop and the Mechanic on duty had dealt with them before, and he really didn't even want to mess with them.

[/rant]

tbsimmons · Apr 1, 2012

I dont have large tires but have had good luck with Centramatics on the dually.
http://centramatic.com/Home.aspx
I had a vibration between 38-40 and these almost took care of it. Balancing them in multiple places never changed it.

qcfarmer · Apr 1, 2012

Was this on a 450? I have some 19.5 that vibrate pretty bad and no one can balance them.

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tbsimmons · Apr 1, 2012

Yes it is on the 450.

powerSmokin · Apr 1, 2012

Beads on the inside of the tire don't really do much unless it's a 19.5 and up. I deal with tires all day and if you have enough space inside your wheel you can just do a dynamic tape weight depending on how much space you have between your caliper and wheel. Truth is 37" and up most of the time balance out bad to where you can't get it to zero out.

The tape weights will hold well if applied correctly and won't fly off like pound on weights an ya can't see em.
Have a local shop do em that deal with mud terrain tires, truck stops will just throw equal or some other crap in it most of the time and call it a day.

Jeff · Apr 2, 2012

My buddy had 44's on his x and used the beads. Said it drove great at 70.

weekendwarriorfsw32 · Apr 2, 2012

I need to look into this for my F-450!

tbsimmons said:
I dont have large tires but have had good luck with Centramatics on the dually.
http://centramatic.com/Home.aspx
I had a vibration between 38-40 and these almost took care of it. Balancing them in multiple places never changed it.

Isaac3384 · Apr 4, 2012

Thanks for the feedback, I'm taking them to a shop to be mounted and balanced tonight. If they do a good job, I'll be sure to pass the word along about who and where they are.

Isaac3384 · Apr 17, 2012

A&D Tire in Terrell, Tx is the place to go. For $15 per wheel they went through and balanced these beasts with no problems. They're capable of doing up to a 40" tire...

tyreguy25 · Apr 24, 2012

As an experienced tire guy, let me tell you the trick to balancing these things. The key is patience. It WILL chase weight around the wheel and some creative math, changing weights, moving weights and overall trying to add as few weights as possible is what is needed. We balance everything from 12" car tires to 24" gangsta rim and tires. I have personally balanced a set of these 37" 16.5s, and they took a lot of weight, but they did balance out to zero. We can also do tires up to 40s, so look us up if you are in the area, K's Tire in Lawrence, KS.

Isaac3384 · Apr 26, 2012

Mine took a ridiculous amount of weights, and still has a minor vibe around 45. It's a lot better than what it was. Most of the time I'm either doing 35 or 60 anyways. The speed limit in town is only 35, and as soon as you get out of town, it bumps up to 65. A short lived vibe from time to time isn't too bad.

I'm in the market for a RCLB 250 with a 5.4 to turn into a mud truck. These wheels and tires will go on it eventually, and I'll pony up the $ for some different wheels and some 38s...

Zmann · Apr 26, 2012

I will tell you guys even a good balance job can be ruined within the first mile
specially on 16.5 that don't have a safety bead ( unless the hummer stuff is different?)

I use tape weights and then duct tape over them and mark the ounces
just incase

I always mark my rims and tires with a spot of paint and even after being carful the fronts spun an inch and the rears over two ,, that's right the paint on the rim was that far from the tire paint

these shops load the soap and it takes at least a day to dry.. they do sell a product to prevent this but I have never tried it and no tire shop I have seen carries it

GIZMO6.0 · Apr 26, 2012

When I mount tires for the OTR fleet, I use an actual grease. 500HP and touching on 2000 ft/lbs of torque doesn't move em. I never really paid any attention to the smaller car and truck stuff that I just got into doing.

Isaac3384 · Apr 27, 2012

Good point about the soap zmann; I got screwed out of a balance when the tires were initially mounted and my truck sat for about a week before I found a shop that could balance them. I'm pretty sure I'm safe there. I'll keep that in mind next time around!

SDstroker · Apr 27, 2012

tyreguy25 said:
As an experienced tire guy, let me tell you the trick to balancing these things. The key is patience. It WILL chase weight around the wheel and some creative math, changing weights, moving weights and overall trying to add as few weights as possible is what is needed. We balance everything from 12" car tires to 24" gangsta rim and tires. I have personally balanced a set of these 37" 16.5s, and they took a lot of weight, but they did balance out to zero. We can also do tires up to 40s, so look us up if you are in the area, K's Tire in Lawrence, KS.

:whs:

I remember when I did by first set of 35's and needed 4.5oz of weight, I thought the tire was junk. Took a little bit but got them to zero.