Have just come from a tire and wheel shop trying to find a machine that will balance 14.5x32x15 Hoosier slicks on Mavman's car. The two dude's at the store, which deal mostly in nasty lookin 22in wheels and such tires, said they could do it but "WHY". I thought maybe I would try and explain their question but alas, they would not grasp the simple words of an old man. Anyone here had the same experience. Guess they don't balance the rear tire's on anything," not necessary" as one of the chair campers in the office told me. All I said was "at 130+ mph, I think they should be. Left abruptly and put that store on the "do not stop again" list.
had the same thing here in sarasota. 31 x 14 x 15's . "tires plus". or minus in my book now, mgr. said, your only goin straight and it wont be spinnin long enough to matter! me and the boy just looked at each other, and left.
I just put mine up on jack stands, put it in D, and let it spin. If you sit near it and watch it a second, you can see where it is out of balance. Then take out the sharpest knife in the house and gently put it against the spinning tire and it will take off all the "unbalanced" parts, leaving you a perfectly balanced wheel. THIS IS JUST A JOKE...NOT SERIOUS...PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS!!! YOU WILL LOSE A FINGER, ARM, OR WORSE
Honestly though. I never bothered to balance it thinking a couple burn-outs later and it probably wouldn't be balanced anyway...
My line of business Are the slicks screwed to the rim? If so I could see balancing them If not they will be out of balance after a few launches. The tire will slip. Yes I know Dawn helps but it still slips. See it all the time on big mudder truck tires much less a race car that hooks. My business ethics would be to make you happy but if it was screwless or did not have bead locks I'd just be stealing your money :Handshake
They are screwed on. Alway's coat the inside with Dawn dishsoap. The M/T's will alway's leak down in a week without it. Stay up for month's with it. Lot's of street radial racer here, soak their tires with WD-40 and seem to get better traction . Don't really know the effect's of balancing the slick's, one way or the other, but any little advantage to et and consistency is a help and also the safety factor of not shaking things apart at speed is another thing I alway's look at. At my age, bones break easy and vibration causes severe intestinal displeasure. If it was not for that, and a few hundred other ailments, I would still be in a midget or stock car. Ah, but the memories are still fresh.
I will never run a car without balancing the rear tires. A tire shop told me that, (No need to balance) once on a set of M/T ET streets. I went to the track and everything vibrated so badly you couldn't read the numbers on the tach. Let your foot off the gas and hang on. I will say, one tire was so bad we sent it back to M/T. I found someone who could balance them and after that it was like going down the highway. I always balance them wether i'm using the drag radias, ET Streets, or ET drags.
Find an old tire store and bubble balance them. That's how I balanced slicks back in '70s. That should still be adequate. I would think.
theres an old hispanic fella who actually did spin balance our set for 10.00 per. :bananaman p.j tires he claimed to use an old bubbler until he got his spinner. also said he used to drag an old falcon... reassuring to say the least.:Handshake and he didnt even ask what all the screws in the side were...unlike the goober at tires plus.
I have a bubbler at work but I have never used it other than with bike tires. I'm not sure we have the cones to set it up for larger center hole, or I'd have done it myself. After hearing the story with the shop across town, I got a good laugh out of it and I, too, crossed that one off the list of places to visit. As far as whether or not to have them balanced, I will say that last year I kicked the trans in neutral crossing the finish line and it shook like you wouldn't believe. Doesn't really bother me much but it makes it hard to figure out if there is something else that is out of the ordinary. Lastly, M/T slicks are notorious for being severely out of balance. And they leak down if you don't coat them with dawn. And they don't make a set that fits my car. So I stick with the hoosiers. Even the lightweight slicks last a lot longer than the M/T's did and they're consistent right up until they're gone instead of "going away" at half tread like the mickeys did. I used to run the mickeys about 100-150 passes then throw 'em out. The Hoosiers I can usually get 250-275 out of them and again, they are the light weight versions (13.5-31.5L-15) which actually measure just shy of 32x14-15.
I always run M/T tubes in my tires. Never had a problem. I know a lot of guys don't like them because it adds more weight. But i figure that's what they make shoe polish for.
Just find a shop the sells mag wheels and they'll do it. I have always balanced my drag tires. Some didn't need much weight, but some... well, let's just say you could have built another rim with that much lead.
i have found that using a bubble balancer is more accurate with my bogart wheels. i tried several different tire shops and all the balancers were giving different readings. the balancer manufacturers said my wheel was so light along with the soft sidewall of the slick it would actually flex on the balancer when it spins giving a false reading. m/t et drags with no tubes, no screws and the tires dont slip with 1.36's. i still speed balance the fronts though.
