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| Screbble Member Since: 26 Apr 2015 Location: Lancashire Posts: 2179   
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That’s a darn good question that I have asked myself once or twice. I don’t know the answer but suspect that in order to get the balancing done ‘properly’ you need to look at various planes which accounts for the weights not just being at a particular point on the circumference - some inboard and some outboard?
Funnily enough, and somewhat contradictory, as I have sourced spanking new Boosts over the years (I am a Boost fan), I have asked the tyre fitters to (carefully) fit the weights to the rear - and they have obliged. No wheel wobble. We shall await the voices of more experience 👍 |
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22nd Apr 2025 5:00pm |
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| v8bob Member Since: 14 Mar 2018 Location: Midlands Posts: 339 
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Well, I am not saying I am an expert or this is my field, but I am old and seen a few, and balanced a few wheels…
When you have your nice new pretty alloys, or whatever you have spent a fortune on. You may well say to the highly professional tyre fitter you don’t want to see the weights. There are settings on the wheel balancer for this. It would put the weights all on the back. Some as far outwards as feasible and some inboard. These will normally be stick-on behind the spokes on the centre part of the rim, and then the normal hammer on, on the inside. Or you could have stick-on on the inner rim. So this generally works well on the wide wheels with a decent inboard offset. If you then get a new set of tyres fitted by the spotty youth who wont even think of looking for stick on weights, you then get inboard and outboard hammer on weights. Obviously a few extra to compensate for the ones he didn’t notice. There are a few things that might be of interest: New tyres have a little coloured dot on them on the wall - well this marks the tyre heavy or light point (unfortunately I can’t remember which as I am old). The little hole for the valve is expected to be the heavy point on the wheel, once the valve is fitted. The coloured dot should be opposite or with the valve, as I said I can’t remember. The wheel balancer can do a static balance, I have used this if I find a tyre needs a load of weights. You can static balance a wheel without a tyre to see where it is light and mark it. You can then static balance with a tyre and see what you get. If it ends up a long way out you can let the tyre down, break the bead and rotate it to see if it makes things better? The wheel balancer will have a few settings for the dynamic weights as well. All in the middle - stick-on. In the middle and on inner rim (bead area) stick-on On outer rim (bead area) and inner rim (bead area) stick-on, Outer and inner edge normal hammer on. And of course you could even have spoke wheels. Well that was a bit long Bob |
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22nd Apr 2025 8:21pm |
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| steveww Member Since: 05 Jan 2022 Location: Malton Posts: 588 
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Just to put the cat in with the pigeons...
Balance beads? |
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23rd Apr 2025 3:57pm |
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| The Fox Member Since: 24 Mar 2014 Location: Shrewsbury Posts: 104 
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My initial suspicion was that each wheel was balanced independently by a different person and they just each did it differently, so by the time 5 wheels were fitted to a new vehicle there were vastly different balancing approaches.
I never considered that the weights would need to be in different places laterally on the wheel (inside or outside) but this makes sense and I feel like I've done the wheel people at JLR a disservice by immediately assuming they were being inconsistent numpties!  |
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23rd Apr 2025 4:30pm |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 20751
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Stick on ones aren’t ideal, because they easily come off.
Exterior clip on are okay, but look, not great, and damage the surface. Clip on weights can go on the inside only, there, they are out of sight and balance fine. All inside on mine, but have Dynabeads as well. Dynabeads, would I have them again? Hard to say, they’ve not been a problem, they can cause unbalance at low speeds, higher speeds very good. In future I’d probably just stick to clip on inside weights. This does depend on wheel type of course though, for some beads are probably better, for boosts weights inside are fine. Just my views anyway. WeWillWin🇬🇧🇺🇸 ⛽️🛢️⚙️🧰💪 |
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23rd Apr 2025 5:36pm |
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| Screbble Member Since: 26 Apr 2015 Location: Lancashire Posts: 2179
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A great description from V8bob 👍
I think the dynabeads and equivalent are proven to work well but I haven’t yet tried them. I’ll continue to avoid the knock on weights on the outer rim! PS I do agree and think the inconsistency is a product of the competence and engagement of the ‘balancer.’ |
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23rd Apr 2025 7:03pm |
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| Rashers Member Since: 21 Jun 2015 Location: Norfolk Posts: 3600 
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Thanks V8bob. Great description.
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23rd Apr 2025 7:34pm |
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| v8bob Member Since: 14 Mar 2018 Location: Midlands Posts: 339
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I rather like the stick-on weights, and I have never had any come off. You can re-use them with number-plate like sticky pads. You must clean and remove any polish or grease from the rim before fitting. So probably cause of falling off is when not done.
I have a fair few tubed tyres so that adds another fly in the ointment. Often I static balance and stick-on weights out of sight as a starting point. Fortunately I have a tyre change helping machine, and a wheel balancer machine. I have only one set of alloys now and have never balanced them. Only 3 sets of tubeless tyres, 2 of them being Wolfs All the rest are tubed… 7 sets, and 2 trailers with tubes and 2 trailers tubeless - I think. I didn’t bother counting the wife's car or the motorbikes or the tracked digger And I guess 5 sets of rims with no tyres. Yes far too many. |
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23rd Apr 2025 8:25pm |
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