At home tire/wheel balancing?

[TJ Hopland]

Every time I have have to buy tires or have to drive something that vibrates down the road I am reminded how it seems like no shops either know or care enough to actually be able to balance usually a new tire you just bought from them. 

Do the currently available new bubble balancers work?  Vintage ones?  How about the spin balance machines?  Prices on used ones seem to be around $200 to about $3000 and within that full range you see them that look like they have been sitting outside getting rained on and that say things like has an error. 

New seems to be $800 to like $8,000.  There are some localish sellers selling 'import' models for around $1200.  Hard to tell what you are getting with those but reviews from non full time shop people seem to be good.  I got some friends with shop space that also hate out of balance tires.     

[Dave Shepherd]

Another  balance issue is the road force variation problems, this again requires more specialized equipment.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

The old Bubble Balancers were good for their time.   By that, I mean, good for the suspensions of the cars back then.   The modern cars do perform better with the you-beaut dynamic balancers, as the latest independent suspensions do like perfectly balanced wheels and tyres.

Bruce,

[bcroe]

Long ago I saw a machine wheeled up to spin my
front tires on the car, then a unit inserted in
place of a wheel cover was adjusted to make it
run smooth.  Then it told where weight was needed. 
I saw one of these make my tire perfectly smooth
at 120 mph.  Rear, guess the best way was move 
the tire from the front to the rear after balancing. 

I have gotten such equipment but running it remains
as a future project.  Wish someone would tell me
what is with putting a pair of weights on opposite
sides and rotation on a tire, 2 identical weights
will not compensate for a tire heavy on one side. 
Bruce Roe

[Cadman-iac]

 Hi Bruce,

 Having seen that done and actually using one a couple times, I want to warn you that when you balance this way you are actually balancing all of the rotating assembly, that is your tire, rotor or drum included. It's recommended that you mark your wheel and the rotor/ drum so if removed you can reinstall it in the same position. Otherwise you will have a worse balancing issue than you did previously.
 Don't move the wheel/tire to another position on the car as that eliminates any balance you had.

 As to the technical reasons why weights can be placed opposite each other, I don't know. I've seen it work though.  I  questioned that too and never got a satisfactory answer.

 Rick

[TJ Hopland]

I think the having weights opposite sides is the 'operator' just blindly following what the machine is telling them and apparently you can get into situations where they just keep adding weights till they run out of weights or space to mount them which ever comes first.  That is apparently when the skill comes in and a skilled person would remove the existing weights and re mount the tire on the machine and try again this time paying extra attention to see if something isn't right.  That is also when they can try things like re mounting the tire rotated on the rim to see if that makes a difference. 

My guess these days is about 93.6593% of the people that work in tire shops fall into that category of blindly follow what the machine says.  On one of my many returns to a tire shop to try and at least get it so the weights didn't fly off a few blocks from the shop at less than 20mph I asked the guy what would happen if he balanced the wheel then set it on the floor then put it back on the machine?  He said he tried that and it would be out of balance.  I said I ain't no technician but doesn't that seem like a problem?  He then said my wheels don't really fit on their machine because they are missing a part......  again I said seems like that could be a problem.....  then I met the owner of the shop and wow I don't know how they stayed in biz.  The did go out of biz about a year later. 

[Abe Lugo]

I added the balance beads through the valve stem at home.  I want to say it works.  Did the amount required and no vibration.
I know when the time comes to change the tires it will be a mess.

[TJ Hopland]

I did wonder about the beads and the mess when it comes time to change them.  I also wonder if they would go through the 67-78's Eldo's heavy truck like valve stem.

[Abe Lugo]

The beads are very small and is use a turkey baster-like injector to put them in.  Bit that can be a mess as well.

[35-709]

You are talking dynamic vs static balancing.  An internet search will bring up explanations of both and why they are needed - or not.

[marty55cdv]

  Back in the day (35 years ago) I used a static Bubble balancer to balance the occasional 74 super beetle with front struts to get rid of 50 + mph hour shaking. Spin balancers didn't seem to help, technology has improved for sure but the bubble balancer was new technology once too.   

[Big Fins]

We used bubble balancers for years with great results.

Like anything else, it's the operator that brings the end results.

Now a days, the tire dude pushes buttons and does what he is told by the machine. No thought or skill involved.