New Tires?
 

Just bought new tires for my A. I remember reading somewhere that there is a mark, either a dot of paint or a triangle, on the new tire that is supposed to be mounted in some relationship to the valve stem( opposite or next to it). It was supposed to assist in balancing.
Does anyone remember reading of this or am I just dreaming.

Any advise would be helpful. Thanks

Re: New Tires?
 

Painted dot indicates the lightest part of the tire and should be adjacent to the valve stem.

Re: New Tires?
 

thanks so much, I am not soft yet, I guess I remembered correctly.

Re: New Tires?
 

Told to me by tire maker. In the past dot was put for mounting stem, many years ago. For many years now the colored dots are for quality control only. The correct way is use the brand name and center your valve stem. info from Kelsey, Universal,Coker and cooper tire. Have fun modelAtony tony white Lafayette, LA

Re: New Tires?
 

what I've been told/read up on as well. Very few brands still use it as a stem locator but most are quality control dots and irrelevant to us/tireshops.

Re: New Tires?
 

You be the judge... Below excerpt quoted from Tire Business Dot Com

"The dots on new tires that have them are not critical but are intended to guide technicians when positioning the tire on the rim during the mounting process.

Since it is very hard to make a tire that is perfectly balanced, some tire manufacturers apply yellow dots that indicate the tire's light balance point and serve to help you balance the assembly while mounting the tire. The yellow dots should be aligned with the valve stem on both steel and aluminum wheels since this is the wheel's heavy balance point. This will help minimize the amount of weight needed to balance a tire and wheel assembly. So usually, whenever you see a yellow dot, match it up with the valve stem.

This is always true except in cases where a red dot also appears in the lower sidewall. The red dot indicates the high point for both radial run out and radial force variation. As I'm sure you know, not only is it hard for tire manufacturers to make a perfectly balanced tire, it also is very difficult to make a perfectly round tire"

Re: New Tires?
 

I got the same response from Coker a few years ago.

John