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steve hackel · 01-04-2018, 03:15 PM

Ok, I need to reply and clear up some things in order to blend all of the questions and opinions into something understandable for everyone reading this request.
I personally do not believe that there are ANY perfectly round tires on the market today, but obviously there are some better than others. Confining this discussion to only Bias Ply tires, be they new old stock or new reproductions, every single one of them has issues; some are magnified by the wheel they are mounted on and others are lessened (strictly by luck in mounting it in the right location).
Any wheel & tire combination can be balanced, but the tire being out of round will cause the otherwise "balanced" combination to hop, or vibrate at any given speed - some speeds more than others. The out of round situation makes the driver feel the road & rotating vibrations and think that the combination is out of balance.
So: I owned 4 NOS Firestone 6:00 x 16 tires (all 30+years old) and used the first 2 on a pair of kelsey Hayes wires that were actually extremely round & true. They would balance, but were slightly over .125 / 1/8" out of round, and no amount of balancing would correct that. Next up, I bought 4 new Koker 7:00 x 16 tires for the rear of both my cars; after mounting, 2 of them were slightly over 1/8" out of round (3/16" +/-) and the other 2 were over 1/4" - I returned the 2 worst ones and got nothing but grief from Koker tires because they had been mounted and were no longer NEW ! So how are you to find a problem with a tire that isn't mounted, if you can't return it because it has been mounted........ I need to think about that one for a while.
In the tire shaving process, the high spots are completely eliminated, resulting in a perfectly round rotating assembly (as close as possible) and once completed, the balancing process of the wheel & tire assembly cancels out the thick / thin or heavy / light areas of the tire, resulting in a perfectly round and also balanced assembly.
None of this can be accomplished with a grinder mounted to a frame work, but only by a rotating blade or knife action that cuts through high spots rather than "grinding" them away as in sanding or grinding away a high spot in bondo on a fender.
The $5,000 price tag of the machine on E-bay is a little steep for me, so I continue to look for one and ask everyone I am in contact with to try and scrounge one up. In the end I'll probably contact John Warden in Iowa (didn't know about him) and spend a day driving there and back just to get them done correctly so I can enjoy driving my car. And as Bubbas' suggested - I did buy quality tires, and they still need some work!!! Thanks to all who have responded.

01-04-2018, 03:15 PM	#16
steve hackel Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: midlothian illinois Posts: 468	Re: Anyone know of a "tire shaver" for sale? Ok, I need to reply and clear up some things in order to blend all of the questions and opinions into something understandable for everyone reading this request. I personally do not believe that there are ANY perfectly round tires on the market today, but obviously there are some better than others. Confining this discussion to only Bias Ply tires, be they new old stock or new reproductions, every single one of them has issues; some are magnified by the wheel they are mounted on and others are lessened (strictly by luck in mounting it in the right location). Any wheel & tire combination can be balanced, but the tire being out of round will cause the otherwise "balanced" combination to hop, or vibrate at any given speed - some speeds more than others. The out of round situation makes the driver feel the road & rotating vibrations and think that the combination is out of balance. So: I owned 4 NOS Firestone 6:00 x 16 tires (all 30+years old) and used the first 2 on a pair of kelsey Hayes wires that were actually extremely round & true. They would balance, but were slightly over .125 / 1/8" out of round, and no amount of balancing would correct that. Next up, I bought 4 new Koker 7:00 x 16 tires for the rear of both my cars; after mounting, 2 of them were slightly over 1/8" out of round (3/16" +/-) and the other 2 were over 1/4" - I returned the 2 worst ones and got nothing but grief from Koker tires because they had been mounted and were no longer NEW ! So how are you to find a problem with a tire that isn't mounted, if you can't return it because it has been mounted........ I need to think about that one for a while. In the tire shaving process, the high spots are completely eliminated, resulting in a perfectly round rotating assembly (as close as possible) and once completed, the balancing process of the wheel & tire assembly cancels out the thick / thin or heavy / light areas of the tire, resulting in a perfectly round and also balanced assembly. None of this can be accomplished with a grinder mounted to a frame work, but only by a rotating blade or knife action that cuts through high spots rather than "grinding" them away as in sanding or grinding away a high spot in bondo on a fender. The $5,000 price tag of the machine on E-bay is a little steep for me, so I continue to look for one and ask everyone I am in contact with to try and scrounge one up. In the end I'll probably contact John Warden in Iowa (didn't know about him) and spend a day driving there and back just to get them done correctly so I can enjoy driving my car. And as Bubbas' suggested - I did buy quality tires, and they still need some work!!! Thanks to all who have responded.