Tire balancing

[karasmer]

I was pondering picking up one of those center bubble tire balancers, anybody have experience on one and how well do they work, worth it for $50?? Thanks

[QGolden]

For many years the bubble balancer was the standard. We had one in our shop (Grandfathers) from the early 50's to the early 70's when we sold the shop.

[KGBnut]

My father has one from the 50s. It works great EXCEPT on Model A wheels. The way the center hub of the wheel pushes so far outward, you can't put them on the part that holds the wheel.

I can't say that the one you are looking at will have the same problem, but his won't do the job. We just balance them on the car.

[Timberbeast]

I tried using the balance beads sold by Snyder's. They seem to be working, no abnormal tire ware and give a good ride. They eliminated most of the vibration felt in the steering wheel.

[J Franklin]

I have balanced my wheels with a bubble balancer, it fit my wheel ok and did a great job. If it is all there and works, $50 isn't a bad price, and if a solar flare takes the grid down you could set up shop out of your garage!

[Kevin in NJ]

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I used a spindle with a hub mounted using lightly oiled bearings.

Bolted the wheel to the hub and let gravity work. Then I broke the bead and rotated till I got slowest movement. Now my tire rim combo was better balanced. I will put dyna beads in one day.

The A has a lot of unsprung weight in the axles so they are more tolerant of wheel balance. So you do not have to be as perfect in the balance.

[karasmer]

How about on modern wheels, I heard it is more messing around with than worth it. We alot of cars in the driveway that constantly need tire changes and it's a pain to haul them in to get mounted and balanced plus the fees, I have a manual tire changer already.

[modeleh]

I use one for my daily drivers and 60s cars. I got for $20 and it works quite well.
You don't always need to fiddle with the weights to get the bubble perfectly centered. For instance, if the tire is going on the rear of the vehicle, I just set it on the balancer, and if it doesn't flop to one side and is more or less in the center, I call it good and move on. You can't feel a whole lot of imbalance in most vehicles unless it is coming from the steer tires up through the column. I think for the price of the balancer, versus the cost of a couple wheel balances at a tire shop, they are worth it and in short time you will be able to consider that tool has "paid for itself"

[Tom Wesenberg]

I used one a lot at the service stations and dealerships where I worked. I have my own now, but haven't used it a lot since I haven't had balance problems. If you add more than an ounce of weight be sure to split it and put half the weight on each side of the rim, or you could induce a dynamic imbalance. A computor spin balancer can figure out dynamic imbalance, but I find the bubble balance does fine. I also have my own Coats manual tire changer, and that's a handy tool to own. For Model A wheels I made a simple stand to hold a Model A spindle and hub with lighly oiled bearings, as Kevin mentioned. It works well for balancing. Since I used a good spindle I simply used a bolt to fasten it to the stand, rather than weld it. This way I can use it on a car if need be.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by karasmer

I was pondering picking up one of those center bubble tire balancers, anybody have experience on one and how well do they work, worth it for $50?? Thanks

They work fine. We used one for many years till we got our industrial balancer.
We even made an adapter so we could do 8 lug pickup wheels.
$50 is a fair price.

[Patrick L.]

I just have to be contrary. A good old 'real' bubble balancer is fine. I've tried the 'cheapie' little toy ones and found them to be wanting. Just my experience and opinion, which usually isn't worth much. I spin 'em.

[karasmer]

I am going to see if I can find a small local repair shop that mounts and balances for reasonable rather than getting cranked at $25 per tire at Tires Plus, only when I'm super busy and do not have the time to do it myself.

[David Martin]

Take your car to a truck tire dealer. They will "bead" balance (also known as 'sanding' to the truck folks) your tires for less money than the cost of a DIY bead kit from the parts distributors. The process is done without removing the wheels. You will be pleased with the results.

[BrianM]

The main problem with the bubble balancer is that the A wheels aren't located on the hub by the center hole (which is what the balancer relies on). Instead, they are located by the lug nuts only! I modified the low cost balancer by using a brake drum for the top piece. A lathe-turned center piece holds the spirit bubble. I then balanced the drum by itself, to make it accurate.

To use it, a mounted wheel/tire is screwed down to the drum with a set of new lug nuts, then the drum is set on top of the stock lower section pivot point. Balancing then proceeds normally. My new set of balanced Lesters run smoothly with no vibration at any speed.

[MrWzrd]

I used a cone shaped bubble balance without any issues. It has a spring loaded ring to square of the wheel on the cone. Works fine.
I havent used it in a couple of years since input the balancing beads in the tires.

[Pete]

Bubble balancers will work fine for 90% of the wheels.
It will NOT get the dynamic out though. The only way to do that is spin them.
The best spin method I have seen is the 2 pickup Stewart Warner system that came out in the late 50's. It does them on the car so the hub/drum is balanced with the wheel. You need 2 pickups to do dynamic. As far as I know, the SW system is the only one that ever had that. Dynamic unbalance can wreak havoc with suspension parts if left uncorrected. Another method although more cumbersome is to mount the hub, drum, wheel assembly on an arbor and balance it on a regular industrial balancer.
Unless your car will go 150 mph you probably will never need this precision.

[Bob Johnson]

Here is what I use.



Bob