Wheel balance/roundness

[DmaxMaverick]

I submitted my reply before I saw the pics. I agree with RJ and IC. That's damage, and not a failure.

[Robyn]

That definately looks like damage from an tire machine.

I have usedaluminum wheels for years on a whole lot of rigs.
I have used then deep in the bush under severe conditions and have even been known to abuse them some.

Abuse generally does not look like that (driving abuse)

As RJ stated, the arm that pushes the tire off the bead may have been the culprit.

A sloppy worker thats not paying attention is most likely the case with this wheel.

It takes a fair bit to do that sort of damage.
The case here is that the rim is pushed away from the center. Damage from use generally does not do it this way.

Also it looks like the aluminum is "Burnished" and this makes me suspect that the damage was done with tools and not any defect or road hazard.


Robyn

[rustyk]

What does PYO mean?

"Pull Your Own" - you remove it/them.

[ronniejoe]

Well, I did some checking and am pretty sure that the wheels are the culprit. I scored some Duramax rims off of e-bay and just had some new tires mounted today. Initial test runs seem to say that my problem is gone. I will give it some time before completely declaring success. Here are some pictures of the new look. What do you think?

[GMC Hauler]

I see you are using the Silent Armours. I love mine. How do you like yours.

Rims look good, gives the suburban a new look!

[More Power]

Back in the 70's I bought a new Plymouth Satellite Sebring (an upscale Road Runner), and had the dealership exchange the tires/wheels with the Barracuda I was trading in. I had just put new tires on the Cuda, and wanted to keep them cuz they were better than the OE tires on the new car. The dealership swapped them.

Only later did I learn that they needed to "obtain" a new set of rims because the new car had front discs and the trade had front drums, and the rims wouldn't swap. The replacement rims probably came from a salvage yard.

Anyway, for the next 2-3 years, I fought wheel balance problems. I tried all sorts of gimmicky dynamic balancers and a few sets of tires, all to no avail.

Then one day a diligent tire shop spun the wheels by themselves.... They were all a little wobbly - not bad, but just a little..... So, I bought 4 new wheels, and the problem was - much to my relief - finally solved... I was so happy to have finally solved this chronic problem, and pissed that I got bent wheels with the new car.

Jim

[ronniejoe]

I see you are using the Silent Armours. I love mine. How do you like yours.

Rims look good, gives the suburban a new look!

Thanks! I just had the Silent Armors installed at 10:30 this morning, so not much time to evaluate. So far, I like them. I've been reading about them for about a year, so I've been looking forward to trying them.

[chickenhunterbob]

Those are very nice wheels, and tires too,

I have had my silent armours on for over 100,000 km now, have rotated them 9 times but probably will need a new set in the fall.

Depending on what you took off though, you may find them to have a little road noise, probably no more than any decent A/T tire would have, but somewhat more than a smooth tread design, they aren't really "silent".

They give superb traction on snow and ice though, I probably would not have believed just how good until I had them on myself.

[GMC Hauler]

They give superb traction on snow and ice though, I probably would not have believed just how good until I had them on myself.

I second that. I've been taking them through the CT winters and they are unstoppable!

[ronniejoe]

Made the run from Martinsville to Whitewater, WI to visit the in-laws for Memorial Day weekend. The vibration is still there, although not as bad as before. It seems to be coming from the right rear of the vehicle. Since this is an entirely different wheel/tire combination, it must be something else.

I replaced the brake drums some time ago in search of a solution to this problem. They're huge and imbalance in them could be the issue. I think I'm going to drag the originals out and have them check balanced at a tire shop. Maybe I can balance and turn them and solve this problem. I'm getting frustrated with this.

[Robyn]

RJ
The drums you got as replacements I assume were parts house items??

As you mentioned these are large drums and the aftermarket stuff may or may not have been ballanced properly

With the size of the drums,a fair amount of error in ballance could shake things real good.

A quicky Try swapping the drums from side to side in the back and see if the shake follows the drum from one side to the other.
If so you have your gremlin in hand.

If you raise the rig on a floor jack under the pumpkin until the wheels are a few inches off the ground, run the thing up to a safe speed and see if either tire/wheel assembly shakes.

A tire shop should be able to place that drum in a wheel ballancer by itself and tell you how far off it is and then mark the spot that needs weight.

Weld on a chunk of steel to do the trimming out of the ballance and your set.

I see drums all the time on the big trucks with weights welded on. ????????/


Best

Robyn

[6.5 Detroit Diesel]

Just curious as to how well this stuff works. I have the 36" Hummer tires. They are radials and impossible to balance in any way. When it gets hot, they basically conform to the rims and then they get "heavy" spots. When I drive at around 30-35 MPH, they can start shaking the whole truck. Once I hit cruising speeds there is no problem. The tire shops have tried conventional balancing with no luck. One tire had over 1 lb of weights put on in an attempt to balance it, with no luck.

[Robyn]

I use equal on the class 8 stuff on BIGGGGGGGGGg tires like the 385/65X22.5 and its marvelous.
I run equal on the #1 and #2 axle on the truck and the #1 axle on the trailer.

It adjusts as the tire wears or gets mud in the tread or ?????

Its better than sliced bread.

The only bitch is when you have to break the tire down to fix it. The stuff is a granular material and one needs to be careful and not get it in the bead when airing the tire back up.

We do it with the big tires and its tedious but doable.

The original session is done by adding the right size and or number of paper packets of equal to the tire before its inflated.
The packs break open and distribute once the wheel starts turning.


Best

Robyn

[Dimsdale]

There are also the Centramatic continuous wheel balancers, which seem to do what Equal does, but outside the tire.

They apparently have a set for Hummers, as well as dump trucks, school buses etc., but they do NOT fit under the PYOs (or didn't last time I looked).

www.centramatic.com

[Idle_Chatter]

There are also the Centramatic continuous wheel balancers, which seem to do what Equal does, but outside the tire.

They apparently have a set for Hummers, as well as dump trucks, school buses etc., but they do NOT fit under the PYOs (or didn't last time I looked).

www.centramatic.com

I've got a set of Centramatics. Don't use them any more, they were much less effective than the dynabeads I'm using now. They DO fit under PYOs, BUT, they space the rears out to where they become lug-centric versus hub-centric (raise wheel off the centerbore fit of the hub.) They also fit VERY tight with the front brake calipers and require an additional spacer to make clearance - making the fronts even more lug-centric than the rears. After several months, I found that brake pad wear had caused enough front caliper shift to cause the caliper to make contact with the centramatic and it was scoring it around the oil/granule filled balancing ring. I do not recommend them.

[JoeyD]

Most driveshaft shops can check the drum to see if they are out of round or even a machine shop that does engine balancing.
But the tires could still be suspect. I always run the wheel on the balancer to see if it's good then mount the tire and if it's not close to even dismount and spin it until I get it as close as I can. Takes time though. In the end go with the balance beads to keep a constant balance int he tires as they wear.