Hiya all,

I don't remeber where I heard this, but I remember someone telling me that its best to put weights on both sides of the rim and tire. Ofcourse the rims look a lot better when the wheel weights are in the inside. Is there really any disadvantages, when you get the wheel balanced to have them put the weights in the inside of the rim??

zya
Curious Yuichi

 

wheel weight can be put either inside or outside of the rim-------it does not matter which side of the rim they are attached to just as long as the tire and rim are balanced---------if said tire and wheel are out of balance at any location the position whether inside or outside has no difference-------------it is just an offset to a flawed rim or tire or combination of the two---------insist on the weight being placed on the inside of the rim if you are building a show style car

 

One is static balance and one is dynamic balance, I'm not sure which which. It depends on how sensitive your front end is on which one you should use. On my 78 I need the one with the weights on both sides. I also need a high accuracy balance or balanced on the car. Some times I need them trued and balanced.

 

Static balance is where the weights are all on the inside or all on the outside of the rim. This only balances the wheel in one plane - it is the equivalent of supporting the wheel in the middle (statically), and putting weights on it until it balances.

Dynamic balancing is where the weights are placed on both the outside and inside of the rim. This balances the rim in two planes, and is by far the superior method of balancing. This acheives the same balance that the static balance does, plus it balances out any problems in the rotational plane. It does make a difference, and if you are interested in performance applications, you should always insist on getting your wheels dynamically balanced.

That said, it is possible to have your wheels dynamically balanced, without putting ugly weights on the outside of your rim. Trouble is, there aren't that many tire shops that understand how to do it. The basic idea is to use the normal weights on the inside edge, and use the tape-on style weights inside the rim, directly behind the wheel face.

Here's the problem - the balancing machine that they use spins the tire, and based in the information that the operator gives it about the wheel (size, offset, width), decides how much and where to place the weights in order to balance the wheel. This works great, except the machine makes it's calculations assuming that the weights are to be placed on the outside and inside edge of the rim. The solution is to setup the machine so that it thinks that the outside edge of the rim is directly behind the wheel face, and it should then be able to balance your wheels.

Getting a not-so-experienced operator to believe that this will work, and then figure out how to setup the machine is the hardest part...