Balancing Racing Slicks
 

Why do most rear slicks get bubble balanced ? Is there a problem spin balancing slicks ?

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

think about it.soft sidewall

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

A friend spin balances mine. Quicker & cheaper to bubble balance at the track.

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

I spin balance never noticed any issues on track with vibration. Always did radials maybe bias tires have issues?

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

Anyone know how fast a spin balancer spins? I thought about 500 rpm, sounds about right. That would keep a normal street tire (26" diameter) under 60 mph. At 60 mph , even a bias ply drag slick would not grow much.

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

You will still find an imbalance you won't find with a bubble balancer. Split your weicght too needs four ounces? Put two front side, two back side.

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

That's the way I learned back in the early 70s. I use 4 weights, 2 on each side, bringing them closer or further apart as needed. I still use my old Coats 10/10 and bubble ballance for slicks and trailer tires.

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

There is a lot more than balance to fix shakes in tires. Technology has come a long way in tire balancing and rim/tire run out matching. Here is a video from Hunter engineering demonstrating their Road Force Balancer. Note ...this is old technology...we have been road forcing tires for over 10 years to fix non-balance tire shake. I road force all of my slicks and have to re-index most at least once due to their concentricity is not near what a OEM tire has and drag slicks undergo side wall damage from launching that can show up in a road force test but not be a balance issue.

Enjoy! Learn something new!

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=...9C2AC5FD52B319

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

Thanks for sharing this video Brian !!








Don Anderson
M/S #5891

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

Not all spin balancers are high speed. I have used a Snap-On branded machine with good results. Not sure who actually makes it. I've also used the old Snap-On machine that you spun up by hand with good results. I remember seeing that little machine sitting around in a lot of pro pits years ago.

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

If you reindex a tire and it makes a difference you have a bad rim IMHO ---Trevor

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

There are few tires produced that have 0 run-out when they remove them from the casting molds and fewer rims as well. The problems become one of tolerance stack up...two component individually "in spec" that are assembled with individual tolerances aligned may be out of spec as a combined assembly. Todays balancers measure total rim run-out and tire run-out individually and indicate where you can match the assembly for the least run-out ..thereby running smoother and needing less weight to balance.

I was at automotive factory training and told that OEM wheels are intentionally made slightly out of round on purpose to allow tire indexing corrections for overall less total run-out than with a perfectly round rim.

Re: Balancing Racing Slicks
 

We spin balance ours, but we also run a radial tire on both cars. Some tires take a couple ounces on the Rear but we had to put 5 oz them before as well. No issues with vibration otherwise. We did run a Bias ply at one point this year and it did't vibrate at all. At 160 it did grow a little bit more than 5" though.