Wheel balancing - dynamic balancing weights

[tolsen]

Adding some info in case unfortunate owners of static balancers are having trouble balancing their wheels.

For a static wheel balancer to work accurately, the wheel must be perfectly centred on the balancer and the cone of the balancer must be perfectly concentric to the support pin. The type of balencer I am referring to is where the wheel is placed horizontally on a pin supported cone and the balancer has a bubble in its centre. These are made in a far away land and sold in the UK for above £40 each.

For a 6 kg 15” wheel such as a front wheel for a Smart 450, a centring error of 1 mm results in a balancing weight error of 32 grams. 0.5 mm off centre gives balancing error half of that hence 16 grams. The balancing problem is further compounded due to resulting error in position on rim where weight is placed. Turn wheel 90 degrees and both weight and position are different. A waste of time these static balances. Much better using dynamic Steel BBs.

[Mjolinor]

Thinking as one does about things that really don't deserve thinking about.

If one straps a camera and a strobe looking at your wheel and have a sensor somewhere on the chassis, maybe front suspension components, it should be possible to find the area of imbalance as one drives giving a proper balance that accounts for suspension components too.

ATS used to have a balancer that you pushed against the wheel while it was jacked off the floor and spun by the balancer. I haven't seen one like that for 40 years though, I don't know if they still make or use them.

[tolsen]

One can always fill an handful of BBs into ones tyres and hope for the best. Having said that, the BBs works better in the narrow front wheels of my Smart than the Trekka's. Both 65 profile and 15 inch but the Smart has 20 mm narrower wheels.

[tolsen]

Have now a solution for how to balance my lower profile wheels. I simply asked the owner of a local garage if he could teach me how to operate his balancing machine. Problem sorted.

[tolsen]

In my next thread we’ll discuss turds.

Having a puncture in remote parts of Scotland can easily cost you hundreds of Pounds. For that reason I always carry on me my turds and turd fittting kit acquired on Ebay for less than £3. Only this summer on my west coast adventure travels I have fixed flat tyres for six stranded camper vans. More to follow soon.

[Mjolinor]

Do you really notice any difference between a flat and a normal tyre on a Smart car? I can't tell on mine at all. It was the same with my Mercedes C class, it just did not affect the way it drove in any way.

[tolsen]

An old guy around here that we call the mad professor drove around in his Corsa for nearly two weeks with rear flat tyres. Somebody tried to help but were surprised to find a Porta Potti in the boot and plenty of toilet paper but no spare wheel.

[tolsen]

He was eventually stopped by the police. Then all rubber was gone and he was running on bare rims. He claimed he had not noticed a thing. This guy is Glossopian which explains it all. English you see is what the locals say up here.

[reinaldo_is_spam]

Do you really notice any difference between a flat and a normal tyre on a Smart car? I can't tell on mine at all. It was the same with my Mercedes C class, it just did not affect the way it drove in any way.

Jeez man , I've always been able to tell

It's obvious , besides the car will usually let you know too by triggering the ESP light

You must have no nerves in your fingertips, have an ear infection, zero sense of spatial awareness or your mother smells of elderberries ,... it's obvious I tell yer

[tolsen]

More likely he is from or near Glossop.