[Shotimes] Shimmy (sorry, long reply)

[Donald Mallinson]

Dave,

I have real world experience that says it is NOT BS!

Yes, most tire/wheel combo's can get by just fine with 
typical spin balancing. I NEVER said EVERY tire has to be 
balanced this way, but that it was a solution to some tires 
that just won't balance any other way.  Also I never said 
that "the true problem is the spin balancer"  I said it just 
can't balance some tires properly.

Now that we have what I didn't say, out of the way:

BTW, On-the-car balancing is about ALL that was done for 
many decades.  That, along with basic bubble balancing got 
many much taller and harder to balance tires to roll smooth 
for many decades.  Spin balancing is the newcomer to this 
fray, and there are plenty of examples of the machine being 
bad, the operator not giving a damn or not being very good.

This guy and myself and lots of others have all had that set 
of tires that just won't balance.

I have solved this problem more than a couple times in the 
past, saving lots of extra expense and time, by getting a 
good balance on the car.

We can agree to disagree, but you can NOT discount the 
success that I and others have had.  In both my cases, the 
rims were perfect.  The tires were not out of round and 
there wasn't a bad belt.  Tires had been checked for round, 
wobble side to side, stuff inside them etc.  Rim balance was 
checked separately.  We did all the typical things including 
  turning the tire on the rim to a different location.

On-the-car balancing SOLVED the problem 100% and didn't cost 
more than any other form of balancing.  I was also able to 
rotate the tires later to any corner of the car I wanted, 
with no return of the vibration.

If you had been on that trip to Atlanta with me in my '89, 
you would have gone nuts by the time we hit Nashville.  The 
tire shop on the south end of Atlanta that Bill Staib sent 
me to, balanced them on their machine and it didn't solve 
the problem.  They then balanced them on the car, and I took 
it out for a drive.  100 mph and ZERO vibration.  (at any 
speed) a pure joy to drive.  I proceeded to rotate those 
tires over the next two-three years and they never went out 
of balance again!  Had a similar experience with another set 
of tires on another car earlier.

That is REAL WORLD results in two instances of NEW tires 
that would NOT balance by typical means. I had those tires 
balanced on good typical spin machines at three different 
good tire stores in one case, and four stores in another 
case.  (all different stores)

Now that I know on-the-car balancing works, and I have a 
good local shop, I can save lots of money and time/trouble, 
by trying that first, rather than last when I have a balance 
problem that defies regular solutions.

Like I said,  you can disagree, but don't call my advice 
bad, just because you don't like it.  I have REAL WORLD 
experience that it works and works well.  I also have no 
doubt that there can be instances of on the car balancing 
not working, if there is another problem.  Like anything 
else, it is a tool.  Use it if the problem fits.

Obviously this guy has tried regular balancing and it didn't 
work,  I am giving him an alternative to start the process 
of finding out what is wrong, by eliminating balance as a 
problem you get information.  If it works, he saves a lot of 
money.

I don't see your problem with giving the guy good advice and 
a possible solution.  Doesn't make sense to poo-poo 
something when there is good proof from several good sources 
that it works.

You don't ever want to try it, then fine, you are hurting 
yourself by eliminating a possible good fix for a future 
problem.

Also, you have NO idea how many of the tire/wheel combo's 
that the Tire Rack sends out are perfectly balanced. You 
also have NO IDEA how many tire/wheel combo's sent to hyper 
expensive/sport car owners are perfect or not. Hell, not 
even the TIRE RACK know this!  They don't get back or hear 
about all the problem tires they send out.

I would guess that 90% or more are quite good.  But for 
others, who knows?  The tires I have had luck with 
on-the-car spin balancing were all from the Tire Rack, but I 
didn't buy the rims from them.  In both cases, the Tire Rack 
and my local store were good about replacing tires to get 
the balance close, but it took on the car balancing to get 
it RIGHT.

It always baffles me when people have to argue about 
something this stupid.  I offer good advice with other 
people to back it up, and true life experience to prove it 
and you feel the need to bad mouth me and my advice. Makes 
no sense.  How have YOU been harmed by me offering someone 
good advice?  By offering a possible solution instead of 
just putting someone down?

That is all the time I am going to spend on this.  I gave 
advice to the other guy that he can heed or not, it could 
solve his problem.  It is good advice and a good method to 
stop many tire vibration/balance problems.  The quality of 
the technician, like in regular spin balancing makes a big 
difference.

I'm not mad at you Dave, just baffled at your response.

Don Mallinson


Dave Kegel wrote:
> Sorry Don, I think on-the-car tire balancing is BS.  If the Tire Rack can
> sell multi-thousand dollar wheel and tire packages for Vettes, Vipers, BMWs,
> Mercedes, Ferraris, what have you, all balanced by a spin balancer, you
> should be able to get by with a spin balanced wheel/tire on your Taurus.  I
> have, and so have millions of others, for a long time now.
> 
> If you cannot get a decent balance with a spin balancer, you've got a bent
> wheel or a bad tire, or something else off in the rotating assembly.  Maybe
> you can hide that fact by balancing the wheel/tire on the car, but the true
> problem is not the spin balancer.
> 
> We can agree to disagree.
> 
> Dave
> -----