any body ever balance thier tires, is it important

[boborc]

whats up,i'm thinking of balancing my tires i race on a dirt oval that carries a good amount of speed i think it might help,how would i go about it.i was thinking of getting one of those magnetic prop balancers they say they can be used for tires but how would i know where to put the weights i'm sure its not like one in the gas station where it tells you.any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated

[soreloser]

When a vehicle, even as small as our RC cars, are subjected to the amount of RPM at the tires as they do, it is almost necessary to balance the tires. Only times that balancing the tires is not really needed are when the track is extremely rough and tore up, this being off-road. I would suspect that all on-road tires should and need to be balanced to help maintain a tire patch without the tire bouncing off the surface, along with when the off-road tracks are smooth and high speed.

[Duster_360]

Static tire balancing is not difficult, but it takes a lot of patience. You set up so the wheel and tire can spin freely on something like the prop balancer you mentioned. Let the wheel stop moving and the part of the wheel that winds up on the bottom (call that position 6:00 for refernece), rotate it 90 or 180 degrees and let it go. When it stops moving, it should go back to this same position as before to indicate the heavy spot.

You'll need some kind of stickon weight. You make a guess as to how much of this stickon weight is required and stick it on the rim at 12:00 - opposite the heavy spot. When you have the wheel and tire balanced, it will stay positioned anywhere that you release it - it will not rotate since its evenly balanced. Sounds easy, but it's anything but easy. Need loads of patience the first several times. After you've done several, you get better and a little faster. Trinities balancer has some stickon weight with it, but it for onroad tires. I use motorcycle stickon balance weights that I cut to size for MT wheels.

[Piggy89373]

For weights, look to your local fishing store. You can usually buy stick on weight there pretty cheap and the weights will stay in place for quite a while.

[Cotharyus]

Yep. Actually, I balance the tires on my MT for racing. While you don't *really* notice it on the straights, a well balanced set of tires can help you hold more speed in the turns.

[boborc]

thanks guys it is what i thought a pain in the _ _ _ .i'll try to cut my 7g weights into smaller pieces & go from there thanks again

[SteveK]

I actually noticed it a lot on my MRC truck. I had a set of the big tires they offered, probably as big as any 2.2" tire will get, and the front wheels were hopping all over the place as it ran down the street at about 20mph. I balanced them and that problem went away.

You can do it on the car pretty easily, but it would be even easier if you had a jig. The magnetic one from Top Flite looks pretty cool, and is cheaper than any car-specific jig I have seen.

[cwginkc]

Pick up some lead tape from a golf store, it works great.

[BrushlessHawaii]

Pick up some lead tape from a golf store, it works great.


lead tape :thumbsup:

[soreloser]

the Scotch adhesive putty also works extremely good. Is also a cheap way of balancing tires and is reuseable. Just make sure where your putting the putty at is clean of dust and oil.

Scotch adhesive putty (http://www.greenlightoffice.com/product/displayproduct.aspx?sku=MMM860)