I bought a new 275-65-18 Goodyear Wrangler ATS from Tire Kingdom. I took the tire and had it mounted and balanced at my dealer because I needed to have my truck inspected and I know they have the Hunter 9700 road force balance machine, plus I was afraid of having my rim damaged from Tire Kingdom.

My dealer ended up needed to use about 8 ozs of wheel weights, the type you hammer on. There was three of them on the outside (in a group next to each other) and four more on the inside, three of which were grouped together and one that was maybe 1/4 of the way around the wheel from the other. My service adviser said for me to drive the truck for 500 miles and they would rebalance it.

I passed by Tire Kingdom on my way home and stopped to ask them about it. They ask me if the dealer indexed the wheel. When I ask what that meant they said the tire needs to be spun on the rim to offset the weight. I watched my dealer do the work so I know this wasn't done.

After getting back from a trip to NC I stopped at my dealer to have them rebalance the wheel. I ask them to index it like I was told. They returned my truck with just as much weights on it as it had when I got there. So I went back to Tire Kingdom to see if they could balance it it less weights.

Two hours later they call and say the wheel is rebalanced but when I get there I still see a ton of weights on it I have never had a tire require so much weight before. They said they would play with it some more and see it they can shift the tire around more to offset it more. They never called me back yesterday, I gave them a call today to check the status and was told it was ready for pick up. I was speaking with someone new and explained may concern and ask how much weight was needed. He said it still required the same amount of weights to get it to balance. At this point I said I wanted a new tire. He spoke with the manager and came back to say they were having their balance machine recalibrated on Monday and would like me to leave the tire so they could try again after that's done. While on hold, he must have set phone on the desk because I could here the manager saying that they would not replace a tire because it require x amount of wheel weights to balance. When he got back to the phone I told him that I doubt recalibrating the machine will change anything being that they are the second shop balancing this tire, but I was willing to let them give it a try and if that doesn't work I either want another tire or my money back.

I have the 18" chrome wheels and this wheel looks like it's 1/4 covered with wheel weights.

Is there a rule on how much weight a tire should not exceed to balance? Is there something wrong with this tire... or am I being way to picky?

 

what is the load rating of the tire? C,D,E?

 

C-6ply This is the stock tire these trucks come with.

 

then ya id say thats alot of weights...

 

10 oz is the max - i found that spec on alldata

 

i know this is extra work for them, but hey its their job !!! i would say that they need to try a different tire on your wheel... they need to rule out the tire, and the wheel. do you have any dents/dings on your wheel? they could easily throw off your balance. or, maybe the tire has a bad belt in it.... i know it was brand new, but we all know new isnt necessarily good.

i would ask them again to try a new tire just to rule it out. maybe thats all it takes for them to realize that it is in fact bad.

either way, good luck !!!!

 

make them use inner rim weights and the stick on ones that go on the inside of the rim, that way you cant see any of them

 

Thanks... I guess it's within specs but I'm still trying to see if I can get another tire. This really looks like hell. Hopefully they'll replace it or I'll get a refund and buy elsewhere.

No, I don't think I even have a scratch on it. When the dealer did the initial balance it rode fine so I don't think it has a bad belt. Maybe it's just an irregularity somewhere in the tire. The guy at Tire kingdom said that most all tires have a heavy spot and most all manufacturers ID the heavy spot with a dot. That dot is supposed to be 180degs from the valve steam. He also said Goodyear doesn't ID the heavy spot on their tires... that's why they have been trying to index it... with no luck. None of the other three required any more than one weight on each side of the wheel. They aren't labeled either

Thanks for the help. One way or the other I plan to have this resolved tomorrow evening.

 

Going to get my wheel now. They went ahead and ordered me a new tire and this one balanced with only 4ozs only bad thing is 3ozs was needed on the outside. But they said they would static balance it so I wouldn't see any

Thanks for the help

 

static balance...are you seriouse!? id rather have the 3 oz on the outside and have it truley balanced...not a crappy static balance...

 

what's wrong with static balance? It ended up taking 16 7gram weights doing it this way. How many grams equal an once?

 

Was the wheel and tire in question causing vibration, shimmy, or hop at high speeds?

If not I wouldn't worry about it.

I recently returned a set of (4) brand new tires that I had installed on my wife's car. They were Firestone/Bridgestone Fuzion HRI in 215/45/R17. The tire dealer was unable to balance these tires due to one or more having bad belts.

We had them balanced 3 different times by 2 different tire dealers. Everytime they would shake the car like crazy at 70-75mph, and none of the tires had excessive weights installed.

We returned the tire for a full refund and purchased a set of Kuhmo ASX 215/45/R17. The Kuhmos are as smooth as glass.

Just as MATTD17 said, "new isn't necessarily good".

Sidenote- I would avoid the Fuzion tires stated above, I would also avoid Goodyear Wrangler ATS. These are some of the worst tire I have ever owned. IMO

 

What?

I never had a problem with the last set I had on my 02. I traded that truck in for this one with 56K miles and the tires still had a lot of tread left on them, never a balance problem either.

I actually like these tires

 

I knew from the get go you had a bad tire, I had a set put on my car, cheapie tires and it took 6 oz on one side and 4 on the other, I ended up with 4 new tires of a reputable name and it only took 1.25 oz.
My shop uses a stick on weight that has surgical steel ball bearings, think grains of sand inside a stick on strip, then balance with centrifugal force and never need balancing again, I am on my third vehicle with them and really must say it works, they can balance both the inside and outside lip from the backside and not see any weights.