38" tires, balancing problem

[ut4x4Bronco]

I just bought 38.5x14.5x15 TSL/SX swamper tires for a 15x10 wheel and the shop that sold me the tires is having a hard time balancing them. They are using EQUAL polymer sand to try to balance the tires. They used a whole but load of the sand to do the job (30+ oz's). I called the man-u-facturer of the EQUAL sand and they told me 8-10 oz's is what is required for a 38" tires, any more then the mounting is wrong or the tire is bad. Anyboby have experience with big tires and balancing?

 

[Badger]

you should not have to stick that much in the tire.i would say you need to pop the beads spin the tire on the rim 180 or so and try again.also are they trying to spin the tire on a balancer because i don't think you can put a tire with equal on a balancer.

its possible that the tires seam is in a bad spot o nthe rim.you want the seam to be over the valve stem from what i remember or is it opposite of the stem its one or the other i can't remember right now.

also 38's have a tendnecy to not be truely round you might want to look for somebody that trues tires.it a fun little machine that will shave the outside of the tire while on the truck to make it truely round and balanced.only problem with this is if you ever rotate your tires it has to be done again because its done on the truck it also takes the bearings into the factor.

 

[Kiel]

It's probabbly gonna be pretty tough with a bias ply tire to get them to run half as smooth as you want anyway. But the proper way is to spin them on the rim and try again, hopefully they are on the bad side now, and not the good

 

[TimB]

You cannot spin balance a tire with equal in it - take it for a drive and see how it does.

 

[ut4x4Bronco]

Thanks for the input. This is not for my daily drive but the first time I drove it, it had a death wobble at about 35 mph. I took it back and thats when they started loading the tires with EQUAL. Now they plan to order some new tires and try it all again.I am going to call INTERCO to day and talk to them about this.

 

[tiny2085]

I just got some 38" TSL's, and didn't even bother to balance them, if you go fast enough, it'll ride smoooooth . You are going to get some vibration out of the tires no matter how "balanced" it is. See if they can check it for out of round.

 

[CoreyT]

I just had some 37" Creepy Crawlers mounted the other day and they guy at the tire shop said if I wanted to balance them that 10 oz. of sand per tire would be about right. I haven't tried it yet though because these tires are bias ply anyway and won't see any pavement.

 

[Badcop]

What you saying is going on doest sound right at all. I took my used 37 MTRs to Schwabs and after about 3 trys with ea one they had it figured out without using sand and only using inside bead wieghts. I think the worse one was a rear at almost a pound of counter balance.

 

[Big Daddy C.]

I had discount mount my 38" nitto grapplers and they balanced perfect on steel wheels without sand and just a little wheight on the inside of the rim. so my thought is it's the tires? Ive ran my for a few houndred miles still no problems even at 85 mph, good luck.

 

[Skyetone]

I had some old 40' hawgs I did. I got tape weights and got em sorta ballanced. It was a 17 wide tire too though. Thats alot of tire for a 1/4 to 1/2 ton tie rod. They got better after they warmed up a little. But I bet there wasn't 10 ounces per tire. Try tape weights on the rim if you have the clearance.

 

[ut4x4Bronco]

I talked to ITERCO tire today and they said it would not surprise them that the 38" TSL/SX would require 30+ ozs of weights to balance them. INTERCO dose not recommend the EQUAL sand for this tire either.

 

[Badger]

something that you might want to do is get the eqaul out of the tire and uses these

Centramatic.com

video of how it works

 

[str8axleguy]

I have tried the equal in a couple sets of tires, in my personal opinion it doesn't work very well. I had a set of 36 tsl radials with equal and they were terrible, i ended up paying to have it sucked out and the tires normally balanced. In my opinion it is better to avoid equal because it just doesn't work>

 

[Badger]

actually equal works its all about what type of tire you put it in .it doesn't respond well to large soft tires.now when placed in a smaller stiffer tire it works wonders.

 

[str8axleguy]

I also ran equal in a set of tsl 33" and it wasn't very good either. My Buddy runs it in his pro comp mt 33" and it seems to work ok but it's in a cj that doesn't go much over 55 or so. I don't doubt that it works for some tires but i personally haven't had good luck with it in tsl's.

 

[Greg]

What you saying is going on doest sound right at all. I took my used 37 MTRs to Schwabs and after about 3 trys with ea one they had it figured out without using sand and only using inside bead wieghts. I think the worse one was a rear at almost a pound of counter balance.

But a 37" MTR is a far cry from a 38" TSL SX. Those tires are exact opposites in my book.

 

[WJL]

My MTR's 37 balanced well on Center Line Hellcats. When I had 36 Sxs on them was horible, lots and lots of weight. They also flat spotted and never were really balanced. Put the Sx on bead locks and never attempted to balance not worth the money.
Swampers SX are one hell of a tire for off road, street tire no way (at least that size and style.
Also after all the time spent getting balanced wait till a tire gets chuncked up or loses some of it lugs, there goes the balance.

Good Luck

 

[Badcop]

But a 37" MTR is a far cry from a 38" TSL SX. Those tires are exact opposites in my book.

I agree, was just throwing out the example.

Like was said already, it depends on the tire as to how well it will work.

Ive had TSL's that I could never get even close, and Boggers that toook 3oz to balance, theres also the depending on size and total outer weight of the tire, I used the MTR since it too is a heavy SOB on the lug side much like TSL, yes different compounds to make them, but still under the similar design.

For the original post, Id suggest ditching the Equal and have them try a combo of stick ons and lip weights to see if they can get it closer.

 

[ut4x4Bronco]

Well its going on two weeks of hassel with the TSL/SX's. They ordered new tires and replaced the tires and balanced them again. They insist on using equal tho. I picked it up this afternoon and I still get the death wobble. One thing I noticed is two wheels are loaded with weights and two wheels dont have weights, when I asked they explained the ones without weights have equal. I have asked them to use weights and ditch the equal. I left it with them so they can work on them next week, this is crazy.

 

[WJL]

Sounds like they have not got a clue on what they are doing.
Jerking you around?