BFG tyre balance

Richard Brookman vaguely muttered something like ...

Nothing lasts forever .. and with 'large' tyres it's very hard to keep them in balance, it's a reasonably well-known problem, and not really that unusual.

For the cost of re-balancing every 10k miles it's probably worth it .. ;)

Richard Hi,

May I suggest you have a look here?

Take care Pantelis

In message , Richard Brookman writes

I've had quite a problem balancing the BFG MTs on my Defender. General opinion is that it may actually be the wheels at fault. I'm waiting till the tyres need replacing to find out - only done 53k.

On or around Tue, 5 Oct 2004 16:55:01 +0000 (UTC), "Richard Brookman" enlightened us thusly:

fscked rim? have they tried dismounting the tyre and putting the rim on the balancer by itself?

A bent rim will hardly show up on the balancer - not only is it a fairly small proportion of the assembled mass but it's all in at a small distance. I've had rims with a visible 8mm bend that show as perfect when balanced alone. More likely is an improperly seated tyre bead that moves over time.

BFG have a current safety recall here in Australia on a range of 4x4 tyres.

Quote from the newspaper notice

"BFGoodrich has decided to voluntarily recall a limited number of 4x4 tyres in Australia (aprox 500) after it's quality system alerted the company to a condition initially affecting ride quality, but could possibly result in steel belt seperation if not addressed."

Remember the Firestone/Explorer debarcle in the USA.

I believe they are replacing affected tyres regardless of wear. Be nice to get a new set to replace an 80% worn set. :-)

Austin Shackles wrote > >of external damage. The only thing I can see is that the ATs are wearing

Never thought of this, Austin, thanks. It might explain the difficulty in getting the tyres balanced in the first place, but I can't see how an out-of-balance rim would manifest itself as a steering wobble only 10K miles later. I'll get this looked into next time I have the tyres looked at (which may well be at replacement time)

Cheers

Rich

Agreed, especially as they charged me less than a tenner for two wheels, and it took the guy a good half hour.

I'd heard that big tyres are hard to balance, but my set of Trac-Edges on the 90 lasted right through on the initial balance done by Nene Valley on purchase. Perhaps the 90 was so rough that I didn't notice :-)

Thanks

Rich

Hi Pantelis

I have an aversion to putting anything inside a tyre apart from fresh air - too many horror stories from those instant "repairs" and fluids that slosh about and do more harm than good. I am especially careful about a tyre that's holding up one corner of a 2.25 tonne vehicle at (potentially) 125mph/200kph.

Have you used this product? Is it any good?

Regards

Rich

Richard Hi,

I have NOT tested or tried it but it appears very interesting.

What I have tried though and it really did work was a pair of active balancers for the front and rear propshafts on the Discovery of a very good friend which had severe vibration problems between the 80 and 120 Kph speed range.

The problem disappeared altogether just by fitting those rings around the propshafts. Active balancing is a very interesting proposal for vibration related problems.

Take care Pantelis

On or around 6 Oct 2004 01:11:07 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk (Richard Brookman) enlightened us thusly:

could also be a buckled wheel, which makes a wobble without being off-balance. Although balancing shouldn't affect that. Sometimes removing and reseating the tyre at a different point will make a significant difference.