How do you guys balance your bashing tires?

[Jluther@becoinc]

I have read a lot that you guys balance your tires. What method or contraption are you using. I’d like to balance my backflips don’t really know a reliable way to do it. What do you use for weights as well? Thanks

 

[GraniteFox]

I do not balance my tires. Just make sure the inside holes on the rim are covered with tape and the tire itself is vented. This way nothing can get in to cause balance problems. I think the speed guys balance tires for high speed runs.

 

[Sandracer_NL]

I have read a lot that you guys balance your tires. What method or contraption are you using. I’d like to balance my backflips don’t really know a reliable way to do it. What do you use for weights as well? Thanks

I don’t balance them. but do what @GraniteFox does. You could balance your tires by putting your car on a box or something so that the wheels or off the ground. Take one of the rear dogbones out and put the link back together without the dogbone. Now the wheel hex can spin freely. If you put a wheel on spin it. When the wheel stops the heaviest point is pointing downwards. You can put some tape or car lead (for balancing 1:1 cars) at the 12 o’clock in the rim. Spin again to see if it needs more balancing.

 

[21STalion]

I use a Hudy tire balancer

https://www.amainhobbies.com/hudy-universal-tire-balancing-station-hud105500/p31006

It can barely do truggy tires but the monster tires are too big. So I attach build the balancer backwards and clamp it to the table and balance it off the edge.

The process I use to balance is simple. Spin the built wheel assembly three times to a complete stop and mark with a paint pen (on the side) near the highest point.

After three dots are made you can clearly see where the tire is heaviest and I use either a lead peel and stick wheel weight, or more recent, "dumdum" which is a black RV window sealer material, like clay, but doesn't dry or rot away.

I moved away from lead weights because while it's fine on a monster truck type vehicle, some of the smaller wheels can touch the wheel weight because of such little clearance.

Keep repeating the process until the wheel seems to spin for abnormally long, then your really close to balanced.

You don't need to use a special balancer. You can use the car, just remove the dog bone and make it all level.

You can see I mark in paint pen the shape of the weight so if it falls off i can easily replace.

Since i moved to dumdum i haven't needed it.


Good luck!

 

[Hector_Fisher]

I don't have a balance stand. I use the hub removed from the truck like @21STalion mentioned. I have used gorilla tape on the inside of the wheel for balancing. Doesn't change a wobbly wheel, but it does improve vibrations. I had to do it to my kaiju tires since they were pretty bad out of the box. Nice thing is that you can add layer by layer as needed to get balance.

 

[Clubin]

Lol. Don’t waste your time. Nothing will stay put. Plus bashing packs the rims with what ever your driving in.

More important is to plug vent holes in rims and vent the tires.

Lol. Don’t waste your time. Nothing will stay put. Plus bashing packs the rims with what ever your driving in.

More important is to plug vent holes in rims and vent the tires.

 

[21STalion]

Lol. Don’t waste your time. Nothing will stay put. Plus bashing packs the rims with what ever your driving in.

More important is to plug vent holes in rims and vent the tires.

I've never lost a dumdum balance. But its true the balance changes as you bash and pack with dirt. Just clean your wheels after the run and rebalance if it gets wobbly.
This is dumdum

 

[parcou]

I have read a lot that you guys balance your tires. What method or contraption are you using. I’d like to balance my backflips don’t really know a reliable way to do it. What do you use for weights as well? Thanks

I do balance

Would it be OK if I didn't sure. Man, these tires are soo off the balance if you spin one I personally just like to make sure that all spin evenly out of the package they are out of round. I use weight balance tape. As the others posted many ways to spin them, no stand is really needed.

I am bashing so I could get away without it but I'm OCD wired that way and do it....go figure!

 

[Clubin]

These tires aren’t belted. Don’t spin true. The foams aren’t perfect.

Speed tuners with foam or belted tires manufactured to higher standards yes, balancing is nescessary. Bashers. Never.

 

[PeighDay]

I take the dogbone out of one side either front or back and then place a wheel back onto the rig. Spin the wheel gently and you will see it stop at one spot kind of rocking back and forth. At the bottom of the wheel is where the heavy spot is at. I use loctite blue Fun-tak and just use some small amount at first to see if it fixes the issues. You might have to place it in two spots but generally one side is enough. It’s not perfect but it works and it’s cheap.

 

[SlooDon]

I use this one from my racing days.....with clay as the weight.....

https://www.amainhobbies.com/team-a...MIntHtjZSg-gIVCLLICh3UsQ1XEAQYASABEgJpUfD_BwE

 

[Jluther@becoinc]

I use this one from my racing days.....with clay as the weight.....

https://www.amainhobbies.com/team-a...MIntHtjZSg-gIVCLLICh3UsQ1XEAQYASABEgJpUfD_BwE

Thanks guys! If a guy can’t balance a tire after all these great examples he is out of luck and a dumdum lol. Taking a rear axle out makes perfect sense. Can’t believe I never thought of that. You guys are great thanks!

 

[jkflow]

Balancing and bashing? Not sure what you will gain.
Dirt cakes up on mine while running and that alone would throw off any balancing. Yes, I clean after the runs, but not during.

 

[SrC]

I use a TA wheel balancer. Doing this on the rig's rear hub works also (axel removed) if you have good BB's at the hub to begin with. I use cheaply had Hobby Clay. Large MT tires can take quite a bit of clay to get them balanced enough. It is not a perfect science. But a balance does work if just close enough.
I always balance no matter the tire/wheel. Even my 1/10 TC Foams.
If you power up your rig on a stand on the bench, you will see how violent the imbalance is, the suspension will shake like crazy. The worst wheel will even be obvious. This is NG!! And bad for the tire and foams. Can cause blow outs. Also, always check the Gluing, even when new out the package. FWIW. Some premounts just suck. Minimal glue is used. Glue first before doing any balance. I usually breakin New tires first before doing my balance. So the foams will settle evenly. Most cases out the package they are not. This is one part of the balance issue.
A needed balance is especially obvious with Large MT tires. And they usually take very much weight. Balancing is not snake oil.
Just like scale cars, the wheels need to be balanced. And RC wheels are not mfr'ed precisely like scale cars. Some RC tires are so out of balance that it is like having a Scale car wheel with 2 pounds of unbalance. Hard to drive a car this way. Just because we don't sit inside our RC rigs. Doesn't mean the imbalance is not there and noticeable. Driveablility takes a hit. Especially if you run your rig faster than 35+mph. An unbalanced tire creates stress to many of the suspension components. Can even cause a rig to steer/drift L or R inconsistently. Hard to drive straight.
Been there.

 

[Hector_Fisher]

I will agree with what others said above. I don't balance out of habit, i balance out of necessity. I can tell the backflips I have on my Kraton are somewhat unbalanced. When i do full speed passes on the street, it gets pretty bad and can affect controllability. But I hardly ever do full speed passes on the street, so it doesn't really affect my driving and I didn't balance them. The kaiju tires on the other hand were noticeably out of balance, and it affected the kaiju's predictability in the air. Not to mention it was bad enough to where i was concerned it might cause issues on the drivetrain long term from excessive shaking.

Since none of us FEEL the shakes from unbalanced wheels, i'd say balance if you need to for your use case (if it affects your RC experience in some way) and if it doesn't, i wouldn't bother.

 

[SrC]

I will agree with what others said above. I don't balance out of habit, i balance out of necessity. I can tell the backflips I have on my Kraton are somewhat unbalanced. When i do full speed passes on the street, it gets pretty bad and can affect controllability. But I hardly ever do full speed passes on the street, so it doesn't really affect my driving and I didn't balance them. The kaiju tires on the other hand were noticeably out of balance, and it affected the kaiju's predictability in the air. Not to mention it was bad enough to where i was concerned it might cause issues on the drivetrain long term from excessive shaking.

Since none of us FEEL the shakes from unbalanced wheels, i'd say balance if you need to for your use case (if it affects your RC experience in some way) and if it doesn't, i wouldn't bother.

Place the rig on a stand and throttle her up, If one or more of the wheels shakes violently causing the control arms to shake violently, you know you have to do a balance. That simple. I guaranty your MT tires will be all jacked up out of balance. Just do all of them.
Balancing is not any new RC concept. It's old as the RC hills. An Unbalanced wheel and tire makes for a shortlived one. That simple. Don't most of here own real scale cars????

>>>Best Trued/straight wheels always go on the front. i.e Bent/most wobbly wheels go at the rear, even though they are all balanced as best can be. A damaged wobbly wheel is different than an Unbalanced wheel. Balancing a wobbly wheel does not make it unwobbly. Wheel "runout"/ getting bent happens with hard bashing. Some new wheels out the package can even be wobbly/bent. Arrma OE wheels are notorious among others. I find that Track Truggy and Buggy wheels tend to be the most Centric out the package. Dished wheels are better than spoked wheels.
Racers tend to buy many wheels and use only the best trued straight wheels, then balance them. RC wheels are not precision stuff, unfortunately considering how expensive they are. And don't last long at all. RC wheels and tires generate much profit for the Surface RC industry.

 

[Hector_Fisher]

Place the rig on a stand and throttle her up, If one or more of the wheels shakes violently causing the control arms to shake violently, you know you have to do a balance. That simple. I guaranty your MT tires will be all jacked up out of balance. Just do all of them.
Balancing is not any new RC concept. It's old as the RC hills.

I mean to say that I think there is a point of diminishing returns. I worked for many years as a tire tech and I know there is a threshold for when you can feel an unbalanced wheel/tire. Even an out of balance tire may not be enough to not affect your driving experience. Just depends on your sensitivity and amount of imbalance. I'd wager the same goes for RCs. I'd say that if an unbalanced wheel/tire doesn't impact your driving experience in some way, then i don't think there is a reason to balance it or even chase a perfect balance. A "that'll do" mentality will likely work well here. Those racing or speed running (where imbalance will very much affect driving experience) will want to spend extra time to make sure things are balance precisely and accurately: out of necessity.

The other problem, as i mentioned above, is that even when the you balance the tires, they can still be out of round and cause vibrations (as is evidenced in my balance Kaiju wheels). But that is perhaps another thread