I took my new Wheel Smith rims and old tires (Cooper Cobras Radial GT, with about 500 miles on them) to get them mounted and balanced on my new rims. I didn’t want go down go my local discount tire store to have my new rims damaged so I found a local RNR store that specialize in custom rims and tires. I had to make an appointment a week in advance to get this done and things didn’t go according to plan. Two out of four of the tires they couldn’t get to balance stating that they thought the rims were bent. You could see a slight wobble but to me it did not seem excessive. When I got home, I ran an indicator on the rim, on both sides of the rim in the axial and radial positions. Now the tire is still mounted so I can’t get to the bead area which is the proper place to get the measurements so these measurements were taken as close to the bead area as possible. The worst I had was less than .060”. The other rim they couldn’t get to balance was less then .045”. I tried one of the rims that they were able to balance and that was also out about .050”. All there measurements were TIR (total indicator reading).
I called Wheel Smith and they said that their tolerance both axially and radially is .030” collectively, meaning you don’t count little bumps and dips, which is something I didn’t account for. Then he asked if the mechanic removed the tire, installed it 180° out and tried to rebalance. I wasn’t there so I couldn’t answer that question. I suspect that he didn’t since he didn’t say so.
I had these tires balanced before on the old rims. If I recall correctly, one tire required a bit more weight to get it in spec.
Looking for insight/advice to evaluate my next step.
Last edited by Phak1; 08/14/2024 1:21 AM.
