REFLECTOR: Nose wheel balance

[David Staten]

Al Gietzen wrote:

>
> John; I put two short lengths of AL angle across the top of a couple 
> of gallon paint cans. Shim to level, space them so the ends of the 
> axle rest on the angles, and let the wheel roll to heavy point down. 
> Attach weight opposite until it will stop at any point. See photo. 
> Worked great for me, wheel runs smooth up to 100 mph. And it’s free!
>
What you have described is "static wheel balancing". It may not work for 
everyone. Sometimes at high rotational speeds the tire will deform 
unevenly slightly due to manufacturing tolerances. A tire that is in 
balance at low rotational speeds may not necessarily be so at higher 
speeds. If you have difficulty getting a fix with this method, then go 
to a speed shop that deals with race tires and get them to spin em up 
and balance them at speed.

I will admit that with the relatively small radii of plane tires 
compared to car and truck tires, this is likely less of a problem, but 
it IS something to thing about if unable to fix it with the static method.

One other shortcoming is that the method described does not account for 
lateral balance. When putting balance weights on the rims, try to divide 
the needed weight into two portions and place one weight on each side of 
the rim. Any tire shop's device (static or dynamic) is capable of 
resolving this balance issue. Thats "cheap" to me with regards to tire 
wear and peace of mind.

Dave