Don't trust your local tyre fitter....

Jev88 said:
It takes more time than most fitters want to take. Mark the wheel first. Fit tyre and balance, mark wheel and tyre, move tyre 90 degrees and measure again.... You can work out by what weight now needed and where according to the balance machine. If weight required goes up you are moving the wrong way. Weight required goes down, you have moved the heavy points apart.
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And the difference in the end result would be? Apart from a lot more work and time and thus cost for the tyre fitter.

Surely the wheel would still be balanced, a little more weight perhaps but what difference would that make.
 
matamoros said:
And the difference in the end result would be? Apart from a lot more work and time and thus cost for the tyre fitter.

Surely the wheel would still be balanced, a little more weight perhaps but what difference would that make.
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You ask it like it is my idea 😁. The Less weights added to a wheel the smoother it should run/rotate.
 
Jev88 said:
You ask it like it is my idea 😁. The Less weights added to a wheel the smoother it should run/rotate.
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My understanding is that if the wheel is dynamically balanced then it is balanced and should run smoothly.
We are not talking about kilo's of extra weight.
 
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matamoros said:
My understanding is that if the wheel is dynamically balanced then it is balanced and should run smoothly.
We are not talking about kilo's of extra weight.
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You are when doing 70mph. I forget the calculations but it’s surprising at speed how much weight adds up.

Even a few grams can make the entire steering rack and wheel wobble with someone’s hands on as well.

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Jev88 said:
It takes more time than most fitters want to take. Mark the wheel first. Fit tyre and balance, mark wheel and tyre, move tyre 90 degrees and measure again.... You can work out by what weight now needed and where according to the balance machine. If weight required goes up you are moving the wrong way. Weight required goes down, you have moved the heavy points apart.
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Wheel heavy spot is invariably the location of the valve. Most tyres have a coloured dot on the sidewall to indicate the light spot. Align dot & valve then add balance weights as needed.
 
Googlebot said:
You are when doing 70mph. I forget the calculations but it’s surprising at speed how much weight adds up.

Even a few grams can make the entire steering rack and wheel wobble with someone’s hands on as well.
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Yes it can.......when it's out of dynamic balance.........that's why you have wheels dynamically balanced.
 
Jev88 said:
I really, really should have known better, trusting a commercial tyre fitter to replace a ruined tyre and switch out with spare wheel I had been running.
He went off to check torque settings and used his gun to start the nuts and then moved on to torque wrench to finish - 7 nuts all good and you guessed it - last nut SNAP!

Duncan from Star Spangled Spanner to the rescue sourcing me 8 new studs and luckily a commercial truck station opposite the tyre dealer is willing to take the studs out and fit new (fingers crossed we can still get away for the weekend).

I am well aware that tyre fitters often don't even bother to use torque wrenches and blast them on with the gun, but despite requesting the torque wrench I wrongly assumed he had a clue about what that setting should be.
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The local Tyrebarn that I use hasn’t used an air wrench for several years now. They use cordless wrench to remove nuts and a hand torque to tighten wheels on refitting them.
 
andy63 said:
Any time I've had the wheels on car or mh worked on at any tyre place I always check and redo when I get it home..
Pretty well every time they are on far to tight.. thats just instinctive..I seldom use a torque wrench for wheel nuts but have on the odd occasion just checked the feel with a torque wrench especially if it's a vehicle I've not worked on before.. but once I get the feel of it never found the need for torqueing wheel nuts.
Andy
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It makes you wonder why the manufacturers go to the trouble of doing all the R and D really doesn't when you can just a bit of a guess and know you've got it right
 
Grummyb said:
It makes you wonder why the manufacturers go to the trouble of doing all the R and D really doesn't when you can just a bit of a guess and know you've got it right
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I think its called personal experience..
Something which appears to be going out of fashion in a lot of trades ..and as I said the same so called professional in my experience over do the wheel nut tightening .. you could be left stuck at the roadside not able to remove your wheel with the supplied tools.. if you didn't take the trouble to check.. and as I said I have checked the book ..I know what the right torque feels like ..served me well enough up till now and I'm happy and confident enough to trust that still👍
Andy
 
Jev88 said:
I really, really should have known better, trusting a commercial tyre fitter to replace a ruined tyre and switch out with spare wheel I had been running.
He went off to check torque settings and used his gun to start the nuts and then moved on to torque wrench to finish - 7 nuts all good and you guessed it - last nut SNAP!

Duncan from Star Spangled Spanner to the rescue sourcing me 8 new studs and luckily a commercial truck station opposite the tyre dealer is willing to take the studs out and fit new (fingers crossed we can still get away for the weekend).

I am well aware that tyre fitters often don't even bother to use torque wrenches and blast them on with the gun, but despite requesting the torque wrench I wrongly assumed he had a clue about what that setting should be.
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Torque is cheap......
 
Jev88 said:
If you spin a wheel on its own it would need a corrective weight opposite the "heavy point" as no wheel is perfectly made. Spin a tyre on its own and it would not be equally weighted all round either. Stick the heaviest point of the tyre next to the heaviest point of the wheel and you need a big weight to balance it on the opposite side. If you rotate the wheel so heavy points are opposite each other that would negate each other somewhat.
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I was once told the coloured dot on a tyre should be fitted where the voice is.

Can’t for the life of me remember why but think it was a weight thing.

edit just seen tonyidle post 👍😊

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Gromitandvan said:
The local Tyrebarn that I use hasn’t used an air wrench for several years now. They use cordless wrench to remove nuts and a hand torque to tighten wheels on refitting them.
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I always use a torque wrench.

I even torque up with the wheels off the ground 😉😊
 
Jev88 and M-J, I too use Apex Tyres, and have done since the early 90s, run by father Geoff and son Mark, though Geoff only now when Mark goes on holiday.
I did have to voice my concerns only the once, when they had five of the six wheels on the Hymer off the ground............whilst on sloping tarmac. I promptly jumped in and sat with my foot on the brake pedal until they were finished. I did get an apology from the senior fitter at the time who was overseeing the work of others, so I didn't take it any further.

The Lord Squid said:
Post #16, somewhat cryptically.
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Yes, very, but I am glad that tonyidle came along to explain, as I now appreciate it is something I should have already known. :doh:
Cheers,

Jock. :)
 
JockandRita said:
Jev88 and M-J, I too use Apex Tyres, and have done since the early 90s, run by father Geoff and son Mark, though Geoff only now when Mark goes on holiday.
I did have to voice my concerns only the once, when they had five of the six wheels on the Hymer off the ground............whilst on sloping tarmac. I promptly jumped in and sat with my foot on the brake pedal until they were finished. I did get an apology from the senior fitter at the time who was overseeing the work of others, so I didn't take it any further.


Yes, very, but I am glad that tonyidle came along to explain, as I now appreciate it is something I should have already known. :doh:
Cheers,

Jock. :)
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Geoff passed away November last year.
 
A few years back we had a puncture on a very remote campsite in Wales.
We could not remove the wheel it had been done up so tight.

Eventually we called the RAC, who called in the local expert, he arrived with a wheel wrench welded to a 6' scaffold pole.
It took two of us bouncing on the end to get off the bolts!

The RAC man had the tool made by the local blacksmith as he regularly used it to remove rusted up tractor wheels.

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Not used it in anger yet, but I just received this 58:1 torque multiplier as I have some tractor wheels to remove next week. It'll make a change from the scaffolding pole approach !
Bought it from the bay of thieves for £43, the Snap On one I borrowed from my old workplace last year cost nearly £600.
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I had new tyres fitted recently to the Motorhome. When I got home found weights on rear wheels weren’t knocked on correctly. So I knock them on, after a going to the Thetford Bash I noticed one weight had moved again and the other rear had lost the weight. Checked fronts and inside massive amount of weights in 2 groups.
Took it back to Formula 1 and they rebalanced all, hardly any weight on front now . Blaming the apprentice, he must of been chasing his own weights
 
Had a set of four tyres fitted yesterday at National Tyres Peterborough.
I can report that they did everything by the book.
I could not fault their fitting staff.
I would use them again without hesitation.

Geoff
 

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