No high spot mark on new tire sidewall.....???

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Recieved two brand new BFG TA's today, with absolutely no markings for the high spot on the tire. (All tires I have bought in the past have had a white paint spot that's matched up with the wheel valve stem when mounting.)

However, these tires do have a 1 inch piece of plastic tape glued to the bead, with a UPC code imprinted on it.

Is this piece of tape a high spot mark? Should I align the tape with the valve stem when mounting...?

Thanks,
TLR
 
Some do some don't. If there's no mark, mfgr. considers them not to need it. Find something else to worry about. Plastic tag is barcode. They will occasionally cause bead leak. We don't normally remove as leak occurance just isn't that frequent(and their often a biach to get off). But if you have nothing better to do, pull 'em off.

Bob
 
OK, thanks guys. I'll ignore the fact there's no marking.

I bought this same exact tire a couple of years ago, and they did have the marks. These don't, so I guess the mfg process has been improved.....
 
Allow me to fill in the gaps:

Many - but not all - vehicle manufacturers require the tire manufacturers to mark the radial force variation 1st harmonic high point. Each vehicle manufacturer has its own requirement as to what the mark is supposed to be.

Ford uses a flourescent green oval shaped sticker applied near the bead

GM doesn't use them

BMW wants a white dot

etc.

This mark is matched up to the low point of the wheel - and the valve hole is frequently drilled where this occurs - but not always!!

The net effect is that the assembly is.....ah.......let's say "rounder". That isn't quite right, but it's close enough for visualizing what is going on.

It is fairly unusual for non-OE tires to be marked.

And it is not uncommon for some of the OE tire inventory to be sold in the open market - and those would probably have marks.

BUT, there are also marks on the sidewall that have nothing to do with force variation.

Some are balance marks - lining those up with the valve hole wouldn't help anything.

Some are inspection marks - just indicating the tire was looked at.

If I were you, I wouldn't read much into their presence or their absence.
 
Here is some information I've gathered. It written in a 2002 post by Trent of TireRack.com.

Bridgestone: Yellow dot = High Point Radial Force
Dunlop: Red dot = High Point Radial Force
Falken: Red dot = High Point Radial Force, Yellow = Lightweight point
Firestone: White Circle or Yellow tag = High Point Radial Force
General: Paint dot or Green tag = High Point Radial Force
Goodyear: Green tag = High Point Radial Force
BFGoodrich: Yellow dot = High Point Radial Force
Pirelli: Yellow mark = Lightweight point
Sumitomo: Red Mark = High Point Radial Force, Yellow mark = Lightweight point
Yokohama: Red Mark = High Point Radial Force, Yellow mark = Lightweight point
 
Isn't all of this thrown out/moot IF one does a true 'road force' balance??
Since the tire is first moved multiple times (if necessary) on the wheel to get the best starting balance point befeore weights are even added.
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Kestas,

I'm sorry to tell you this, but at least some of the information Trent gave you was ABSOLUTELY wrong - even for the timeframe involved.

I don't think I would believe much of what he told you.
 
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That's strange, I really thought I had a good source. I sent an e-mail to Luke at TireRack to see if he can give us what we need, or add to what you already know.

I've got my own tire changer and balancer, so now I'm keen on getting such information.
 
Kestas,

I hate to say this, but I am a bit closer to this than the folks at Tire Rack.

While I can't be sure about other manufacturers, but I am sure about the one I work for. And my spies say that it is difficult to get a truly consistent answer even within a given tire manufacturer. (Hint: Tire Rack would only get an answer from their tire suppliers that was consistent for the tires they get - and I am sure the answer you got from Trent wasn't the result of them asking their suppliers - because in one case that would have been yours truly - and that was not the answer they would have gotten.)

So maybe some of the list is correct, but I suspect it is at best 50% correct.
 
Thanks, CR. It's good to have an expert such as yourself to sift through the information.

It's kind of strange to have manufacturers put marks on the tires with no source of information as to what the marks mean.

I've got two new Kumho tires with red dots on the sidewall ready to mount. I've measured the light spot on the rims. Do I line them up?
 
Kestas,

If you mount the tires with the red dots at the valve hole, what's the worst that could happen? You've may have done nothing - and certainly nothing bad.

So go for it.

Just remember the valve hole may or may not have been purposely drilled there, and the dots might not mean what you think.
 
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