Originally Posted By: Craig in Canada
Originally Posted By: SubLGT
The last time I had a Hunter road force balance done, they used a single clip on weight only, on the inside lip of the wheel.
Using only one weight and having it always on the inside isn't a proper balance, IMO.
The Hunter (and other machines) can be set for single plane and dual plane. I've heard two stories:
1) there's a government "environmental" program underway to "reduce lead in landfill" and tire shops are setting their machines for single plane to reduce lead use.
2) lots of people don't know how to properly set up a complicated machine like the Hunter and they are unknowingly running in single plane mode thinking they're doing a bang up job.
If 1, I think a recycling program would be a lot more effective than having millions of improperly balanced tires on the road. I think it's B.S.
I believe #2 a lot more. I was balancing at my BMW dealer for a while but suddenly, one day, all my wheels kept coming back with a 1 weight on them even when I was simply checking the balance on a set of wheels that had inners and outers on all 4 when I brought them in. They played stupid - I stopped going there.
My most recent Hunter balance from an independent shop has a mix of 1 or 2 weights and the singles are sometimes inner, sometimes outer.
I've seen the screen on the Hunters, it shines a laser on the wheel on the inside and outside, and tells the operator where to place the inside weight and the outside weight. In the case of hidden stick-ons, the outside weight isn't actually going on the outside of the wheel so the final result may have vibration.
The last couple of cars I've had have had all-aluminum suspension. There's a low tolerance for road force or out of balance conditions with this set up since unsprung mass is minimized. I like my wheels as much as the next guy so I use hidden stick-ons on my summers but I won't put up with constant wheel vibration to avoid using stick on weights. Function before form.
The single weight mode is what Hunter calls "SmartWeight® balancing technology".
"SmartWeight technology typically reduces “floor-to-floor” cycle time on more than 30% of wheels balanced by using a single wheel weight to achieve the best possible static and couple balance."
".............SmartWeight balancing uses the actual static and couple forces to directly address the source of vibration, resulting in the best possible balance."
http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/features/how-3.cfm
http://www.weightsaver.com/