Balance offroad tires, anything special? Fighting vibrations.

[Redlyne_mr2]

I have an older Mercedes G wagon and I've got a bad vibration that hits at 80km/hr and then again at 120km/hr. I've had the wheels and tire balanced at work (bmw) however I have a feeling the vibration might be driveshaft related. I've put the truck in neutral while doing 80km/hr and the vibration continues. It doesn't go away in 2H or in 4H.

Someone on the G forum mentioned I may need someone speficic to balance my wheels and tires.. is this information true?

see below..

Hi Redlyne,
looks like a wheel balance problem, finding a shop with the correct adaptors for a G is a big problem anywhere. 4x4 wheels especially need a special adaptor that mounts the wheel by the stud holes, NOT the center hole. It's the only way to eliminate remount errors. Due to the weight of an average 4x4 wheel,, when its mounted on traditional cone mount through the wheel center, there WILL be errors. I was training fitters and technicians re wheel balancing for 22 years.
When you have your wheels balanced, ask the operator to rotate the wheel 180 degrees after he has zero, It should still be zero ( or at least within 10gram imbalance). If it's more then they have not mounted the wheel correctly. Also check the inside of the wheel where it sits against the hub, I ALWAYS clean this and the hub, alloy wheels are especially prone to corrosion build up in this area, any good shop should be doing this on every vehicle.
The adaptors they will need are called "flange plate adaptors", a full kit to do all 4x4 vehicles is more than the balancing machine cost, BUT, it is the most important part of the machine, ie: where the wheel mounts. the adaptors are made in Germany by a company called Haweka. check this site http://www.haweka.co.uk/wheel_balancing.htm

I am not in the equipment or tyre trade anymore, but still get all my friends and relatives coming with vibration problems.

Hope this helps
Bob

[Tik-Tok]

I'd assume any tire guy worth his salt would know the difference between a hub-centric and "lug centric", and would balance accordingly. Does your work have a "Road Force" balancer? Tirebob has one and it fixed the imbalance in my Audi tires, that 3 other places couldn't get rid of with regular machines.

That being said, the fact it disappears and comes back, I would suspect it isn't purely a wheel imbalance, possible something else altogether or a combination of both.

[Cos]

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[se7en]

Easy peasy. first balance the wheel by itself, then check it 180 degrees after.

Then put 6-8 oz of balance beads inside the tire when mounted.

Should fix you right up.

[SKR]

I don't think I've ever had a tire vibration that doesn't just get worse with speed. I think it would be somewhere in the driveline too. Though I don't think I've ever had a driveshaft vibration and have no idea of what it would feel like.

[Cos]

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[Phuqu]

Load them up in the Ferrari and bring them over.

[boarderfatty]

^^^
Some pretty basic equipment you got there, is that just in a home garage?

Mudders are always hard to balance, using fingers instead of cones if done properly could possibly help, but unlikely, except for some plastic capped dodge oem garbage rims I rarely have to use the fingers. If you have a Hunter Road Force balancer I suggest looking for deformities in he tire or something being out of true.

After finding that out, throw in 8oz of balance beads and put the most true rim and tire combos up front.

My family has owned tire shops for the last 20 years, I have been around tires since I was 14 and have owned my two shops for the last 3 years

[Redlyne_mr2]

The front driveshaft was the culprit, had it rebuild thanks to Alpine Autowerks and the vibes are gone!