How important is it to balance?

PhilFausz · **Posted:** Thu Jun 10, 2004 6:47 pm

A fellow club member was gracious enough to give me his old race rubber. They're a couple years old and probably only have a few events left in them, so I want to know... should I balance these? We're talking 205x55 R14's. If it comes down to balancing... I'll just run the azenies.

Thanks!

phil

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Thu Jun 10, 2004 8:52 pm

For autocross tires it's basically a waste of money.

Scott

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Thu Jun 10, 2004 9:35 pm

scottjohnson wrote:

For autocross tires it's basically a waste of money.
Scott

Unless it shakes so badly at autocross speeds . . . or at street speeds if you drive on them to the events . . . that you can't stand it.

PhilFausz · **Posted:** Fri Jun 11, 2004 7:18 am

Thanks!

Dan Ecclestone · **Posted:** Fri Jun 11, 2004 8:42 am

What a timely topic. I just noticed one of my kumho V700's is showing a small trace of cord, so it's time to flip them. In the past when I've had tires flipped I didn't have them balanced and never had a problem. It so much cheaper not to balance, in fact I've used Wal Mart in the past b/c they only charge $3 per tire to mount

My only concern with using Wal Mart is risk of damage to my stock BBS rims when they try to squeeze those 255's back on.

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Sun Jun 13, 2004 3:19 am

I mount and balance my own with a friend at the community college garage. The azenis I had did have a bit of vibration at low speeds. But it wasn't bad. I prefer to have them balanced though. Just because i'm anal that the vibration would interfere with my feel for the car. I think balancing is a good idea.

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Mon Jun 14, 2004 8:01 am

An out of balance tire will only vibrate at certain frequencies, fortunately in an autocross environment the speed is never constant, so it's kind of hard to set of the resonance condition for the vibration to occur. It could be unpleasant when driving out to lunch, but other than that a tire which isn't balanced shouldn't even be noticable at an autocross.

Scott

Tom Hoppe · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:16 am **Posts:** 387

I've never balanced pure autox tires. From the Hoosiers and Kumhos in DS, to the Azenis we are on now. Its a waste of time.

-Tom

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Wed Jun 23, 2004 6:28 pm

My philosophy is why spend big $$$ for lightweight wheels then stick a 1/2# of lead on them?

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Wed Jun 23, 2004 9:10 pm

I always balance mine, yet I'm pretty picky when it comes to car setup. Just ask Bryan - AB

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