Group 2 in Magnolia. Talk to Chris about the issue.

Wow, lots of great suggestions!

So here's what I did yesterday, I started calling some of the local tire shops to see what kind of balancer they had. I remembered seeing a brand new Discount Tire shop going in about 5 miles from me, so I loaded up the tires and wheels to go see what they had to say.

As luck would have it, I drove up and spotted 4 brand new Hunter balancers inside the shop. I walked in and was greeted by a guy with grey hair... I told him what I had and my supicions that one of thier competor's shops had not balanced my tires and rims correctly. He said bring them on in and we will take a look.

About 25 minutes later he was loading my tires and wheels back in my truck for me. Sure enough, he said that when he checked them that one was right on (about one ounce of weight) and the other three were off by quite a bit. He also said it looked like the other shop had just added and added weight at various places to get them to sort of balance out. I saw him pop the bead and spin the tire on at least two of the three to get better results.

He ended up removing a total of 12 ounces of weight from the three wheels and I saw that he added weight mostly to the inside (close to the spokes) of the wheel rather than just to the far inside of the wheels. He mentioned that the machine and process he uses balances on two planes so that less weight is needed.

The icing on the cake was when I asked how much I owed him... zip, zero, nada!
He said just tell your friends we are open for business!

So the question was asked in some of the posts why worry about it?
Well, here's the answer, my suspicons were confirmed, they were not balanced right... it just did not make sense to me that my wheels would go that far out of balance in five years. The last time I put tires on the car there was very little weight used and I could not make sense of having to add that much weight to a light set of wheels.

I also learned that it is important to go to the experts, not just any shop even for something as common as having tires mounted! That is also why I have learned through this board, John Walker, Wayne's 101 projects book and on my own how to do just about everything to my 72 from dropping the motor and transmission to adjusting the MFI system.

I'm very thankful for all the knowledge available here!!

Somebody deserves a box o' doughnuts.

And a flat of beer on Friday afternoon at about 4:30.
Good to find great service!

I think most, if not all, fairly recent machines will balance good enough if and this is a big if....
the machine is functioning and calibrated correctly and the operator knows what he/she is doing.
I think you just ran into some combination of these two likely issues. The tire business, I guess, is not enjoying big margins... or at least not enough to train and keep good workers. I know that on the average the machiines are not well kept. E.g. the pads to protect the inner surface of the rims are almost always worn out or missing. Any way this whole subject is sort of a pet peve of mine... and almost got me to buy my own change and balance machines. The good news for you is you didn't have bent wheels or messed up tires and you are now in good shape. I would have been tempted to shove a $20 in his pocket and also refer any and all that you can.

We got a fairly new Discount Tire store that opened up about five miles away also, in Edmonds on Aurora across from the Costco...'

Have we met at Triple XXX meets before?
SmileWavy

Wolfe,
Not yet, but some month soon I hope!
I've wanted to go to one of the get togethers and just have not made it yet.
I'm hoping to make a run with Rich Lambert and his awesome SWB, man that car is nice!

This Saturday.
Be there. SmileWavy

Skip, now I understand what you were talking about in your e-mail this morning. I'm going to order some new tires this week and I'll take them to your new Discount Tire to have them mounted...in Arlington? Do I just ask for the old guy?

If you're up for it, and I don't have to work this weekend, maybe we can caravan to XXX. I won't be in the 911 (no damm gas tank support yet), but the Boxster's kind of a Porsche.

I've had good luck with a few different Discount Tire locations. The one close to me back in Orlando even did a special presentation at a PCA meeting. They treated us very good and most of the track guys all used them for tires.