aftermarket wheel centering???

My wheels have the conical shaped lugs, definately lug centric. My vibrations at higher speeds may be amplified by the fact that my unibody has no roof. Im sure it makes the ride and suspension more sensitive to balance and alignment. Im anxious to see if hub centric rings help. I wish I knew about these 15 years ago. Thanks for your input.

 

The lug-centric 200s wheels that I used on my '01 F150 never gave any trouble like you describe. I have noticed that I am getting vibration that I didn't have before on my daily driver '00 Ranger when I put the '95 Cobra R wheels back on for the summer but I attributed it to alignment and I haven't had time to get it checked out yet. They are lug-centric as well. Please keep us posted as I am interested in the cause

 

I will post the reslts for Ya'll as soon as I get them on the car. Im having trouble figuring out the size I need. I hope to have a set ordered today.

Nice truck!

 

What a mess this is turning out to be. The tire shop has ordered a set of rings for me but I have serious doubts that they are the correct size. I have spent days scouring the internet for a hub bore for my wheels. I cant find anything on the wheels I have and I think I now know why . I spoke to a technical support person at Summit today. My wheels are lug centric and are not made for a hub centric ring, although it appears you can install one. I continued my reasearch and have come across another tid bit of info. A lug centric wheel was machined to do just that, center the wheel on the lugs. There is a chance that the center bore is not an accurate center for the wheel. Im certain my vibration is wheel/ tire related, especially since the tire shop rebalance the wheels and actually made it worse. They told me the balance was off on all 4 wheels and they rebalanced them using the hub bore, not the lug bores. I think they were balanced on the lugs previously which would confirm my new concern that the wheel hub bores are not accurate. I have ordered a set of rings myself to try, but Im not optomistic at this point. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do?

 

Hey Don, I'm going to offer a suggestion that I've seen people use to great effect for balancing stubborn wheels.

The new styles of airsoft pellets use a polymer that stands up to high temperatures extremely well. They also come in a very uniformed size and weight. So what you do is get several thousand of them, and a scale. You weigh out 4 equal portions of the pellets, then pour them into your tires. Then install your tires. As you drive down the road the pellets move around inside your tire and naturally balance all 4 tires.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/gene...e-balancing-including-charts-calculators.html

That link is for trucks but.. I'll look for one for cars too.

The basic principles I guess are just take the amount of weight you would use to balance and use that much weight in pellets instead.

 

Even if the wheels are not hub-centric, one side or the other of the bore is usually true center for the purpose of balancing the assembly and for machining. Our balancer has adapters that use the lugs and a cone to center the assembly on the machine. If they put the cone on the inside and its true center is on the outside, that could be the problem. I prefer to use both methods to mount the assembly for a better balance. A road force measuring machine will also tell you if it's grossly off center. You might need a different shop.

By the way, if the inner part of the bore isn't truely center, you will create a mess if it's off enough to run up the lugnuts off center. At the least you are likely to damage the wheel.

 

I actually stopped by our local speed shop today. Im dropping the wheels off in the morning. Hopefully they can figure it out. Im thinking the reason I am having trouble finding info on hub rings is because they are nonsense. Good thing I only paid ten bucks. Thanks for the suggestions guys!

 

When I searched on it, never knew before, the first link stated that hub rings are necessary.

http://tires.about.com/od/understanding_wheels/a/hub-centric-vs-lug-centric-wheels.htm

I mean, apparently without hub rings you can warp the lug nuts and get an ever worsening vibration.

 

If you can find an old tire shop have your wheels balanced on the car. They will spin the wheel with an electric motor and the strobe light will tell them where to add weights. This will balance the brake drum/rotor along with the tire. If the tire is out of round have them shave it to be true. I had a set done this way on a set of Stabber slotted wheels and the tires almost dry rotted before they wore out.

 

I wish I knew of a place like this where I live now. If there is an issue with the tire then I would expect replacements as they are new. Its difficult to say what the cause of the vibration is because of all the variables in play here. As for the hub centric rings, I have a set coming as early as tomorrow and I plan on trying them, if anything just for the sake of eliminating that as a cause. Im about to set up a little rig that I can set next to each wheel and with a spin, check for any imperfection in the wheel or tire. I will post a pic. Thanks again everyone.

 

That was very interesting, thanks for sharing it.:Handshake

 

I made my little jig and tested all four wheels and tires. Its very primtive but it gave me some good information. when tested on the lipof the wheel, all four wheels seemed consistant and straight. When tested on the tire tread, it showed flat spots on all four tires, some worse than others. Here is a pic of the jig. Im also uploading a short video of my test.

 

Like mentioned, I think you should take the wheels and tires to a shop that can do a road force measurement.

There is a difference between an unbalanced wheel/tire and one that produces a vibration while driving. You can balance a rotating square... but it will still give you a vibration while driving.

Here is a quickie on the process: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=40

 

Thanks, I will search for a shop that do that.

 

Well that didnt take long, I called all THREE tire shope in town. Noone does it.