I recently bought new Yokohama Geolandar G051 235's to go on my 7-spoke factory steel wheels (for summer tires). I did a lot of research on tires before choosing these and I realize that a few owners have noted some recurrent balance problems with this particular brand and model of tire. But casting that aside, I have noted in many pix on this and other boards that the factory 7-spoke wheels 'seem' to use more wheel weights to get a set of tires balanced than do aluminum wheels. I have a set of factory aluminum wheels with 31x10.50 Michelin LTX's on and they use practically no weights to maintain optimum balance. The same shop balanced both sets of wheels/tires. The 31x10.50's are much larger tires with a lot more rubber involved. My steel wheels use a much larger amount of weight, comparably.

So finally the question is: Do factory 7-spoke steel wheels need more weight to balance them, regardless of tire size, vs. aluminum?

The reason I ask is because that it feels like one of the new tires on steel has a vibration problem between 50 and 55 mph. I've checked the lugs for tightness and all are OK. I'm gonna drive it a while and plan to have them rebalanced after a thousand miles, or so.

Mike in AR

 

I had the opposite problem. I had a lot of problems with my last wheel/tire set-up. I had the stock 2nd gen. alloys 4 split spoke and they would not go on or off of my front hubs very well. Ive never seen a problem like this before. Either my hubs are a little too large, or my rims were factory machined too small. If you didnt put them on with an impact they were only slid on about 2/3 the way. As you tighten them they would just keep on creeping closer and closer until they were snug. I dont know if maybe they were out of round either, because the tire shop had to put a ton of weight on them, and they never were balanced right. I just got new Black steel rims and 32" mudders and they balanced with little or no weight and ride like a new truck. That vibration problem you are talking about caused my tires to cup so bad they looked like stop signs after a while. Needless to say anyone want some factory alloys for dirt cheap? 5$ each LOL.

 

In general, aluminum wheels are more round and balanced than steel wheels when new. This is less true of cast Al wheels, more true of forged Al wheels, and very true of machined Al billet wheels.

It's much harder to control the exact finish shape in the stamping process used on steel wheels.

However, either can be done very well or very poorly, and aluminum wheels are more prone to damage which can throw all of the above out the window.

 

Don't the steel wheels weigh more too? (like a few pounds at least?). The fact they weigh more means there is more potential for unbalance, hence the need for more weight to correct the balance issue.

 

To chime in on this, I just had some steels put on, and they took quite a bit more to balance. I think that what ohio mentioned about the stamping process has to do with it. They do weigh more, and that could be part of it... On a side note, you would think with the growing popularity of black wheels, they would make black weights. But NOOOOO!!!

 

Thanks for all the input. My aluminum wheels with 31x10.50's feel like they weight LESS, overall, than my P235's on factory steel. This is in spite of the fact that the P235's are almost 3 inches shorter and not nearly as wide, i.e., less rubber.

Mike in AR

 

Um taco climber, just ask the twhoever is balancing your tires to put the weights on the inside. thats what I did on my cars & trucks.

 

I had black weights, I painted them

 

It all has to do w/ the overall weight of the wheel/tire assembly and how round they both are. Theoretically, it will take less weight to balance smaller (read:lighter) tires.

 

I went up to bigger, heavier tires and from alum. rims to steel ones, and took less weight to balance. It might just be a crap shoot. Some tires are balanced better than othersI guess. Same with wheels too. Just gotta get a lucky 4. My setup has only 1 tiny weight on the inside of each wheel and it rides very true...Mudders and all.