longuylander

iTrader: (7)

I have a set of AKA Typos mounted on my good ol' Duratrax Evader Pro stadium truck. Unfortunately, one of the rear tires is so badly balanced, it looks like the wobble will tear the entire arm, tie rod, and axle apart when I hold the back of the car in the air and hit the throttle past half way. Less than half throttle, it's still pretty damn wobbly.

Is there any way to balance the tire now? It looks like the beading is evenly glued onto the wheel, so it's either the inner foam that's out of whack or the tire itself is faulty (or the beading just looks like its seated well).

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

a1

iTrader: (9)

if you can figure some way to mount the tire on the front that has no drive axle you can balance there. The heavy side will roll to the bottom and at that point add weight to the top.

Andy Koback

iTrader: (280)

Warped wheel? If it's wobbling that bad, I don't think balancing will fix it.

longuylander

iTrader: (7)

It could possibly be a warped wheel.

a1, that was a good idea. While I couldn't mount it on the front of the truck, I slipped the wheel onto a 2mm hex driver and spun it. Clearly there was a heavy side (whether from the wheel being warped or poorly glued). I added some weight to the top, and while it wasn't enough to balance the wheel, it certainly took the edge off of the wobble. Once I get some more weights to add, I can hopefully get an almost smooth rotation out of the wheels.

Thanks for the help and ideas!

a1

iTrader: (9)

you can use , or I have used lol, hot glue, putty , jb weld. Out of balance tires will eat your bearings and also make loose traction

Evoking1230

iTrader: (8)

Im having that issue as well on my nitro buggy's rear wheels but I believe its the foams. Some spots feel harder than the rest of the tire.

These tires have seen a few practice rounds with the most recent being in damp conditions. Maybe the dirt dried up in there? NO clue but the tires look brand new, rather not throw out a good set of tires :-(

fredygump

iTrader: (1)

I always mount and glue tires before balancing. I've never heard of anybody doing anything else.

I'm confused why you can't mount the rear tire on front to balance. Every stadium truck I've seen has the same size wheels and tires all around. It's sort of a defining characteristic.

It could be that the foam is damaged/broken? It sounds like the problem is more than "just" a little out of balance.

If the foam is damaged, you need new foams. One trick is to use a heat gun to melt/release the CA glue on one bead. Or some people just cut the tire around the inside bead and re-glue it. Or heat it in the oven, or boil the tires (I haven't gotten that one to work)... Most methods of removing tires ruins the foams, but if the foam is the problem, then it doesn't matter.

longuylander

iTrader: (7)

It's an old stadium truck, so the front wheels use bearings and the rear wheels use pins (none of the wheels use hexes). The front axles have a larger diameter than the rear, so the rear tires won't fit on the front axles.

I don't think it's the foams that are damaged, unless they came that way new from AKA. If anything, it'd be the foams not sitting evenly around the tire, though I don't feel any lumps or hard/soft spots.

I've never had success trying to remove glued tires from the rims, so I am trying to avoid that. I never heard of the heat gun trick though; if it comes to the point where I can't get a satisfying balance, I might try it (and probably make things worse...)

a1

iTrader: (9)

in the rear you could remove the dog bone as well to have a free spinning wheel

longuylander

iTrader: (7)

You know, that's such a simple, obvious, brilliant solution, I'm embarrassed not to have thought of it! Keep those great ideas coming, a1!

Troubles Dad

iTrader: (204)

So do the tires have vent holes in the inside of the rim or on the tire, it could be a build up of dirt and if you balance it might change as the dirt could be moving, also in the past I have used a long wrench inserted into the rim so it could spin, not perfectly free, but would give the heavy side down

JsK

iTrader: (10)

You could have water or dirt in there. Where is the tire vented? If its water you
can vent the tire and it will fling out. Dirt not so much. I have pulled almost 1/4
cup of dirt out of an 1/8 scale buggy tire that was vented at the wheel. At that
point your only option is going to be pulling it apart, cleaning and re-gluing. There
are several videos on YouTube about cutting the back bead to change inserts,that's
pretty much what your going to have to do. Cut the bead, pull out the foam, clean
out the dirt and re-glue that bead.

Cday

iTrader: (7)

It would be good to buy a tire balancer.. i use one sometimes if my wheels feel unbalanced

longuylander

iTrader: (7)

It can't be dirt or water in the tires. Even though the wheels do have holes in them, they are newly mounted. They've only been run briefly on asphalt to see if the vibration was noticeable while driving. (It was.)

I glued three small brass bushings from old Tamiya kits into the wheel after using a wrench to spin the tire and find the heavy side (the rear axles are cvds, so the removing the dog bone trick would have been annoying). It's STILL slightly unbalanced, but now there is only a minor vibration when throttling up. If I ever get a chance to take it to a track, it'd probably be worthwhile to just invest in some new rear wheels and tires.

As for buying a tire balancer, does it tell how much weight is needed to balance the tire, like a full size one would?

Thanks for the advice, all!

a1

iTrader: (9)

It does , but it doesnt.lol
There is no read outs on amounts of weight to add. With use you will be able to tell how much it needs , and be prepared to take a little back out if needed. If the heavy side drops fast it needs a lot. If the heavy side drops slow it needs a little.