Is tire balancing of 1/8 scale buggy tires really necessary?

It's not as important as balancing truggy tires but is still a thing more people should do. With the tire balanced it goes around smooth and doesn't lose contact with the ground from vibrating. Also it is easier on the hub bearings because the tires are not vibrating like crazy. I couldn't believe the difference after I balanced a pair of tires.

with today's foams, its really not required IMO

ive done it in the past, but not anymore

+1. Also affects the flight of the vehicle. And it not vibrating off of your starter box.

Its Very important especially with Truggy/MT tires.....Yes the newer gen tires are A lot better then what they used to be but still aren't perfect from bag to bag.
I also balance my buggy tires.

Very important to run the tires for a quali or 2 prior to balancing to allow the foams to seat...if you want to be anal mark them Brand new then run them and re-check to see what the foam's been up to.

How often do you end up balancing them?

Never balanced my truggy tires in my life, never had a problem with vibrating or hub bearings. AKA all day. Personal Preference

they should only need it once if you do it right and Only use the amount needed.

No tire is perfect...aka's have shown to be out upwards of 6g+ on some of the Citi's and I-beams.....Grid Iron's are better as they are a lighter carcass but for the most part its the foams that are out not the tire.

After speaking to Gil this weekend at the pit...AKA is looking to do their foams IN house which will be the First mfg to do so....All other molded foams are from "over there" and have a % that they have to be between and Gil mentioned that as good as the current foams are....the next gen will need to be in house to Tighten up those number's to make the Be All End All best product they can produce.

All im saying is that there isn't a 100% perfectly balanced tire out there....ever wonder why you need full size car/truck tires balanced....same principle just on a much larger scale.

geejay balancers are cheap...pick one up one day and play with it...see what you come up with....Worst case scenario you wasted 20$.

+1 for balancing.....I put almost all of my tires, buggy, truggy, sc, 1/8 and 1/10, on a balancer after run-in and I will say that my AKA's are better than any others but they still need a little balancing most times. Key is to add as little weight as possible. My buddies at the track thought I was stupid when I started doing it and gave me all kinds of crap in the pits till they saw my 1/8 buggy and truggy run. Changed their mind real quick. Now they ask me to balance their wheels.

Think of how little weight they add to full size wheels to get them in balance and yet without that little bit of added weight the front end of your car has vibration. Now think if your car was running 300+ mph instead of 60 and think about how bad that vibration would be. Thats basically what you have with an 1/8 buggy thats running 40+ mph. Really its more profound than that because the size of the wheel isn't proportionate to that of a full size car.

Anyway....you get the picture......

Setting your wheel and foams up first makes a big difference too I think. You can use the foam to balance the wheel to a large degree.

Last night I set the wheel and foam on the balancer, found the heavy point and then turned the foam through 180 degrees on the rim and it balanced the wheel and foam.

Obviously this leaves the tyre which could be out of balance, but less weight required to balance just the trye, rather than wheel, foam and tyre.

Mark the wheel and foam and ensure that when you put it all together the marks line up.

Yup, everyone when gluing tires should do this. I would still recommend to balance you tires afterwards. But doing this does 90% of the balancing. And then requires less weight from balancing puddy to put on afterwards.

If you've never had a set of balanced tires on your car, you'll simply put be amazed how much faster you can put down the power out of a turn.

What do you guy`s use to balance the tire`s, silly puddy etc. ?

Thank`s

I use Duct Seal it can be found at all hardware stores, I bought mine at Lowes. Its a grey clay like sealer for sealing duct work and electric boxes. Its found in the electric dept. Its wont dry out,comes in a 1lb block,and only cost under three dollars. Try some, you will like it.

I never balanced tires. Seems like a waste of time. Is it true you have to balance after every run?