For those that use a bubble balancer, do you balance upside down? Meaning, I have 15" wide wheels, 4.5" backspace, very difficult to balance with the dish up, I've seen it done both ways i think, and was wondering which is better?

Doug,
Always bubble balance with the deep dish of the wheel in the down position on the balancer for the best results.

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Dish down.
I had to customize my on/off lever to accomplish this.

Thanks for confirming, I just did my new set tonight with the dish down, takes some patience, but it seems good

What kind of balancers do ya'll use? Are the cheap HF ones any good? I have an ancient one that the base flairs out at the bottom. Wheels hit the flair if turned deep dish side down.

I wanted a good American made balancer, but found they are all basically the same. I bought mine from Amazon. I drilled and tapped the bubble adjuster holes for 6-32 since the china wood screws that were in it sucked. I have never had a vibrating tire using this $30 balancer.

I use an old bear brand bubble balancer I got from my dad. This thing is a leftover from his old sevice station he owned in the 1970's. It's close to 50years old and still is the best balancer I have ever used on my slicks.

quote:

Originally posted by SuperProRacer:
What kind of balancers do ya'll use? Are the cheap HF ones any good? I have an ancient one that the base flairs out at the bottom. Wheels hit the flair if turned deep dish side down.

Had the same issue with my 16" wide wheels.
I carved out an aluminum donut to raise the wheel.
Worked fine.

I use an old snap on vertical balancer. I had to extend the shaft and use a jack stand, but it works great.



Dave

quote:

Originally posted by SuperProRacer:
What kind of balancers do ya'll use? Are the cheap HF ones any good? I have an ancient one that the base flairs out at the bottom. Wheels hit the flair if turned deep dish side down.

Mine is like that but the base is just a plastic triangle so I I just notched the area on the corners where the wheel hits it.

I have used the HF balancer for a few years now, deep side down. It is small enough to keep in the trailer. You could be surprised how many people need one at the track. Mine has balanced several wheels.

Pretty sure mine is exactly like this one. I'm a little hesitant to chop notches in it. I'd really hate to ruin it. Might try one from HF since I just got a 25% off coupon for Monday(Labor day).

The guys in the Mickey Thompson trailer at the last race I was at were using a H/F balancer, some one I have, we will see how it worked tonight

I may have to stop by HF on my way home tonight.
Bought some new Mickey's a couple weeks ago. Had them mounted last weekend at my local Discount Tire, and specified bubble balancing. They charged me for mounting and "lifetime balancing", but when I put them in my truck I noticed the same old glued-on, duct-taped lead weights on my wheels. I went back in, asked the guy if they were really identical balance to my old tires, (yeah, right), or they just forgot to balance them. He told me they didn't have the right adapter, so they were not able to balance them. I thanked him for telling me that up front...

I had a friend that bought new tires at a race, and were bubble balanced at the tire trailer. Shook horribly.

Took them back for rebalance, still shook horribly.

Then someone noticed there was a big industrial fan blowing in the work area due to the heat. Shut it off and rebalanced; then they were good!

quote:

Originally posted by SuperProRacer:
Pretty sure mine is exactly like this one. I'm a little hesitant to chop notches in it. I'd really hate to ruin it. Might try one from HF since I just got a 25% off coupon for Monday(Labor day).

I cant tell if thats metal or plastic from the pic, mine looks just like that but was plastic. I just drilled a 3" hole with a hole saw on each corner at the spot where the rim touched. Yes its a little hacked up but I paid $30 bucks for it and only purchased it to balance slicks so I wasn't really concerned about ruining it!

quote:

Originally posted by SuperProRacer:
Pretty sure mine is exactly like this one. I'm a little hesitant to chop notches in it. I'd really hate to ruin it. Might try one from HF since I just got a 25% off coupon for Monday(Labor day).

That is the same one I have.
A donut and a handle customize fixes it right up.

Just an update on this, after using the H/F balancer, each tire took 3 1/2 oz of weight, raced this weekend, put 20 passes on them and they were smooth as glass, probably the smoothest I've ever had, I was pleasantly surprised to say the least

quote:

Originally posted by SuperProRacer:
Pretty sure mine is exactly like this one. I'm a little hesitant to chop notches in it. I'd really hate to ruin it. Might try one from HF since I just got a 25% off coupon for Monday(Labor day).

They get a couple hundred bucks for those on Ebay

So how do you guys bubble balance front dragster wheels? I knocked the bearings out of mine but they don't seem to fit correctly. They touch the tapered part of the hf bubble balancer. Do I need to machine a conversion for the top for it to sit on? I'm a newb at this. Cycle shop said the wheels balanced fine, but didn't balance them after mounting the tires. They shook. Go figure.