Okay, so last week I paid $80 CDN to have my winter tires removed and the brand new stock tires put on and balanced at a local garage. While driving to work the next day (doing about 60 km/hr on a fairly smooth stretch of road) I hear the familiar clunk of something heavy beating off the plastic wheel well in the rear of the truck followed by another shortly after. I tried to ignore it and pass it off as a piece of gravel or something flicking up but no it was the weights they use for balancing. A trip on the highway later reinforced this theory. I have had this happen before on my old truck when I got it done at Wal Mart one time so I decided then to never go back to those yahoos even for something as simple as a tire change.

So I bring the truck back to the garage and told them what happened. The mechanic on duty said he was not surprised as they have to use a special type of clamp to attach the weights to aluminum wheels. So they balanced them again and lo and behold this morning on the way into work I heard 2 more pop off the front this time! WTF! Do I keep going back to these idiots until they get it right or what?!? I mean even the dealership was able to put my winters on and balance them with no issues!

Anyone else experienced anything like this?

 

Special clamp?? Why the hell aren't they using stick-on weights?

Rob

 

First Mod ever on my truck was pull the outside oldschool weights off that corrode up/mark up and look ugly and had inside sticky weights put on!
Everytime those outside weights get pulled off, they use pliers and yank them off and scratches the wheel, then they force new ones on by hammering them...dohh. If you have them on long enough, they corrode the wheel. They just look ugly.

I thought the newer Rams had inner stickies anyways???Maybe its just the Durango's? Cheap *** tire shop.

 

Its the shop your using.

 

Havn't seen clamp ons on aluminum wheels in years. Factory is stick ons inside the rim. Get yourself a new tire shop.

 

My 2012 has stick ons

 

Shops can still screw up stick-on wheel weights.

I had my summer wheels in for balancing, they pulled off the old weights but didn't clean off the foam tape that was holding them on. Then they put the new weights on over the old foam tape. You could wiggle the weights with your hand and it would have been only a matter of time before they flew off. Haven't been back to that shop since making them fix it.

Of course, the next shop cross threaded a few lugs.

And the next one (stealership) didn't actually bother balancing the tires after changing the valve stems.

Let's just say wheels & tires are a particular headache of mine too.

 

Hmmm. Perhaps that's what the dealer used when they balanced my winters. I have never heard of stick-on weights - must be some pretty strong adhesive! Most of the time with Aluminum wheels they try to place the weights on the inside of the rim which is good but it also means you never think to look at them. Many vehicles nowadays have aluminum wheels so there is no excuse to not have a proper method of attaching them.

 

Stick on weights been used for decades on high end wheels. More then ever now. All those fancy aluminum wheels on just about everything gets stick on weights.

 

I have the original tires still on and have them rotated and balanced at Americas Tire and they use the newer style clamp on weights. I've never had a problem with mine. Don't they sometimes put weights on the inside and outside of the wheel?