Chinese lug-centric wheel balancer adapters?

[cavalry]

I would like to be able to balance lug-centric wheels. The adapter from legitimate companies is stupid expensive, but these likely chinese knockoffs are all over ebay for about $120, which is much more reasonable to me.
Anyone use one of these adapters before? I am not following exactly how to mount it to the balancer? I assume it slides on like a cone, but how is it secured? I do not see how the nut could be used with the wheel in place.

 

[39CAMC]

I am not sure if these are designed this way, but you actually use the Hunter ones from the front of the wheel. You put a cone on the back (smaller than usual) to kind of hold the wheel in the ballpark, then the adapter goes from the front and pushes down on the lug holes. That is (maybe) why there is two different tapers on the nuts on the one you show.



All that said, how many lug centric wheels are you running up against? Part of my business is mounting and balancing tires and I do them all myself. I do a *lot* of them, ballpark 1500-2000 year including at the track. I can literally think of *one* case where the wheel was truly lug centric/only able to be mounted with the lug adapter and that was original 1972 Lotus Europa Aluminum/Mag wheels and there was no machined hole in the back and front hole was like 42mm and barely fit over the 40mm shaft of the balancer.

Every other time I see one where the back looks weird or it is hopping all over the place using regular cones and then I switch to the lug adapter, it still has the same problem. A generation or two ago of GM trucks had a series of wheels that the holes were not in the center but I think they got rid of all those. Even Chinese trailer wheels.

I mostly use my adapters to hold down stupid wheels on the tire machine (and balancer) (like Chrysler ones with plastic chrome permanently affixed)

HTH,

DaveW

 

[cavalry]

A generation or two ago of GM trucks had a series of wheels that the holes were not in the center but I think they got rid of all those.

Maybe I am just being too picky? I have essentially a fleet of GM trucks, and have repeatability issues balancing. They will balance fine, not chasing weight, but if I rotate 90* on the shaft, and re-balance as a check, they always are off. When tightening the cone nut I tighten, then loosen enough to rotate the shaft/cone on the wheel slightly then retighten. Driveability wise you cannot detect a out of balance so I am running them and keeping on eye on strange wear.
I have a factory balanced 16" steel wheel/tire I use as a calibration/reference. It always comes back with the same results everytime, so I do not believe its a issue with my machine.

 

[F-22]

I assume all of those GM trucks are using the same wheels?

Instead of a universal adapter, maybe contact a local machine shop to fabricate a mounting plate specific to those trucks. That should be cheaper and most accurate.

 

[cavalry]

I assume all of those GM trucks are using the same wheels?

Instead of a universal adapter, maybe contact a local machine shop to fabricate a mounting plate specific to those trucks. That should be cheaper and most accurate.

I contemplated making an adapter as I have the means, but for $125 its not worth my time if it works. Unfortunatly no I do not have a lot of commonality. 1/2, 3/4, 1 ton DRW across a 40 year span. Thankfully?? I no longer have Toyotas so thats one less lugcentric.

 

[39CAMC]

Maybe I am just being too picky? I have essentially a fleet of GM trucks, and have repeatability issues balancing. They will balance fine, not chasing weight, but if I rotate 90* on the shaft, and re-balance as a check, they always are off. When tightening the cone nut I tighten, then loosen enough to rotate the shaft/cone on the wheel slightly then retighten. Driveability wise you cannot detect a out of balance so I am running them and keeping on eye on strange wear.
I have a factory balanced 16" steel wheel/tire I use as a calibration/reference. It always comes back with the same results everytime, so I do not believe its a issue with my machine.

How much are they changing? If it's small, remember that there is rounding happening on the machine. EG if it is .12 oz out, it will show Zero. Spin it again and it comes up .13, it shows a 1/4 oz.

I can't remember the exact GM wheels that were an issue. Maybe Mid-late 2010's but only certain wheels and overall the trucks themselves were sensitive to road force on the rears separate of the hole not being in the middle issue. And lug mounting them on the balancer often didn't fix them anyway since it was designed to be a hub centric mount.

There is no tire wear caused by out of balance conditions that you wouldn't feel (severely) from the driver's seat. If you aren't feeling a vibration in actual use, I personally would not keep chasing this issue (though I fully understand the desire to make sure it is "right")

I don't think you are going to get better repeatability out of lug mount. Like I said, I have run into a lot of wheels that the customer and I were almost sure were lug centric only and not had any difference in balancing when cone mounting versus the lug mount. Except that one set for the Lotus but they were visually not remotely designed to be cone mounted.

HTH

DaveW

 

[cavalry]

How much are they changing? If it's small, remember that there is rounding happening on the machine. EG if it is .12 oz out, it will show Zero. Spin it again and it comes up .13, it shows a 1/4 oz.

If it was a quarter I would be fine with that. 1/2-3/4 oz with no rhyme or reason inboard or out, not opposite or weight to cancel out what was there. I have a set of Ram tires to do shortly, be interesting to see how they fare.

 

[39CAMC]

If it was a quarter I would be fine with that. 1/2-3/4 oz with no rhyme or reason inboard or out, not opposite or weight to cancel out what was there. I have a set of Ram tires to do shortly, be interesting to see how they fare.

Yep, that would trigger me too. Report back on the ram wheels if you think of it.

DaveW

 

[rlitman]

Maybe I am just being too picky? I have essentially a fleet of GM trucks, and have repeatability issues balancing. They will balance fine, not chasing weight, but if I rotate 90* on the shaft, and re-balance as a check, they always are off. When tightening the cone nut I tighten, then loosen enough to rotate the shaft/cone on the wheel slightly then retighten...

I've gotten similar issues with my Wrangler wheels. My issue is that between the wide and heavy tire and the deep offset, the rim really wants to tip while resting on just the cone, and I've found times where tightening the cone nut like this can leave the wheel slightly off-center. What's solved this issue for me is hugging the wheel and holding it in a vertical plane while tightening the cone nut.

 

[Stink]

I know this question is quite old. I bought an ebay adapter that you talk about. i works excellent. I took off the threaded shaft and bought a nut that extended into the hole through the adapter and a washer to match. It held the adapter on just fine.