I had my new Mudrunners mounted and asked them to balance them. They told me you don’t balance ATV tires. I took it for a ride and got allot of handlebar shake between 10 and about 17 mph so I started asking around and got the same answer from several tire places. One told me that the tires have an index that should be aligned to the valve stem. Has anyone ever heard of this for mudrunners or any other brand?

 

Just put my new shoes on yesterday, man what a difference! Big Green feels like a whole new machine! Back to your question, I dealt with discount tire, and asked the fella to balance them for me, he told me that it wasnt the norm but if I wanted him to he would so he did! They ride like a dream, no shimmy or shake! 26in 589's on ITP C-Series

 

MDG, are they shaking while on pavement or when offroad? Or both?

Part of the problem with balancing an ATV tire is that when running low air pressure (like at 3 psi) the tires may actually slip on the rim. On my 22" blackwaters, one has slipped about an 1 1/2 inches the other one about 2 inches since they were mounted 2 years ago.

 

Shaking on dirt, I haven’t tried it on pavement.

How do you know they slipped? Is there an index that should be aligned?

Thanks

 

I could tell by referencing the stem and lettering on the tire. I was always cursious if dirt tires slip, because my paddle tires also always move on the rims on my banshee. I would line up the paddles by pulling the tire/wheel and hub off the axle and rotating it until aligned. By the end of a weekend of riding, the paddles weren't line up any more. They would sometimes slip 3 inches or more, but the tire stayed inflated. Cool huh?

 

Back to the top

Has anyone heard of the index? My 650 is in the shop so I can't look on mine.

 

I have heard of it and seen it but on motor cycles they usually put a yellow dot where they want the vavle to go but they are directional and with atv tires they have a valve stem on one side and not in the center. You also have to reverse the tire depending on which side it is on so the tread pattern is right.

 

I never worried much about balancing, as your wheels will go out of balance after the first mudhole anyway. My wheels pick up mud on the inside beads. Has no one else noticed this?

 

When i put my 589's on i got lots of shakes. nyroc suggestd i change my toe in to zero. It worked like a charm

 

MDG, I had the same problem as you are having. I changed my toe-in to 1/16 of an inch and took my tires to a local tire shop to be balanced. When he put them on the machine, one was so far out that he couldn't balance it. Found out it was a manufacturers defect and Titan replaced my front 589s for free. Got the new ones on and it handles like a dream. Don't take these tire guys word for anything. Get them balanced and see how far out they are. If they are out a mile, take the damn things back. I guess these tire guys don't realize our wheelers will do 60 mph!!!!!!!