What is the out of round tolerance on a bias ply street tire?

If a tire is slightly out of round can it be corrected with proper balancing?

I think it's probably possible but not practical, the rubber out of balance would take a LOT of lead to re-balance I'd think...

But again, wouldn't the amount of rubber off balance morph under higher speeds thus putting a oval tire into the mix of things?

I'm guessing there is no such thing as a perfectly round tire. There has to be a tolerance spec. I'm not talking 1/2" out of round here but just how much is acceptable.

Greg, see if someone has a road force balancer if you have a hopping tire.

What they do is balance the tire on a machine with a little load on it, most Ford dealers have them.

I don't know a spec, and it would vary anyway based on sidewall and overall height I am sure, but often a 1/4 turn on the rim can change it just enough to make the balancer happy


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- 70 Fastback Mustang, 489 cid FE, TKO-600 5 speed, 3.70 9 inch
- 71 F100 shortbed 4x4, 397 cid FE, headers, Street Dominator, 280H, 5 lug Dana 60, 4 speed

I don't remember for sure but I think it's 3/16". I don't know about now but in the seventies places cut the tires on the car to round them out again

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You can't condemn the bad if you don't commend the good

All the old wheel & tire guy's I know are long dead... Or I'd ask them...

I have about 1/8" on a rear tire. Not that bad but around 45 you can feel it in the seat. On a normal car it probably wouldn't be bad at all but the 59 Buick has a huge amount of unsprung weight due to the massive torque tube assembly. Once that gets going.....

I had a similar situation on my 54 Skylark and had the tires shaved. Long time ago, I'll see if that place will still do it or even exists.

The local Ford dealer is closed but I'll see if anyone has the load balancer.

You could do it the old fashoned way, a little water & some light pressure on the brakes...

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You can't condemn the bad if you don't commend the good

I like that idea too, a little bleach maybe to make a LOT of smoke

The post made me curious, so I searched for a bit. I could not find anything specific to bias ply tires, but I found the number .050" as a general limit for out of round on a couple of sites.

There was an alignment/frame shop here that has since closed, but they had a machine that would shave off the high spots to make the tire round. It would spin the tire and work kinda like a lathe.

Greg,
If all else fails check with places that do semi truck tires, most of them need to be cut to round them out.

Joe
3-'63 Fairlanes
'72 Gran Torino Sport (Q code)
'79 F-150 4X4