[Ratkiller]

After a pretty hard track day at Chuckwalla, I noticed all my wheel weights had melted off the front wheels. I was told this is pretty common. What the best way to keep them on? I don’t think regular duct tape will do it.

[Anonymoose]

The aluminum heat tape will work. Or you can order racer tape of Amazon. That’s what I put on mine.

[D_SheerDrivingPleasure]

Thrown wheel weights cause so much windshield and paint carnage at the track.

All pre event techs should confirm wheel weights are taped.

Gorilla duct tape works well but aluminum HVAC tape is very good too. I also see HVAC tape referred to as helicopter tape.

[inTgr8r]

Originally Posted by Anonymoose

The aluminum heat tape will work. Or you can order racer tape of Amazon. That’s what I put on mine.

I'm curious, what's the difference between racer tape & alu. HVAC tape (besides the cost )

I've used HVAC tape for years without issue.
It does tend to lift a little after a few track days & traps brake dust in the lifted areas.

If the racer tape is an improvement, I might give it a try...

[Anonymoose]

Originally Posted by inTgr8r

I'm curious, what's the difference between racer tape & alu. HVAC tape (besides the cost )

I've used HVAC tape for years without issue.
It does tend to lift a little after a few track days & traps brake dust in the lifted areas.

If the racer tape is an improvement, I might give it a try...

Probably nothing. It’s probably relabeled duct tape for $12 a roll. I only bought the one roll and it’s kept everything in place. I’ll end up moving to the hvac tape when this roll runs out.

[FaRKle!]

+1 for alu foil tape. I've been using this one off Amazon to good effect.

[M2guru]

Make sure to use enough HVAC aluminum tape. I had about .5 inch of tape grabbing the rim, but they fell off. I now use about 2 inches of tape touching the rim and haven't had any issues.

[ggggbmw]

I've been using the HVAC aluminum tape from Home Depot, which is the same stuff as FaRKle! posted.

If you look up the specs on the stuff they sell at Summit Racing, and the specs on the HVAC tape, they are nearly identical. The same ~300F temp rating. This is more than adequate as your wheels don't get that warm, and the shiny reflective surface will deflect a lot of heat from the rotors.

As M2guru points out, you do need to have adequate extra coverage beyond the weights. I use the 2" tape as that gives you a solid 1/2" to 3/4" on the sides, and I let it run at least 1.5" front and back.

I would also strongly suggest you clean the area around the weights before putting the tape down. Use alcohol or some other degreaser that won't leave any film behind. (Actually learned this from an HVAC tech, when using on furnace duct.) It also helps if you trim the corners of the tape so they aren't pointed. This helps to keep the corners from snagging and pulling up. When you apply the tape, I start by placing it on top of the weight, and then molding it onto the weight sides, and then spreading it out on the wheel surface. Use something like a credit card to work out wrinkles and bubbles and bond the adhesive to the wheel surface. (Another HVAC tech tip.)

[MooMooM2]

+1 on the alum tape, also nice that it comes in black for darker wheels and silver for silver wheels. So far has kept all my weights on the wheel.

Be nice if tech required people to tape their weights

[dvas]

Aluminum tape works pretty well. But I no longer even bother with wheel weights. What's the point? The inside of my wheels get coated with rubber marbles after a session throwing the balance off.

[M2guru]

Originally Posted by dvas

Aluminum tape works pretty well. But I no longer even bother with wheel weights. What's the point? The inside of my wheels get coated with rubber marbles after a session throwing the balance off.

I balance the rims without the tires then mount the tires without rebalance. I then tape the weights and never balance again for the same reason as dvas mentions! Saves a tiny bit of cash and time at the tire store.

[D.Yooras]

Originally Posted by dvas

Aluminum tape works pretty well. But I no longer even bother with wheel weights. What's the point? The inside of my wheels get coated with rubber marbles after a session throwing the balance off.

Why bother? Because it prevents your car, suspension, and chassis from getting subjected to unnecessary negative harmonics and allows everything to work as intended. This is especially true when talking about suspension, it's easy to overheat your dampers by allowing that sort of vibration.

The best way I've found to prevent the flying wheel weights is to make sure the tech balancing them to actually cleans the wheel. This would seem like given but it's certainly not, especially not at cheapo tire shops. Use steelwool or a scotchbrite pad to prep the areas where weights are to be installed.

For my track wheels, I balance the wheels without tires, install those weights, use "racing tape" (gorilla tape or HVAC aluminum tape), then balance the wheel after the tire has been installed. The wheel balancing weights stay on the wheel and the tire balancing weights get cycled out next tire change.

[dvas]

Originally Posted by D.Yooras

Why bother? Because it prevents your car, suspension, and chassis from getting subjected to unnecessary negative harmonics and allows everything to work as intended. This is especially true when talking about suspension, it's easy to overheat your dampers by allowing that sort of vibration.

The best way I've found to prevent the flying wheel weights is to make sure the tech balancing them to actually cleans the wheel. This would seem like given but it's certainly not, especially not at cheapo tire shops. Use steelwool or a scotchbrite pad to prep the areas where weights are to be installed.

For my track wheels, I balance the wheels without tires, install those weights, use "racing tape" (gorilla tape or HVAC aluminum tape), then balance the wheel after the tire has been installed. The wheel balancing weights stay on the wheel and the tire balancing weights get cycled out next tire change.

Do you take your wheels off and scotchbrite the inside barrels to remove the rubber buildup in between sessions?

[OG Shark]

If you're going to use wheel weights then clean wheel & hvac tape like everyone has said. So much crap being thrown up already on track try not to add little metal projectiles to the mix.

Wheel/tire balance constantly changes on track. The stickier the tire the more it happens - spins more on the wheel than less grippy tires. Even a tire like the MP4S spins a bit though. Slag is constantly being added and removed. Wear makes difference as well. Can make it almost impossible to keep a setup in balance. Knurled beads help reduce the spin (also makes tire changes a mofo). Have found from cheater 200s and stickier it balancing doesn't make much of a difference. For a dedicated track set will usually at most bubble balance them. With slicks just mount & go. For a dual use set will road force balance and hope they stay within reason for street use.

Starting with a balanced wheel can be a big help. The issue isn't usually compounded as much as the balance of the assembly changes. Besides strength this is where a good wheel helps (one of the big reasons I like Signature Wheel - they are all very well balanced when we get them). Balancing a wheel on its own helps but would redo at least the tape each event if not the weights too. Clean the slag off each time wheels are pulled (not a bad thing to do between each session as well so you can do a visual on brakes & suspension...). Best chance for a smoother ride but only so much you can do sometimes.

[D.Yooras]

Originally Posted by dvas

Do you take your wheels off and scotchbrite the inside barrels to remove the rubber buildup in between sessions?

During a race weekend I would nearly always rotate or switch wheel sets between sessions. The scotchbrite pads are only for weight placement location during balancing. Rubber build up (boogers as we call them) are far less dense than wheel weights but even so, we scraped them off everytime we rotated or switched sets we scraped all the rubber deposits off.

We also had a tire changer and balancer in our rig so keeping everything balanced was pretty easy. That said, back when we ran Bilstein OTS dampers as a spec, keeping the wheels balanced was important because the dampers were NOT matched very well to the application. This meant we had to keep everything as optimized as possible to not sacrifice function an opponent may not have had to deal with.

At the extremes, shock perform differently depending on form factor. Twin tubes (Koni, KW, etc) will fade away and stop controlling the wheels properly. Mono-tube dampers (Bilstein, Penske, etc) firm up and begin to over-damp wheel movement, all the way to the point to where they stop moving due to extreme pressure on the oil.

So yes, wheel balancing for a track going car matters. It doesn't have to be super precise, a standard single plane static balance will work, but it has to accurate to prevent excessive vibration.