tigerfox,

Many tire stores will balance alloy wheels with the weights ONLY on the inside lip. This is called a static balance and will keep the wheel from hopping up and down. They do this because someone has complained to them about scratching their fancy wheels with weights on the outboard lip.

Although the tires will not bounce up and down, they will "wobble." To prevent wobble you must do a "dynamic" balance. This requires weights on the inboard AND outboard of the wheel, or "two planes." If you do not want a weight on the outboard lip, a competent tire tech can use tape weights just behind the spokes of the wheel. Some of the newer machines will even tell them where to put them so that they are hidden behind the spokes.

By using weights on two planes the wheel will not wobble. Modern cars have nimble suspensions that will transfer this wobble through the whole car.

It is amazing how many tire stores will statically balance and charge you full price and lead you to believe that their fancy machine did a great job. It is all about attitude. The necessary ingredients for a proper wheel balance is: any computer wheel balancer in decent condition, an operator with an IQ greater than room temperature, and an operator with an attitude coducive to doing the job right.

There are a few rare cases where a proper dynamic balance will not get the job done. In these cases, you need to find a shop with a Hunter GSP9700 balancer that has a pressure roller to properly evaluate the tire looking for stiff spots. But this is only necessary about 2% of the time. If it is necessary, you can find a machine in your area by going to: www.gsp9700.com

Good luck,