wthalliii

I'm about to pull the trigger on a set of Nitto Invo's. I notice that the tread pattern is asymmetrical. So which way should they be oriented? Solid strip towards the outside on both sides? Toward the outside? Or what?

157dB

If they are directional tires you can bet your last dollar that
they will have rotation direction arrows on the sidewalls.
If you want to know before purchase, why?
If inside and not outside, no buy?
If outside and not inside, buy?

Texotic

They aren't directional, just asymmetrical. The strip should be towards the inside.

wthalliii

LOL, no, I just wanted to make sure the brainiacs at the tire place installed them correctly. I had already decided this was the tire for me.

Thanks, guys.

157dB

To see if they are in fact true brainiacs, see if
they put the heavy mark on the sidewall of the
tire (determined by the manufacturer at the
time of its birth right out of the mold) in direct
orientation with the lightest spot on the rim
(the every so obvious valve stem hole).
Thats a true test of a tire brainiac at its best.
Dont argue with them, as they have access to bigger
weapons and you are on their turf.

And I think I would be worried that they might/will
damage a TPMS sensor or two during the dismounting
of your old tires.....

wthalliii

The TPMS didn't go off while I was driving home, so maybe they didn't screw them up. However, when I called them on the phone to order the tires - they had to get them from a different location - I mentioned that I wanted the balance weights on the inside of the wheel. When I got there, I mentioned it again. Then I noticed the first one they did had a weight on the outside. So I told them again. The guy at the desk picked up the mic and told them in the back, and they yelled back, "They already had weights on the outside!" And one of the other guys at the desk said, "you'll get a better balance with the weights on the outside." And I said, "I don't care. I want them on the inside so I don't have to look at them." Or clean around them, but I didn't tell them that. They did put all the weights on the inside, and I didn't get any vibration at 70 MPH on the freeway on the way home, so they did figure out how to balance them. And they do look a lot better.

I was impressed that they removed my spinners (knock offs, not those ghetto spinners) before they replaced the tires and put them back on afterwords. I guess their machines might damage them.

wthalliii

I just checked, and they DIDN'T do that. There is a small yellow circle on the sidewall that I assume is the heavy mark, and they put them in random places.

Norm Peterson

I asked this question elsewhere about five years ago when I was going to be mounting and balancing a set of my own tires that had arrived with the yellow and red markings. Here's some of the feedback.



With respect putting balance weights on the outer flange - your tire guy is correct that you'll get a better balance that way (and use less weight to get it). But that does not limit you to single-plane static balancing. Most balancing machines of reasonably recent vintage will calculate weights and locations where both planes of weights are behind the wheel center, some possibly even being able to locate weights behind "spokes" for even less visibility. You'll generally end up with a slightly less accurate balance, a little more balance weight added, and you might have to shop around a little to find a shop that will do things a little out of the ordinary.

Mostly it comes down to whether one thinks that having a show car or show car appearance is legitimately more important than the car being in mechanically top-shelf "tune". In a few cases, that may be true, but I would argue that if speeds much past 75 mph are commonly encountered (which includes dragstrip runs), the better balance should take priority. Nobody will ever see the weights at those speeds anyway.

Odd thing is that I've had to specifically instruct balance machine operators to balance my wheels on both flanges (and in at least one case show the guy how to make the "distance between weight planes" measurement for stick-on weights applied to the edges of the wheel "barrels").


Norm