I circled in red a wheel weight actually coming off !

 

That's why you use duct tape to keep them on.

 

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

 

Those of you who think you have weights and balanced tires don't have either. Based on opinions in this post -

Can am weights don't exist and if they did would not be installed at the factory
ATV tires are like skid loader tires, they are never balanced
If you did ever balance a tire, it wouldn't make a difference because these are ATV's and you cant tell


Get with the program, there is no reason to balance an ATV tire...

 

Skid loaders don't go 80mph. Vibration of an unbalanced wheel affects many things (bearings mainly).
Everyone has an opinion, do what you what you want but, I'm going to continue to balance.

 

Just for the record, my 2021 Outlander 450 max dps came with balancing weights on two wheels and none on the other two. The wheels without weights need 4oz and 2.5oz respectively to reach a static balance. Even the wheels with OEM weights were not balanced. The OEM weights were insufficient and one was not placed in the best location. I check balance on all my atv wheels because I want to know how good/bad it is but might not add weights unless there is an obvious problem. There is very little clearance between the brake caliper and wheel. It is not a sure bet that the weghts will stay put with the kind of riding I do.

 

No way! There is no such thing as OEM weights even though there are can am part numbers. ATV tires are the same as the tires on a skid steer they don’t need to be balanced. You must be seeing something else..
Maybe during the assembly process or at the dealer the wheels were static balanced to compensate for the variances in tire ( not wheel) weight variances someone may have added weights using factory parts ( that don’t exist) can that even happen....

lol......

 

Again??? WOW, you can't just admit that your wrong, run you wheels balanced, the first time you hit the mud, they will no longer be balanced because of the mud, and the weights themselves will probably be wiped off, so it's pointless if your running off road. Now if your racing on hard pack balancing them could help, and since you have soooo many machines I'm sure you have some racing machines in your garage and spend a lot of time on the racing tracks.

When I talked to the Service Manager at the dealership, he said that the only tires that he saw that were balanced were the racer type machines and he said that they lose their weights all the time anyway.

Remember what I said earlier in this thread:
It may be a good idea or necessary to balance ATV tires when:

• The majority of your riding is at speeds above 30 MPH, on smooth trails, paved roads, or racing applications.
• You use standard size tires with smooth thread pattern or tires intended for on-road use.
• You regularly use large, aggressively treaded tires at higher speeds.

It may not be a good idea or not necessary to balance ATV tires when:

• The majority of your riding is at speeds below 30 MPH, such as playing in the mud, technical off-road riding, rock climbing, or utility work.
• You ride a lot in mud, debris, and rocks.
• You use large, aggressively threaded mud tires at lower speeds.

So yes, some machines do come from the factory with wheel weights, or you might want to add them yourself, depending on the type riding your doing, but the vast majority do not come from the factory with wheel weights and it would be pointless to put them on. So get over it.

 

If people want to balance so be it everybody has their preference .... They do not come stock balanced and some dealers may balance them but you are paying for it one way or another its not free. To me its pointless to do it unless all you do is road ride as once you hit the mud and crap off they come... Mine topped out all i feel is the tread pattern on the road and does not vibrate enough for me to even worry about

 

It reminds me of the old saying, 'If its not worth doing, its not worth doing right.'
Synthetic's wheel and my two all have a strip of 8 segments of 1/2 oz. Seems like whoever is adding weights will only apply a 4 oz. strip or none at all. Kinda coarse balancing when compared to the sports motorcycle tires I used to balance with very high speed ratings.

 

Nice try Chief! Lol

Your argument was that since you and your buddies have never seen weights installed from the factory they didn’t exist....lol then you went to a dealer to check new ATV tires to prove your point, lol. I sent you the part numbers even so you refused to admit your wrong....now attempting to conflate what you said....too funny!

 

How about reading the back posts, I acknowledged earlier that some ATV's apparently came with balanced wheels, and according to the local Can Am shop that was restricted to the racing type machines. When I checked the on-line parts manual, I saw the 5oz weight you referred to, however when I talked to the service manager he checked their Can Am parts manual and there were no such wheel weights (that kind of surprised me, as I thought the parts catalog on line and in the can am shop parts catalog would be the same).

if I run in mud my weights will be “wiped off” so it’s pointless....OMG that’s funny, like all you have to do is run a rag over your weights and wipe them away....

Did you brother to read the article that I put in the post above? Maybe that will help you a little bit if you did. Do You, Can You and Should You Balance ATV Tires? Best Way? (boostatv.com). The service manager I talked to said that the stick on weights usually did not last long if they were used off road and the article also made reference to that fact. But according to your they just don't know what their talking about,

LMFAO

 

Thanks for the link Chief, that article puts the subject in perspective.
This is a sentence from the article that I don't understand: ''Another aspect to consider is that larger ATV tires may need months to straighten out after being banded.''
Anybody?

 

Thanks for the link Chief, that article puts the subject in perspective.
This is a sentence from the article that I don't understand: ''Another aspect to consider is that larger ATV tires may need months to straighten out after being banded.''
Anybody?

Sometimes they put steel bands around the tires to squish them down for shipping.

 

I have a 2018 6x6 and the wheels all came balanced. Not sure who did it but they have the stick on weights all around. My machine was uncrated, built and picked up within 4 days. Not sure if the dealer balanced them or not. That being said, I'm replacing the tires and I won't be balancing the new tires. I'm not a rip around kind of guy either.

 

No I didn‘t read the article, already know about balancing and what the factory and dealer does in regards to the tire. The article I’m sure was good for your learning....now you know and have learned some thing.... Chief the ATV expert...now that’s funny.....

 

LMFAO, I didn't expect that you would, any kind of research or research results would not support your position, therefore you don't want anything to do with it, just keep saying what you want and maybe it will be believed evidently. And BBH the the Know-it-all, that will defend his position no matter what the facts say, and that's just SAD.

 

Not to be a stickler for details, but tires are never balanced but wheels can be. There's certainly no harm having wheels balanced, whether it's necessary on ATV's seems open for debate and above my ATV experience level.

I have 2 - 2021 850 XT's and none of the 8 wheels are balanced from the factory.

Do the machines shudder or wobble at higher speeds and aggressive riding? Good question and I would be tempted to say no but I don't know for sure because the stock suspension is so crappy.

After the Elka's arrive and I install them, I'll report back.

In the mean time, happy and safe riding everyone.

 

Okay, I’m not interested in adding fuel to any forum flame war so merely reporting what applies to my own machine.

If you haven’t read my sig line above this is a 2021 Outlander MAX XT-P 1000 T - the ‘T’ on the end indicates it’s homologated for road registration within the EU, (although we are now thankfully free from that particular dictatorship ). What that means in practice is that we run the quads on all surfaces including motorways (freeways) at speeds of up to 85mph on the factory supplied ITP Terracross tyres - I’m currently seeing an indicated 78mph but I’ve just finished running the engine in and there was more to go. We also use them off-road in varying conditions but definitely not the kind of extreme mud some are reporting - it’s an XTP not an XMR after all!

From the factory - I’ve checked with the dealer who confirmed that they had no input - the quad came with no wheel weights on three wheels and the shown weights on the rear R/H wheel. I can only assume that the three were within tolerance and the fourth required the added weight(s) to bring it back to match. TBH I can’t imagine that the weights would be easy to dislodge from that position in any circumstances having had the same setup on my truck with no failures.

L/H rear no weights:

R/H rear with factory applied wheel weights:

 

That's interesting 85 MPH on an EU machine. In North America we are ECU restricted to 78 MPH / 125 KM/H.

Makes me wonder if the ECU programming is different on EU machines similarly to performance PWC's which are restricted to 70 MPH on North American models but not on "international" models.

 

Yes. The reason why some combos have weights and others do not is because those are in spec. Each is checked for spec in the tire assembly portion of the manufacturing plants. The variances are due to the tire not the rim.

 

Orion's pictures also show the strip of 8 segments or none at all. No in between.