Balancing dirt track wheels. Help.

I bought some Bassett 15x7’s. The Bassett website states: I want to balance my new Bassett Wheels and tires. How do I ensure an accurate balance?
Bassett Racing Wheels are lug-centric, which means the wheel is constructed and trued off of the bolt circle. Do not use hub rings or attempt to balance Bassett Wheels off the center hub bore! We recommend locating a tire shop that uses a Hunter GSP 9700 Road Force balancer. Hunter's website allows you to search by zip code and find the nearest GSP 9700 balancer.

From the results list, call the tire shop before visiting and ask if they have a flange plate bolt pattern adapter for your vehicle's bolt pattern. If they do not, try the next shop on the list.

Once you find a shop that has the bolt pattern flange plate adapter on hand, insist that the tire mounter balance your lug centric wheels without using the GSP 9700 centering cone - just use the flange plate adapter to center the wheel and tire on the machine.

This will result in a properly balanced Bassett Racing Wheel and tire.

i used the link on the hunter website to locate a ire shop near me that has that machine. America’s tire does, but does NOT have the flange adapter plate. 

That was the only tire shop in the area. What have others done? We do have a dirt track nearby, so somebody must have the tooling out here in central Oregon to get it done. 

The dirt track guys are probably not balancing their wheels.  I have had wheels balanced off the bolt circle at big 4x4 shops, so maybe look for place that caters to the offroad crowd?

What he said, circle track guys running wheels that small generally don't balance them. 

I actually think we have that tool at my work. Unfortunately, if I recall, you are in the PNW and I'm in NY, so you're about as far away as possible.

I found a Les Schwab that has the right machine and the flange adapter. Excellent. And they are just down the road from America’s tire. 

I have a hubcentric wheel adapter for this.  It works, bolt adapter to wheel and chuck it up in the balancer on the adapter’s center bore

Patrick said:

I have a hubcentric wheel adapter for this.  It works, bolt adapter to wheel and chuck it up in the balancer on the adapter’s center bore

This seems like a very good idea. 

In reply to Patrick :

Where did you buy that?

If you're in Bend, I wouldn't go to that America's Tire. I can go into more detail elsewhere to avoid filling your thread with an off-topic rant. The Les Schwab there did me right though. 

In reply to thatsnowinnebago :

Do tell! I hate that place too, but use them to pick up my discount tires direct orders. 

I used a pair of Bassett 15x8 wheels on my Challenge car. They were balanced off the center bore and worked fine.

im running my old used up 14" offset dirt track wheels on my gambler Saturn. Not balanced, one even has a tube in it. It's got a bit of shake at 50mph, but it's nothing terrible. 

As most have said short track racers 99.9% don't bother with balancing.

However i normaly did for my car it was easy i used a rotor cause the hub was built in (Chevy Shove-it) Chevette so the cone adapters on a normal balancer could center it fine.   if your doesn't have a that type of hub buy a hub bearing kit and machine out the splines on a lathe.

Both dirt and asphalt, I personally have never seen anyone balance a wheel tire assembly at our local short tracks. Many moons ago, I worked in the tire shed at Concord Speedway. Not a balancer anywhere on the property, and if there were a track I wanted balanced tires at, it would be that one. I never heard anyone complain about out of balance tires either, which just seems odd. I've got some Bassett wheels on my daily driver. Balanced those normally and it's all fine.

Some tracks don't even allow balancing weights on the wheels. 

I think I have the balancer plates most balancers would use for 5 lug 4.5, 4.75, 5, and 5.5".

I'm not sure if I still have the pins for them, but I can look this weekend. Check what model balancer your favorite shop uses and I'll see if what I have will work.

Otherwise, order up a trailer hub with the right bolt pattern and have them use the regular cone through the center of the hub.

In reply to Trackmouse :

Keep in mind most tires have dots to assist with balancing, but IME most tire shops don't know/bother to use them. If they take the time to align the dots correctly, you may not notice the lack of balance at all, if they even need balanced. 

They balanced them, but did tell one wheel was really bent. They also told me that wouldn’t be a big deal. 

Trackmouse said:

In reply to thatsnowinnebago :

Do tell! I hate that place too, but use them to pick up my discount tires direct orders. 

Whoops, I forgot about this thread. Here's the hot dish like five days late:

I went to America's Tire to get some new tires mounted up on my 4runner a couple years ago. I asked them to save the best of the four existing tires to replace my spare. I also told then I'd be keeping the other three. Simple enough right? Nope. After a REALLY long time they come out and tell me that my spare is frozen under the car (it was winter so I wasn't terribly surprised) and they can't change the tire. Fine, no big deal. But then I see charges for five mount/balances on my bill. This is not fine. The tech argued with me over it, saying that they did that on purpose so I can come back later and get the tire swapped. I disagree with that plan. It then takes over an hour for the manager (who is a total condescending prick the entire time) to come out and fix the bill. All done right? Joke's on me again as they also managed to ignore my request to keep my old tires and took like 30 more minutes to dig them out of the used tire pile in the back of the store. It's been snowing this whole time so I then get to load snowy, wet tires into the back of my 4Runner.

Contrast that with my trip to Les Schwab the next day where I spoke to friendly people who were magically able to drop my "frozen" spare and swap the tires in like 15 mins.

 Yeah, I hear you on that place. I have also noticed that they do the “mysterious tacked on fees” to everyone else as well. You have to watch them on that, or you will make it out the door and not realize that all the tacked on fees were for E36 M3 you did not pay for. It really drives me nuts that place can even do that! how is that lawful? 

On this last pick up, First they tried to charge me for valve stems, I told them “noooooo, you aren’t installing the tires since you don’t have the right adapter, remember?”

then the “certificates” for replacement. I told them it’s going on a dirt track car that will be stuffed into a wall a million times. He didn’t flinch. So I elaborated that I could abuse the crap out of these tires at a racetrack and they would have to give me freebies all race season. Suddenly he flinched. 

Then they tried to charge me the “in store” price. Not the discount tire direct price. And said that they don’t honor the website. I pulled up an email from the website stating the they DO. It’s awesome embarrassing these people in front of other customer. And I’m not a quite guy. 

Its the same crap every time. I wonder why I go back, but then I see tire prices at les schwab and remember. (86$ a tire for Chinese crap!)

thats why I order the tires from DTD, pickup for free shipping at America’s tire, drive one block to schwab and have it mounted right for less

And this is all why I want to buy own mounting machine and balancer...

Those mysterious tacked on fees make it hard to get out of one of those places for under $100. I've even been charged a tire disposal fee when I brought in brand new wheels that didn't even have tires on them.

You think that’s bad? If you check out online, they STILL try to charge you for a tire disposal fee! Who the eff is trying to dispose of my tires before they’ve even gotten hands on them? And why are you trying to charge me for something that’s hasnt happened, and how do you know it’ll be your crummy store that does it?!?!

Kind of obvious, but thinking about it a different way, of course if the wheel itself it symmetrical completely balanced, and so it the tire, that is the best case scenario and also there would be no need for any balancing or weights. Also the paint dot on the tire can be used to counter the asymmetry between the tire and wheel so as long as you mount it with the dots lining up I suppose it's possible to find tires that don't need balancing. I have no clue how street tires vs Z rated or racing slicks differ in that regard.