What is this thing on the sidewall?

[JoeB]

Forgive my ignorance, but my Trialmaster was delivered with one of these metal clip thingies on each tire except the passenger front. Are these superficial?

 

[TheDocAUS]

You will need to post a bigger picture. I cannot see anything with that thumbnail.

There can be lead pieces used to balance the wheel. Like this:

 

[Asnes]

View attachment 7906795Forgive my ignorance, but my Trialmaster was delivered with one of these metal clip thingies on each tire except the passenger front. Are these superficial?

Tire balancing weight

 

[JoeB]

You will need to post a bigger picture. I cannot see anything with that thumbnail.

There can be lead pieces used to balance the wheel. Like this:

Yes that is precisely the piece I am talking about!

 

[JoeB]

So did the dealer decide that one tire didn’t need it?

 

[C-Mack]

Don’t remove them, as stated above by others, these are clip-on wheel weights used to balance the tire and wheel assemblies. Steel wheels typical use the clip-on style weights on the outer and inner curved edge of the wheel rim while alloy wheels use stick-on flat style weights typically located on the inside barrel of the wheel behind the spokes and inside edge of the rim if the wheel assembly was dynamically balanced.

If one or more of your wheels don’t have weights on the outside edge it just means that particular wheel when balanced didn’t need any additional weights to zero it out. They can be a bit unsightly especially if a wheel requires a lot of weight to balance out but exposed weights is just part of the deal with steel wheels.

 

[JoeB]

Don’t remove them, as stated above by others, these are clip-on wheel weights used to balance the tire and wheel assemblies. Steel wheels typical use the clip-on style weights on the outer and inner curved edge of the wheel rim while alloy wheels use stick-on flat style weights typically located on the inside barrel of the wheel behind the spokes and inside edge of the rim if the wheel assembly was dynamically balanced.

If one or more of your wheels don’t have weights on the outside edge it just means that particular wheel when balanced didn’t need any additional weights to zero it out. They can be a bit unsightly especially if a wheel requires a lot of weight to balance out but exposed weights is just part of the deal with steel wheels.

Excellent answer and thank you for the hand holding, much appreciated. All of this makes sense. I’m not bothered by the looks one bit.

 

[Tinerfeño]

... these metal clip thingies on each tire ...

They are actually attached to the wheel (rim) on both sides to achieve full dynamic balance. On alloys they use also sticker type weights.

 

[landmannnn]

Interesting that many of us older people will be very familiar with those hammer on weights.

With the transition to alloy wheels and stick on weights two decades ago many (less old) people will not have seen them.