The voice of doom?

[imashooter2]

Posted on the S&W Forum reloading section:


I work for one of the largest manufacturer and supplier of tire repair products in the world. I was told this afternoon that the last case of LEAD wheel weights had left the warehouse. Europe had required lead free wheel weights for a few years now and the US is expected to follow suit shortly.

So for the last few years we have been replacing our wheel weights with lead free versions. I mentioned this before but no one seemed to believe. Well, we supply companies like Sears, Goodyear, Firestone etc. so within a few months I expect you should start looking closely at the scrap wheel weights you are collecting.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/570103904/m/4141070242

[targetshootr]

That gave me a sinking feeling.

[44man]

I priced brass yesterday and was shocked. Same as gas checks, price has gone out of sight. If we have to switch to condom bullets with the prices asked, we are in a heap of trouble. I have doubts that buying lead will be any cheaper. We might have to load enough for hunting season and quit shooting all year.
I got sticker shock with arrows and broadheads too, let alone a new bow. All of our sports are going to be for the rich. I seen a guy flying a radio control model that he had $5000 in.
Won't be able to even buy corn for moon any more.

[NuJudge]

All the Zinc wheelweights I have seen have had "Zn" on them, or Japanese or German makers' logos on them. Here's a US maker that is putting "Zn" on most, but not all, Zinc wheelweights:

http://www.perfectequipment.com/non_lead.php

CDD

[targetshootr]

I imagine something like that would have to be phased in since tire shops have deals with battery companies, etc. Anyhoo, I'll see everyone at the shops tomorrow and I'm bringing my sharp elbows.

[Single Shot]

Never realized how many tons of lead wheel weights become airborne lead dust in your neighbor hood.

http://www.leadfreewheels.org/problem.shtml

http://www.leadfreewheels.org/

Keep in mind that the source is a group trying to ban the lead weights but the EPA has not done so. In fact, they refused to do so. (Until the political wind shifts.)

I think instead of selling my excess alloy on flea bay. I will start keeping it. :castmine:

[Scrounger]

Never realized how many tons of lead wheel weights become airborne lead dust in your neighbor hood.

http://www.leadfreewheels.org/problem.shtml

http://www.leadfreewheels.org/

Keep in mind that the source is a group trying to ban the lead weights but the EPA has not done so. In fact, they refused to do so. (Until the political wind shifts.)

I think instead of selling my excess alloy on flea bay. I will start keeping it. :castmine:

Airborne lead dust? Hmm, someone should be able to figure out a machine to collect it, like an anode(?) and place it near a busy street and have a continuous supply coming in....

[44man]

A wheel weight can lay on the side of the road until doomsday and not hurt a thing. The dust comes from those liberals chewing on them to show they are dangerous.

[imashooter2]

Single Shot, if those numbers were anywhere close to real, we wouldn't have to go down to tire shops and scrounge weights. We'd just run on down to the highway with a shovel and a bucket. The weights would be piled 4 foot high on the shoulder.

[44man]

How many here have had a tire suddenly go out of balance from a lost weight? I never lost a weight in 52 years! I found one in a parking lot once because the woman hit the curb.
It's just more smoke blowing from tree huggers.

[mto7464]

I am glad I just picked up another bucket. I know a road were there is about
200lbs of wheel weights in the ditch. My friend had a full bucket fly off his flatbed into the ditch (maybe a tree hugger saw this). Maybe I should get my nail magnet and go look for them.

[Bret4207]

I had a WW come off a car and hit me in the chest once as I walked along a road. This was back when kids WALKED places as opposed to having Mommy chaufer them every place. Wasn't very big and hurt like crazy. Thought I was KILT!

The thought occurs I'm a victim. Whom do I sue?

[dromia]

They are looking at "mining", by using ecoli bacteria, road dust and river mud for the platinum that comes from catalytic converters.

They say it is economically viable.

[targetshootr]

There are a number of people in jail who were self-employed catalytic converter miners. :)

[quack1]

I always take a quick look along the edge of the road when I'm waiting for red lights and have found quite a few wheel weights laying there. Get a few strange looks when I get out and pick them up, but so what. I know, have the disease pretty bad. Always thought it strange that they fall off when the wheel is slowing or stopped instead of when it is spinning faster.
imashooter2 where in Pa. are you?

[45Spades]

I could be wrong.....let me ask my wife..........yep I'm wrong.

But if the demand for WW declines that should cause a decrease in demand which equates to an increase in the available supply. The fly in the ointment is that the decrease in demand SHOULD equate to a lower price which SHOULD equate to a decrease in production. BUT there will be (a definite maybe) an increase in the available raw materials. It could turn out that we may be able to find casting material but at a price.

I should have been an economist!:confused:
:mrgreen:

[dromia]

Maybe 45Spades, Maybe! :-D

Or perhaps a weatherman, attracts the same type as economics.

[AZ-Stew]

An important question is, "What percentage of the market is supplied by "the world's largest supplier of tire repair products""?

If they're only supplying 25 percent of the total market, there's no reason for immediate panic. On the other hand, if they're supplying 75 percent of the market, we may be in trouble.

Regards,

Stew

[imashooter2]

I read somewhere, sometime that there were only 2 major manufacturers of WW in the US and that was why the alloy was so consistent. Could be pure BS, there may be hundreds of them.

That said, any domestic manufacturer turning production away from lead has to be a bad sign.

[BluesBear]

One of my brothers is a service manager for Firestone. As of yesterday he hadn't heard anything about a change in wheel weights. But then the higher-ups may be keeping them in the dark.

They have a contract to recycle their used weights with the WW provider. If they were stopping production of lead WW they why do they still want the used lead?
What are they going to do, recycle the clips?

A small Firestone store uses 15 pounds of WW per week. The large ones use well over 50. Multiply that by the thousands of tire stores in the USA. That's a heck of a lot of lead!
It that production stops that will mean a noticible drop in lead consumption.
That means the price should plummet due to the surplus.

My local Goodyear (where they sell a 5 gal bucket for $40) store just received a new shipment of WW this morning. The manager said he knew nothing about the change either. He said they tried zinc weights a few years ago and they don't work nearly as well.

Years ago I worked a summer in a service station. (That was back when they were actually about SERVICE. Now they're just gas stations.) I changed a lot of flat tires. Back then we patched them from the inside. And of course we had to rebalance them when finished.
Wheel weights fly off when they're not applied properly.
If you don't hammer it on completely, or if you try to attach a weight to a damaged rim they WILL some off.

I have known some rip-off stores that improperly installed them on purpose. A few days later when the weights came off and the customer (usually a woman) returned asking about the wobble they would be told the flat had caused a belt in the tire to break and they needed a new tire. In addition to the "discounted" (yeah right) price of a new tire, there was always the $5 "disposal charge" for a perfectly good tire that would be sold a few days later for $10-$15.
Funny how the belts only broke on good tires on nice cars.

[mtgrs737]

Don't them tree hugging fools know that Zinc is poisionous too?

[Topper]

Sad state of affairs.
Guess I better do some berm mining.