lead hardness

[hdbiker]

A friend that works as a semi truck mechanic has given me a pail of large semi wheel weights.Would these large weights be the same hardness as auto wheel weights ? hdbiker56

[bangerjim]

Check them with a hardness tester.

They could be.

And they could Zn or Fe too!

WW's vary all over the map today. That's why I no longer mess with them.....too unreliable.

banger

[hickfu]

Try to bend the weight with hands first and then with 2 sets of pliers.... If it bends then its lead and most likely the same as car ones.
I purchased alot of truck weights and they have been working fine ever sense.

Doc

[Tom Myers]

A friend that works as a semi truck mechanic has given me a pail of large semi wheel weights.Would these large weights be the same hardness as auto wheel weights ? hdbiker56

Finest kind. Mostly lead antimony and tin. Very little weight lost to clips and dross.
For many years, I drove over the road for North Star Transport and, during all those years, my supply of lead came from North Star's truck shop in Roseau, Mn. I would regularly check the specific gravity of those weights and they were more consistent than the few car sized wheelweights that were thrown in among the truck weights.

[Harry O]

I got a bunch of truck WW's several years ago. At the time, the Bhn was around 13 after it set a few weeks. The car WW's I had at about the same time was Bhn 9-10. Way back in the late 1980's to early 1990's, car WW's were harder, but not now. And car WW's have a lot of non-lead stuff in them now. They are almost impossible to get and not worth the trouble.

The truck WW's were good stuff. They cast well and there was not much weight lost to clips and other things because they were so large. Unfortunately, I only have 20 or 30 pounds of it left.

[KYCaster]

The last bunch of truck weights I got had some Zn weights in it.

I agree with Banger......WW is getting to be too much hassle.

Jerry

[spfd1903]

I just got a pile of truck WW's from a friend. They are huge. To weed out the zinc or steel WW's, take a pair of side cut pliers and apply pressure. If the pliers bite in and leave an indentation, they are Lead alloy. With zinc and steel, the hardest hand pressure will not leave a mark. I went through four buckets of auto WW's this summer. BHN varied between 11 and 14.

[jhalcott]

A friend of mine was an over the road driver. He picked up a 30 pound box of WW's I picked them ALL up with a large magnet. I did NOT grab them on the clips. This was about 2 years ago. The recycle guy does this every time a batch of WW's come thru.