Anyone hear this yet?

[histed]

Dropped a friend off tonight at one of the local tire shops and thought I'd inquire about acquiring a few more wheel weights. The owner told me that 1) no one in the US makes them out of lead any more, 2) all new lead wheel weights will be coming from "over seas" (China??) and 3) uncle sugar will be requiring shops to ordering new weights to produce and equal amount of old weights. Therefore, I was told, they are hanging on to their old weights. Straight 411, or a somewhat polite way of telling me to get stuffed? So far as I know, the local salvage yard is still selling both COWW and lead as always. Just askin'

[jsizemore]

Either the company line or something he read on the internet. I think 'bite me' is in order, except politely.

[waynem34]

Either the company line or something he read on the internet. I think 'bite me' is in order, except politely.

lol
HHAAHAAHA

[dragon813gt]

PA does not have a lead wheel weight ban. Shops can still buy lead ones just fine. I have no clue how #3 would even be enforced. Most large shops already have deals w/ places like Interstate Battery. They want the old weights and batteries to make new batteries out of. No new cars are coming off the line w/ lead weheel weights thanks to CA's and other states banning of them. This is the biggest problem.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Sounds like that shop owner has been licking coal dust too much!Robert

[bikerbeans]

A friend my mine owns a scrap yard and he is still buying and selling real WWs.

BB

[Zymurgy50]

How many of us are pulling wheel weights off our rims before we go to the tire store to buy new tires????

[dragon813gt]

Better be doing that in the parking lot of the store ;)

[btroj]

That sort of thing has been mentioned on this site numerous times over the years. My bet is they just don't want to give them away or they bought into some one of BS they heard somewhere

[bangerjim]

Next there will be bands of "casters" roaming the streets at night stealing stupid WW's off cars!


Forget stupid WW's and buy your alloys and make your own mixes! Much cleaner and easier. And think of the tanks of propane you will save not having to smelt and flux 3x! Make your soup in your casting pot.

banger

[C. Latch]

I asked a tire-store employee about weights several months ago, and was told they were all aluminum now.

Recognizing what I was dealing with, I made a mental note to return when the owner was around, as said employee mentioned that there were several buckets of those 'aluminum' weights sitting out back.

[Bad Water Bill]

I think some scrap yards have sold the tire shops B S.

I checked what the yard was paying

.09 per pound if you delivered your weights to the only place you could legally dispose of them.

At that time the yard would gladly sell me all of the weights I wanted at ONLY .65 per pound.

WOW a 700% markup for storing them in a 55 gal drum.

Yes Illinois passed a law forbidding the use of lead weights several years ago.

[histed]

sizemore- that's kinda what I was thinking - maybe he's a caster and doesn't want to share.
bangerjim - where do you buy your alloys? I can't say I enjoy smelting, so I'll try almost anything once.
Appreciate the feedback from everyone - good feel for the country as a whole

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

a lot of auto shop owners race or have employees who race , and they melt the wheel weights for race car weights , that and cheap tractor weights are the biggest competition i have

the tire shop tosses all the weight in the same bucket they are a half to a third non lead now I think this actually gets me more lead now than before because i am the only one willing to melt the hole works down ans skim off the junk but the tire shop i frequent only does 1 to 2 pails a year in volume

[w5pv]

Sounds like the Aliant Powder story all BS

[bangerjim]

sizemore- that's kinda what I was thinking - maybe he's a caster and doesn't want to share.
bangerjim - where do you buy your alloys? I can't say I enjoy smelting, so I'll try almost anything once.
Appreciate the feedback from everyone - good feel for the country as a whole

I get my pure lead from several local scrap yards.

I have also found at those yards lino and hardball equivalent.

I have purchased from several others on here various hardening alloys at very reasonable prices.

Rotometals, a vendor sponsor above, has a wide variety of alloys to choose from. They are guaranteed pure.

bangerjim

[mold maker]

The reason WWs are few and far between doesn't matter. The simple fact is, you had better get a life time supply before their gone. Unlike 22 LR ammo, when they are gone, they wont return, at any price.
When folks like Roto Metals are the only game in town, there will be a new game with the prices.
Remember the lead pipe that was free? How about the flanges around vent pipes on the roof? Remember when the tire guys had to throw WWs in the trash, to get rid of them? Remember the DO DO bird?
The future is gonna be a different world to play in.

[cbrick]

3) uncle sugar will be requiring shops to ordering new weights to produce and equal amount of old weights.

Let's think about BS #3 for a minute, you go to a tire shop to purchase new tires. The weights on your old tires are mising, they either fell off or they are in your casting room but either way you don't have any. Therefore your new tires cannot be balanced because you didn't have any weights to make obummers EDA happy.

Some people call it the EPA (Enviromental Protection Agency) but it's really the EDA (Economy Destruction Agency).

Anyway all three of his excuses pegged my BS meter but especially #3. Shame people can't simply be honest & say, I save them for the battery company or a friend uses them or whatever. That would be much better than figuring this guy is too stupid to know the difference so I'll just feed him a line of BS.

Rick