BHN of Semi truck wheel weights

[straight-shooter]

I've been quitely using the search function here for quite some time now. I'm getting real close to casting my first lngots when my equipments arrives next week. I would like to thank this forum for all the great information I've learned so far! :drinks:

My question is this.... I found a source for wheel weights from semi truck rims at a company I work at. Is the BHN the same for these as regular car wheel weights :confused: Most of these wheel weights average between 8 oz to 14 oz each and look quite a bit darker in color than car weights.

[Jim]

Straight,
What I know about WW manufacturing, you could put in a thimble. HOWEVER, I would imagine it's the same alloy as that used in the smaller WWs for autos. Seems to me they would just use bigger molds for bigger weights for bigger vehicles.

[yondering]

I've read that they may be different, but truck wheel weights are all I've used, and BHN seems to be about the same as what car wheel weights should be.

[Just Duke]

The wheel weights off the semi trucks will stop a larger, moving animal than than wheel weights off a car, right?.

[Just Duke]

Just kidding. :kidding:

Welcome to the forum straight-shooter. :)

[yondering]

Hits em like a Mack truck!

[gon2shoot]

Mine are averaging about 14, but don't tell anyone, or everybody will be tryin to getem.

[smokemjoe]

A friend from a truck shop gave me some and there were pure lead.

[Jim]

Duke, you ain't right!:-D

Joe, pure lead, huh? I'm surprised.

[straight-shooter]

The weights I looked at today looked more to be harder than normal car weights. I tryed to scratch them with my thumbnail but couldn't. So I used a screw driver to scratch it and suceeded but barely.
I'm thunkin' their hardun's aight. ;)

[chaos]

I got a bunch of 'em and alloyed them rigth in with my regular old WW's. Bullets cast from my car ww's weigh pretty near the same as those with a bunch of the Big ww's in the alloy............ Cant be too far off. The beer cans that I use for targets cant even tell the difference

[JIMinPHX]

I’ve been told some stray rumors about truck WW being a little harder than car WW. That would make sense since the larger truck WW have more force acting on them when they are in use. I haven’t tested any though. Whatever they are, I’m sure that you can make them work for casting boolits. If worse comes to worse, you might want to add in a little plumbers lead to soften them up a tad if you want to make pistol boolits out of them. If nothing else, you can certainly find people here on the board that will buy them from you or trade with you for them.

[prs]

I got a good mess o' them big ole lead banannas a few years back. They seemed to be about the same as typical WW alloy, cast well.

prs

[cbrick]

I’ve been told some stray rumors about truck WW being a little harder than car WW. That would make sense since the larger truck WW have more force acting on them when they are in use.

??? The ONLY forces acting upon the wheel weights on a car or a truck is the rotational forces. Since most cars typically go considerably faster than most trucks and a small car with small wheel diameters going at the same MPH would spin them even faster yet, a car would place more rotational force on a WW than would a truck.

ALL of the truck weights I've used BHN tested the same as car weights.

Rick

[fishhawk]

but! you are forgeting that the truck WW is further away from the center of rotation

[cbrick]

but! you are forgeting that the truck WW is further away from the center of rotation

Yep, it is and that would speed it up in relation to "it's" hub (or center of rotation) but not as fast as a small tire spinning at a much higher RPM by both being smaller and traveling down the road at a higher MPH. Take two vehicles, one with 26 inch tires and one with 13 inch tires, paint a white strip across the tread and run them both at the same MPH, the 13 incher tires white stripe will contact the road surface twice for every time the 26 incher will. Now give the 13 inch vehicle an additional 20 or 30 MPH . . . How fast is that 13 inch tires WW spinning now?

The only other thing is that the truck weight is heavier but they also have a much larger steel clip holding them on. No need for a truck weight to be harder (stronger) than a car weight.

Truck stick-on weights are no harder than car stick-on weights and they work on truck alloy wheels as well as on a cars alloy wheels. Why would the mfg's go to the expense of making a special lead alloy for truck weights?

Truck weights I've used BHN test the same as car weights whether air cooled or HT.

Rick

[fishhawk]

but! the rim speed of the truck tire is faster in relation to it's RPM so more centrifacal force will be impareted to the truck tire

[cbrick]

but! the rim speed of the truck tire is faster in relation to it's RPM so more centrifacal force will be impareted to the truck tire

OK, truck weights are stronger.

[Just Duke]

but! you are forgeting that the truck WW is further away from the center of rotation

Indeed!!! :drinks:

[Just Duke]

OK OK let's give the new guy a break guys. lol
If you want to be sure just melt the semi weights down and use them for your higher velocity rifle rounds Straight Shooter.

[fishhawk]

may be the same alloy but being they are "bigger" and thicker they must be stronger. right ?

[Shotgun Luckey]

I don't think YOU should use truck wheel weights.....send them to me for proper disposal....I would even charge you for the service.

[straight-shooter]

I don't think YOU should use truck wheel weights.....send them to me for proper disposal....I would even charge you for the service.

Yeah ok, I'll get them out tomorrow to you.... Uh, HEY what are you trying to do! LOL ! :mrgreen:

The garage said it would take about 2 months to get 3/4 of a bucket full for me but the size of those "bananas" should make for a hefty bucket. I'm working on getting sources for lead in this area but having limited success at this point. If I can hit the jackpot I'll certainly be offering up some surplus to the board here.

[JIMinPHX]

??? The ONLY forces acting upon the wheel weights on a car or a truck is the rotational forces. Since most cars typically go considerably faster than most trucks and a small car with small wheel diameters going at the same MPH would spin them even faster yet, a car would place more rotational force on a WW than would a truck.

Rick

I was figuring that since the truck weights are much longer than the car weights, that the leverage working against the area near the clip would be a lot greater since the torque arm in the equation would be so much longer relative to the cross section.

I will admit that I was just shooting from the hip when I made that statement. I didn’t bother to take the time to calculate the centripetal acceleration of weights on different sized wheels at the same road speed. It did cross my mind. I was just being lazy then. Still am now.