Reusing wheel weights for wheel weights

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Last week I was on a road trip which was out of my normal territory.
I had some extra time,
so I thought I'd stop by some tire shops and ask for some WW's.
One place, was a New building next to a New strip mall.
I ask the tire guy for some WW,
he says, How many do you want ?
I say a bucket or two...whatever you have,
I'll pay up to 30¢ a lb for all you have.
He says he has a box full.
I walk with him to his very neatly kept tire balancing area.
He has small bins lined up on the shelf,
each bin has size sorted 'USED' WW's
and a small box on the floor with badly bent WW's...maybe one lb of them.
He says, Is that enough ?
I asked him... "you reuse WW's ? Isn't that NOT the typical practice
and maybe against some DOT law ?"
He said, we've always reused WW's.

Has anyone else come across a chain type tire shop that reuses WW's ?

BTW, I scored a five gallon bucket full at another shop. That tire guy says he wants $5. I hurry and dump his barrel into my two buckets (each half full) and pick up the ones on the floor. As I was leaving, a different guy asks, what ya doin' there...I want $30 for those... (this was after I paid the first guy $5), Not a big deal, but I better be quicker at that shop next time :)
Jon

[geargnasher]

Lots of small shops here reuse them on trailer wheels, ugly cars, and when installing used tires, but not the big outfits.

Gear

[Dillon]

a lot of the small guys reuse them like gear said. There usually the ones that give the ones in really bad shape away for free though. i got a 3 gallon bucket full of broken weights last week for free.

[mac1911]

used clip on wheel weights twnd to loose their grip and fling off after a short time. With the price of new wheel weights Im not surprised of the re use. I had a car in the shop where @ some point some one hot glued the wheel weights on- I assume recycled wheel weights.

I was under the impression that it was law that wheel weights could not be re installed ?
Also I thought it was law that any tire that no longer has enough tread or down to the wear bars had to have the side wall cut to prevent being used again ?

Our shop install new WWs and tire valves on any tire/rim that is serviced in our shop. If the bead is seperated from the rim it gets new WW and valve CYA

[PepperBuddha]

Used to re-use them on the inside of the rim. Shiny new ones on the outside.

[10 ga]

One of the local guys has a "used tires" shop. No new tires, just used. He even cuts the used WWs with a chisel to get different weights. I get the WWs that have the clips sprung so they don't hold on wheel. I also get the end pieces he cuts off the weights. That is the only place I have seen use the practice of "custom" WWs. He's a nice guy and most of his customers are poorer than dirt. I give him the regular $25 for a full 5 gal bucket but usually he barely has enough for a 3 gal bucket. 10 ga

[Jeffrey]

I recently traded about 10# fishing sikers for 200# of wheelweights. "Give Mr. Jeffrey all the wheelweights he wants" says the men in charge after he got the sinkers. YAHOO!

[evan price]

I hit a Firestone, they said they use cast iron new weights now, but they don't hold well, so they save and stockpile used lead weights for the cars that have problems with iron weights.

[dnepr]

we did re-use wheel weights for a bit at the garage I worked at for years but it was discussed between us mechanics and decided it wasn't worth the hassle to rebalance tires if they fell off , worked out well for me a few years latter when I started casting , allowed me to get a reasonable stockpile of lead before I stopped pulling wrenches for a living

[JDFuchs]

around me there are two types of tire shops. Big ones who have an exclusive contract with a recycler or small shops who reuse there WW's. Ive found going to the few indoor ranges for $0.40 a pound to be far more worth my time then spending a half day and gas searching shops to come home empty handed.

[mold maker]

I wont do any tire biz where they reuse the weights. If they cut corners just to save a few cents on WWs, what other short cuts do they take?
I get my tires where I get my WWs, and have made that known to all my friends and family. They bring me weights when having tire work done.
I'm waiting on cooler weather to smelt the growing supply of sorted lead.

[cajun shooter]

It is against the law for several reasons. Once the steel is bent and then pried off it is sprung and will never hold the same as new. If you pay X amount of dollars for tire balance and they fly off then you have been cheated. It could and has done auto damage. It puts the lead into the outdoors where the animals will pick it up and become lead exposed after they have it for supper. Last sentence is meant as dry humor.The tire shop that I used put used weights on my truck the last time I bought tires. I did not know until I was at home. They said that is all they do now.