I was in a bigger town the other day and asked a tire dealer about used wheel weights. He had about 700 pounds and wanted 15 cents per pound. Is this a good deal and should I grab then while he still has them or pass and water for more free ones? Thanks Kurt

That's a good price...and free ones are getting kind of rare.

At 15 cents a pound...that would come out to soemthing like 1/2 a cent per bullet in typical .44mag weight. But if even 30% of the weight is lost is metal clips, oxidation, and such, still looking at less than .70cents per hundred in bullet alloy costs.

The local tire store manager charges me the same he gets from the recycler, $2.50/bucket. Although I didn't weigh it, the bucket felt like ~70lbs. That worked out to about 3 cents per pound.

-91

Keep looking at other tire dealers.

I think you can probably buy them from a junk yard for that price. Whats the fun in paying for them, when you can probably find them for free.

I've been to about 20 shops in the last two weeks.

Most of them said they already have a guy who uses them to cast sinkers and bullets.

Many have "contracts" with their battery supplier, and are required to turn them in.

I had one who said he donates them to the local high school.

I had one guy say he tosses them in the dumpster at the end of the day.

I had one guy offer to sell me as many as I wanted for $0.15 a pound.

I had another guy offer to sell me a coffee can full for $5.00.

Two places admitted they reused the weights.

But, I have scored at a few places. Enough for a lot of sore muscles, and several hundred pounds of lead.

You will find that the larger chain stores won't give them to anyone. Seek out independantly owned stores. Expect to get turned away a lot. Expect to have people get rude when you don't want to buy them. Walk away. You can always buy them. You want someone to GIVE them to you.

But also expect to run into a lot of friendly people who are willing to help you out.

Approach all of them the same. With a good attitude.

I just start by asking what they do with their old used wheelweights. The ones who don't immideately say they are already spoken for, I then ask if they would be willing to give them to me.

The size of the town doesn't matter much. Even small towns have tire shops.... unless they are close to a big town with chain stores they can't compete with. (we have three Super-Wal-Mart stores here, two of which have tire service centers. Who can compete with that?) I went to four small towns after work today, none had a service station.

I have noticed a trend in my area. 99% of the "service stations" have torn out the lifts, put windows where the bay doors were, put tile floor and new drywall, and now sell isles of potato chips and pop. Service stations are now convenience stores.

Get this: I found out yesterday that when you take your vehicle to most places to have the tires rotated and balanced, they take the rear tires off, balance them, put them on the front. They put the front tires on the rear without balancing them. This information comes from a guy who I have known for years, and said this has been common practice at the last three places he has worked at. When I asked him about people questioning the old weights still being on the rims, he said that it is easy to explain that they "checked" the balance, and it was good.
(advice: if you go to Wal-Mart, insist on them removing all the old weights prior to balancing)

Dave

My local tire dealer gives me his wheelweights. During periods when the supply is low, or someone else beats me to them I have to go to a scrap yard. No problem. I trade well-used discard brass cases for wheelweights. All the best...
Gil

Just wondering, can any1 give me a good idea about how much a 5 gallon bucket full of wheelweights would weight?

It would be perfect if some1 has actually weighted a bucket full.

Thanks
Michael Grace

About 180 lbs for a heaped bucket. That should give you 120-140 lb of lead. Those clips do add up.

Bye
Jack

I just weighed a 5-gallon bucket I have in the garage.

It was shaken to settle the weights as I filled it. It is level with the rim, full of weights 1.5 ounces and higher. Smaller weights were tossed into a seperate bucket.

It weighed 159 pounds.

Must be a lot of air in there, considering 5 gallons of lead would weigh somewhere around 475 pounds.

Dave

A five gallon bucket filled to the top but not heaped with 12 ounce ingots weighs 300 pounds. The raw weights weighed 154 pounds. I did not sort out the smaller weights but my source dose a lot of work on large trucks and they average a larger size. The latest scrap price was eight cents a pound.I have seen it as high a s 15 cents a pound.

A five gallon bucket filled to the top but not heaped with 12 ounce ingots weighs 300 pounds. The raw weights weighed 154 pounds. I did not sort out the smaller weights but my source dose a lot of work on large trucks and they average a larger size. The latest scrap price was eight cents a pound.I have seen it as high a s 15 cents a pound.

Hey Guys:

Don't pay for wheel weights! You can get them for free. I own a tire shop and yes, we do reuse wheel weights. At my shop we only reuse the good ones which is about 50% of them. BTW, when I charge for rotate and balance, all of the tires get balanced. Don't want you guys thinking I'm some kind of scumbag tire dealer. dwebb210 was right though. Keep looking for smaller independent shops. I know where I am located it is not worth me wasting my time to take the lead to a scrapyard. Doesn't pay enough. Last time I talked to anyone who did it they were getting 2 1/2 cents/lb. That is specifically for wheel weights only. Good luck!

I forgot about the conversion factor. A 5 gallon Canadian pail holds 6 American gallons and a 20 liter pail holds 5.28 American gallons. So a 150-160 lbs in an American pail sounds about right.

Bye
Jack