It's fairly typical to use more/heavier wheel weights to balance large wheels and heavier tires than for smaller wheels/tires, but really it has a lot to do with how well balanced the wheels are by themselves, how well balanced the tires are (which depends a lot on the manufacturing process and quality control), and of course how accurate the balance machine is.

I've seen different patterns of stick-on wheel weights, and a long strip like that sometimes is done if the tech doesn't realize they can stack them and put the same amount of weight in a smaller area, similar to a more traditional hammer-on weight.

As long as the wheel/tire combo is balanced right and there's no noise/wobble to indicate otherwise, it should be fine.

Just remember to get them rotated and re-balanced every so often, since the more weight required to balance, the worse the wear will be if they are off balance for too long.

 

and of course how accurate the balance machine is.

OR how lazy the monkey operating the machine is. a tire can be rotated on the wheel to the optimum placement that results in the least amount of weight required to balance. most don't do this.... time is money.

did a robot balance these? not sure. but if one did, it surely wasn't programed to rotate the tire until the lease amount of weight could be used....time is money.

 

Every time you get new tires the number of weights and distribution will change. I've even had a few tires over the years where no weights were needed. It all depends on the tire and rims.

 

On my last vehicle, I had a crazy amount of weights, probably running up 1/3 of the barrel on OEM wheel and tire.. side by side, stacked, two rows.. you name it. Dealership had replaced 5 wheels and 4 tires trying to eliminate some crazy vibrations at speed. They got it down to a tolerable level.. but it was still not perfect.

After switching out to brand new tires and going to a big box auto store (Canadian Tire) I was down to 1-3 stick-on weights per wheel (still OEM wheels). And they were much smoother than factory/dealership balancing.

 

After switching out to brand new tires and going to a big box auto store (Canadian Tire) I was down to 1-3 stick-on weights per wheel (still OEM wheels). And they were much smoother than factory/dealership balancing.

That's what I would expect. I personally would never take a car to a dealer for a tire or wheel problem, since they are not experts at that. In the US, I have found Costco Tire and Discount Tire to have very good service, but I am sure there are others.

For alignments, I went to a suspension shop recommended by Costco Tire (they don't do them) and it was the best alignment I ever had (they did three test drives and made adjustments after each one).

It is interesting that the weights they now use seem to be Iron (Fe) and not Lead. I guess that Lead (which is heavier than Iron) is too hazardous to the environment.

 

Tire brand really has nothing to do with how many wheel weights. It's coincidence that the new tires that happened to be a different brand had fewer weights. I'd bet anything that keeping the same brand tire (only newer) the wheel weights would have changed.