Balancing your larger tires...best method?

Haf-E

Expedition Leader
You could always use propylene glycol (PG) antifreeze which is non-toxic and biodegradable.
 

chasespeed

Explorer
Only concern I would have with the dynamic balancing, is if you have a vehicle that could be prone to death wobble. That split second could certainly exaggerate it. Then again, might not.

I fought it on my Cummins, and was going to switch to the centramatics, but, new rims solved it, so, I never sprung for them.

The ones on my WJ are standard balance.

Rich, you could opt for the "lifetime" balance option from a chain, Sears, Firestone, etc. toss a weight. Roll it in.
But, I would go with stick on weights. Haven't had one come off....

Chase
 

MOguy

Explorer
Only concern I would have with the dynamic balancing, is if you have a vehicle that could be prone to death wobble. That split second could certainly exaggerate it. Then again, might not.

I fought it on my Cummins, and was going to switch to the centramatics, but, new rims solved it, so, I never sprung for them.

The ones on my WJ are standard balance.

Rich, you could opt for the "lifetime" balance option from a chain, Sears, Firestone, etc. toss a weight. Roll it in.
But, I would go with stick on weights. Haven't had one come off....

Chase

I have using dana beasts and BBs for about 10 years. You are more likely to loose a weight and have a balance issue the dealing the fraction of a second it takes balance using beads or fluid.
 

chasespeed

Explorer
I have using dana beasts and BBs for about 10 years. You are more likely to loose a weight and have a balance issue the dealing the fraction of a second it takes balance using beads or fluid.

I'm not adverse to trying it. But, I'm not having an issue with the current tires myself.
Just a thought is all.

Chase
 

tbared

Life participant
I ran airsofts on my 47s to try out. Then on my next set i paid for Dyna Beads oweing to how the beads worked out. On my next set of tires i went back to airsofts only to recompare. So, that being said, i will try Centramatics next but so far the only difference between beads are that the airsofts started to break down when i pulled them at 150K. Dynas only had 100k and no break down. Now stock i had horrible death wobble. So much so thought i would never safely get big tires on the rig. I put on the biggies with new balanced rims with the airsofts and wobble no more why? I dont kno.. Anyways, as for the wobble cant say, bumps on the other hand when unloaded are horrible, loaded nothing at 65mph. So, my experience if there is a split second of bead scatter i cant say either. My experience beads are just fine Centramatics may end up better. But for now im happ..
 

MOguy

Explorer
I'm not adverse to trying it. But, I'm not having an issue with the current tires myself.
Just a thought is all.

Chase

I would tend to loose weights. So I tied BBS. They worked for the 10 years I have been running interco tires, TrXus MTs and now super swamper bias ply. These tire take balance better with beads or BBs.
 
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rickc

Adventurer
I also had a Hummer with 37" tires and always used tire shops with Hunter GSP9700 balancers. The Hunter website has a locator tool: http://www.hunter.com/gsp9700

I never had any issues with shimmies/wobbles/whatever; these Hunter machines really are very good.
 

1stDeuce

Explorer
I got tired of tires going out of balance on me, so I decided to experiment with airsoft BB's. About two years ago, I balanced the 235/85R16's on our Comanche with about 5 oz per tire of .30g BB's. The BB's didn't help the 47mph shimmy that's always been there, but it did take care of higher speed balance issues. At this point, I'm calling it a success, and blaming the shimmy on alignment, since it didn't change when I went from proper weights to BB's, and doesn't change with tire rotation either.

I just put new LR G tires on my trailer, and tossed in 6oz of .28g bb's when I mounted the tires. Zero noticeable shake up to 70mph. Success. With that, I decided to try them in my truck too. The 265/70R17 New Fun Country tires were perpetually out of balance by just enough to bug me at 70-75MPH... I mounted up some 285/80R17 ST Maxx's a few weeks ago and tossed in 6oz per tire again. It's only been on a few trips up to CO, but it runs baby's butt smooth up to 75.

At this rate, I'm never going back to weights.

I did hear that the BB's can "bounce around" after a bump, resulting in some additional "bumpy road" feeling. I have not noticed this on my truck, nor on the comanche. Perhaps it becomes more of an issue with really big tires on a lighter vehicle...
As usual, YMMV
 

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