Bead Balancing tires.

[U-turn]

So I come from a cow town in central MO where there are a lot of tractors, hill billys, and some crazy ideas that sometimes even work. On that note, has anyone ever heard of Bead Balancing a set of tires? I've done some research online about it and come up with a few things for tractors and semi trucks, but not much on civilian use. I'm mounting a set of 33x10.50'son my truck and I'd like to give this a go. From everything that I've read it looks like I'll need about 6oz of pellet gun be-be's to make this work. Has anyone heard of this or know of any formulas to make this work? Maybe even tried it out and has some informative feed back? Thanx. :safari-rig:

 

[owhiting]

Never had any luck with the beads or the powders for balancing on tires under 35 inches. Might just be me. A friend did a Jeep with 37 BFG MT and beads and it shakes too. I would just stick with the old fashion lead weights.

 

[frgtwn]

Dyna Beads, two words.

You can find them here: http://www.innovativebalancing.com/index.php They can be found locally at RV places, but there are several choices, so shop wisely.

Yes, BBs, soft pellets, golf balls, and all sorts of crazy stuff has been used, and some of it actually works. There are many threads on this subject, and reviews are mixed. Loved 'em/Hated 'em. Place me in the former, though I understand some of their limitations.

First, the powders (Equal) may not be the best for 4wheeling, because they are useless when wet, and may never be powder again. A tire can burp while submerged, and let a little water in. No more powder.

I prefer the (larger diameter) offroad Dyna Bead, which cannot be added through the valve, but neither will it come out the valve. (They make filters for that .) The website makes recommendations for ounces needed per tire size, and I would assume that formula would work for anything short of pancake mix.

The arguments for beads are strong, the best argument against may be that "they don't work." Cannot argue with that, but for me, they do work. I did have a 5000 mile mostly road trip to sort it all out, finding a slight shake at higher pressures (60-65lbs), on a 235 85 16 mounted on stock 4Runner rims on a 98 Tacoma. Lowered the pressure below 55 pounds, and no trouble at all. I like that I can lower the pressure to whatever I want, offroad wherever, whenever, gather rocks, mud, junk on tire, air up, and hit the interstate with no balancing issues. And never lose a weight, and never have to balance at all.

As I recall, I purchased the 30oz bag, divided it equally in 5 parts, and asked the tire installer to carefully pour the contents of each baggy in the tire before seating it on the rim. You can hear the beads by simply rolling the tire/wheel on pavement, or sometimes even driving slowly on a smooth, quiet street. It does take a little bit of rotation of the wheels before the magic balancing act occurs. But, it does.

I know, no pics.
Musta been purty boring.
Dale

 

[scrubber3]

I have them and as stated they take a few rotations to kick in, but they work fine for me and without the hassle of the weights and having to get them balanced every so often is a huge plus for me. I am an advocate so far.

 

[Rovertrader]

I've had mixed results, but overall not too bad with one exception. I recently couldn't get a set of tires balanced well enough, so added the beads. Well, it was still hit and miss- after much lamenting and investigating- found the tires were rotating on the wheels. The beads had in fact done a decent job, but masked a potential serious problem. In the end, I have decided if all is right, there is no reason in today's world a tire/wheel combo cannot be balanced with weights- preferably stick ons as close to center as possible. Perhaps not the best example, but this was a very frustrating situation and took considerable time to solve.

 

[huskyfargo]

I had them on my jeep and liked them. I have them on my trailer and they do well. I'll probably get them when I get new tires on my LR3. I was really pleased with the results.

 

[wADVr]

I tried these after loosing crimp on wheel weights and/or spinning the wheels in the tires. Worked great, tires ran out smooth and never cupped, got out of round etc. I used about 8oz in each of the BFG MT KMs in a 305/70 16 (33") and ran them for over 50k like that. Only adverse affect noticed was when slowing to a stop light you could hear them bouncing around, this took a little getting used to as it sounded like a rock stuck in the brakes or worn pads with the rivits making contact.

 

[Ironwagon]

I enjoy being a DIY'er, and always thought knowing how to balance a tire would be a useful skill. I still think it is, but I no longer pretend I could ever out perform a dedicated tire balancing machine..
That being said, I gave it a shot with my 35" MT/R's and learned a few lessons. All the charts floating around might offer a good starting point, but were way off in my case. I think I started with about 6-8 ounces of weight and created a rolling disaster. That combo was so out of balance the truck nearly wobbled off the highway. If your tires are 4 oz out of balance, adding 8 oz of beads leaves you with a 4 oz imbalance. The extra weight did not redistribute evenly, there was always a noticeable shake until I got the exact amount of beads into each tire. And of course, you don't know how much they need, unless you try...
In the end, two tires needed about 1 ounce, and the other two were fine with zero. Which was basically how I had been running them(never bothered with a balance) for a while until I decided to 'improve' things, lol.

I do believe the process works. But dismounting the tire/wheel from the vehicle, breaking the bead, adding/removing/weighing beads, re-seating the bead, mounting the combo back onto the Jeep and test driving, was quite a chore. It took some time, and 35's aren't light. My local Discount Tire balances for free and they do it in less than thirty minutes. And they get the sore muscles, not me.

I usually do not have the tires balanced when I first purchase them(just on my Cherokee) just to see how bad they really are. I've had three sets of MT/R's that have been fine that way. If I can do without weights, it's one less thing to deal with.
Just my experience.

 

[roninjiro]

I have been using the same concept but different approach. Centramatic wheel balancers. I have been running them a few years now with no complaints and good results

 

[U-turn]

Thank you guys for all the feed back. I think I'm going to give it a go and see what happens. I have access to a tire mounter and balancer so it will be a little easier for the trial and error side of the job. I'll be mounting the tires up on Sunday, so I'll give some feed back next week and letcha know how it goes. :Mechanic:

 

[Overbear]

I run 6 golf balls in each 33" tire, works just fine.

Its called dynamic balancing and it works much better than weights for large tires that end up aired down and up all the time. For a street car, regular weights are fine, but when you air down all the time, end up with flat spots (from sitting undriven for stretchch of time), and/or spin the tire on the rim (or worse,break the bead all the time) it really is the right way to go. Also keep in mind you won't see it on a tire balancer, it doesn't spin the tire up fast enough for the dynamic media to workUsuallyly you must go above 30-35mph before the weight can shift ancentrifugalal force takes over.

 

[U-turn]

I run 6 golf balls in each 33" tire, works just fine.

Its called dynamic balancing and it works much better than weights for large tires that end up aired down and up all the time. For a street car, regular weights are fine, but when you air down all the time, end up with flat spots (from sitting undriven for stretchch of time), and/or spin the tire on the rim (or worse,break the bead all the time) it really is the right way to go. Also keep in mind you won't see it on a tire balancer, it doesn't spin the tire up fast enough for the dynamic media to workUsuallyly you must go above 30-35mph before the weight can shift ancentrifugalal force takes over.

You've got my attention. Thanx. Do you know what your tire/wheel weight is? Or could you just let me know what tire (brand/model) and what wheel your running? Is the tire a 10.50 0r 12.50? Just trying to find a starting point.

 

[the Rewster]

Really? Golf balls? How long have you had these in? What about high speed on dirt?
I would think that they would bounce all over the place.

 

[78Bronco]

Really? Golf balls? How long have you had these in? What about high speed on dirt?
I would think that they would bounce all over the place.

It works.

 

[Overbear]

You've got my attention. Thanx. Do you know what your tire/wheel weight is? Or could you just let me know what tire (brand/model) and what wheel your running? Is the tire a 10.50 0r 12.50? Just trying to find a starting point.

Goodyear MTR's 33/12.50/15's... but it doesnt matter. 33-37's just run 6 good quality golfballs (new, used ones tend to have breaks in the cover)

Really? Golf balls? How long have you had these in? What about high speed on dirt?
I would think that they would bounce all over the place.

In now about 5 years, and they do bounce when you come to a stop, *LOL* you can hear them ping around if you really listen close.