Equal - Tire Balancing Beads, No weights to Lose

[TravisB]

I doubt it would amount to much but wouldn't anything in there wear the tire on both sides now, reducing it's life?

I have seen people swear by it on big tires but have no experience one way or the other.

I do have fluid filled tractor tires but they ride like crap and have the fluid to add to the weight for traction.

 

[Frankenchevy]

there are quite a few videos on you tube showing it’s effectiveness. I can’t speak about it’s efficacy on large tires other than anecdotal evidence, but on a dirt bike style rim with a single rim lock it works wonders at highway speed. A lot of dual sport guys will run opposing rim locks, but the rotating mass is still imbalanced.

 

[Ron Sebastian]

Just to revisit this post. My tire guy told me if the big tires sit too long they develop flat spots. The beads will find those flat spots and will make matters worse. Any truth to this?

 

[77 K20]

I just realized I never updated this thread. I bought some KMC beadlock wheels and some 37x13.50 tires in September of 2020. Mounted them in my garage and used airsoft pellets.

I had bought some MetalTac Airsoft BBs from Amazon. Came in 2 packages. 0.25g and 8,000 rounds. I split those into 4 equal parts and put them in the tires. Works great.

 

[78C10BigTen]

I just realized I never updated this thread. I bought some KMC beadlock wheels and some 37x13.50 tires in September of 2020. Mounted them in my garage and used airsoft pellets.

I had bought some MetalTac Airsoft BBs from Amazon. Came in 2 packages. 0.25g and 8,000 rounds. I split those into 4 equal parts and put them in the tires. Works great.

Nice tires!!

 

[RacingTurtles]

I might need to try this. I just got one of my spare wheels balanced and the weights they put on are hitting my tie rod end. Infuriating as my other wheels don't do that, and it ended up being a waste of $20 to get that one wheel balanced.

 

[77 K20]

Just to revisit this post. My tire guy told me if the big tires sit too long they develop flat spots. The beads will find those flat spots and will make matters worse. Any truth to this?

My truck has been sitting a lot the last few months. I did drive it last week to get some lumber in it. There was a bit of a shake on the highway. Nothing too bad- but not the typical smoothness. A few miles down the road was the lumber yard. I only bought a few boards (hardly any weight) and some other small items I hit the highway again. Back to being perfectly smooth.
Might have been some flat spots from sitting (tires are only aired up to something like 27 psi). After a few miles the heat and just rotating will work the flat spots out. Now if it was the middle of winter it would take some more driving than just a few miles.

 

[Ricko1966]

I use plain old Crossman BBs I have a chart somewhere that tells me how many ounces of beads per pound of tire. Found it, 1 ounce per 13lbs of wheel and tire.

 

[RacingTurtles]

My truck has been sitting a lot the last few months..... After a few miles the heat and just rotating will work the flat spots out.

Hey there, how do you like those balancing beads? Do they interfere with airing up at all?

 

[77 K20]

Hey there, how do you like those balancing beads? Do they interfere with airing up at all?

I air down probably once a month. No problems at all with them interfering with the valve stems at all.

The only possible drawback I can think of is if you fill up your tires with a lot of moist air maybe the beads would freeze into a clump in the winter? But I air my tires up with a CO2 bottle so there is no moisture.

 

[RacingTurtles]

I air down probably once a month. No problems at all with them interfering with the valve stems at all.

The only possible drawback I can think of is if you fill up your tires with a lot of moist air maybe the beads would freeze into a clump in the winter? But I air my tires up with a CO2 bottle so there is no moisture.

I'm glad to hear it's working out for you. Hmmm, well I hope by the time I hit highway speeds in winter that the beads heat up and stay loose. I'm definitely trying this on some old General Grabbers that I want to kill before I get me some BFGs.

I also wanted to quote something you said earlier
"I had bought some MetalTac Airsoft BBs from Amazon. Came in 2 packages. 0.25g and 8,000 rounds. I split those into 4 equal parts and put them in the tires. Works great."

What are you using to determine how much you need?

I was calculating what I need using this

Aggressive Tire Chart

So you put in 2,000 rounds per tire?
That works out to 17.637 ounces, and the chart says you only need 10 ounces.
Which means you need approximately 1,134 bbs.

 

[Ricko1966]

It's 1 ounce per 13lbs of tire and wheel weight. Got that straight from the mouth of the tech guy when I called dyna beads asking about my application.

 

[77 K20]

Personal experience, recommendations by others, and along with some balance bead formulas I found. Most places said a minimum of 8-10 ounces. Mininum.

The places I go end of packing the wheels in snow, mud, dirt. So now my wheels are imbalanced by foreign material. If there were more balance beads then they can help counter this also.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[RacingTurtles]

I appreciate it folks.
I ordered those same MetalTac ones off Amazon ( $37 ), will get those tires thrown on and see how it works out.

 

[Hunter79764]

FWIW, I am using some of the small ceramic beads in my DD with something like 205/70-16s, no negatives. I used the recommended dose from the OEM in their kit form, seems like it was 3 oz or something. I thought I had tire imbalance and didn't want to mess with tire shops and honestly just wanted to try them out.
Didn't fix my problem (turns out its the wheel bearings making a little different noise than I usually think about for WB and my brakes suck, no biggie, that's beside the point and on my list), but hasn't caused any issues and I'm totally willing to use them in other vehicles including my RV tires next time.