I know I am late to the party lefty319, (even late for the clean up). Have been using the balancing beads for the last 150,000 plus. I started using them to protect the aluminum rims from corrosion with the lead weights. Have been a very good for me. Will use them again next time I need tires. Oh around here they are the same price as what a balance costs at a tire shop. I think you can buy them online and install them yourself cheaper than a tire dealer.

 

Sgarder, well I bit the bullet, I had the Michelins put on and figured as long as they had the tires off they might as well put the beads in. I didn't drive it far today, but what I did they seem to work just fine. I really like the thought of no weights on the wheels. That corrosion can mess up a nice looking wheel. That's good news about the beads at 150,000 plus. I have read other guys using them, but don't recall anybody using them that long and with such good results. Thanks for your input.

 

I just aired down my 37 MTRs and put 11 oz of .25 gram (extra heavy ones) air soft BBs in each one. Will report back after a few days driving.

 

Well Ponykilr, between the new Michelins and the balance beads the ride has got a lot better. I'm sold on the beads and Michelins, great combo.

 

Good man! I wish Michelin made a 37" mud tire LOL

Mine is better with the beads but I think I need a few more ounces in each tire.

 

If you guys are going to have tires balanced I would highly recommend finding a shop with a Hunter road force balancer. I had one in my old shop and it made a serious difference.

Then play with beads all you want.

 

We had a Hunter RFB the last 4 years I was at the dealer. Cadillac made it a mandatory tool. They don't work well on mud tires however.

Well, not so happy with the beads. They seem to work well at highway speed (butter smooth), but I get some crazy wobbles that come and go under 50 or so. No rhyme or reason to it. It might be perfect at 40mph and the next time at that speed it feels like a possum is hanging on my valve stem. It seems to be worse around corners. I have tried rotating the tires, every air pressure possible and adding more beads. Still there but has changed a little sometimes when I tried something. After more reading, I guess this combo is just one of the ones that beads do not work on. From what I have read now, the MTRs in particular seem to be resistant to beads and water balance methods.

I have made up my mind to just bite the bullet and allow my tire folks to put clip on weights on the outside of my wheels. Dynamic balance is the best balance and inside weight on such a big ole tire is not gonna cut it. These have almost 5" of wheel past the center and are going to have to have some balance out there it seems. I guess once I verify that the balance issues are gone, I can take a tiny brush and paint the weights the same color as the wheel....

This is my second time trying this, the first was on my '05 Rubicon on 35s, I had mixed results then too and took them back out after about a month. Crazy since so many folks say they work perfect for them on even big old SSRs and IROKs.

 

How wide are the tires, beads do have a hard time with tires that are on the wide side for there height. More so if the tire is on the square side on the inside.

 

Well these are narrow for height, but are 12.5s (37x12.5-16.5)

Went in to have them balanced, after seeing the tires on the balancer, all I have to say is "wow".
It does not shake bad, as a matter of fact they ride better than my old 285s even with the tremble. But, I want it better.

Two are pretty out of round. My tire store does tire truing and I have an appt. to get them trued and balanced Monday. They have a big sign up in the shop that says "Tires Are Not Round" LOL

The owner talked with me a while about truing, I had it done to the front tires on my Snap-on van about a year ago and it went from bad to perfect. The owner says a trued tire will last longer than an un-trued tire. He says a tire is only as good as it's lowest point, and truing only takes rubber off til the lowest point.

Anyway, at this point I am too deep into these to give up so Monday we will get them cut and balanced. He says he has trued thousands of big off road tires over the years and never had any that didn't balance and ride great. Been there for 50 years, so I believe him.

More info after Monday. I might even take a video. If you have never seen it done it is pretty cool.

 

I've used the same weight recommended in them charts for the balance beads ..... but instead of the ceramic beads, I used "Red Jacket" 6mm 0.15 gr Airsoft BBs that are hard plastic BBs available cheap at Walmart .... I just weighed them on a cheap postal scale I've had for ummteen years.

They work supperb as a supplemental balance to a regular balance on a wider tire like 60 or 70 series ....
.... and they work great on a narrow tire even as the lone balance media.

Haha ..... I have a couple of commercial customers I deliver to that still have those "on car spin balancers" ..... they are good!

 

i recently had aftermarket wheels and 35x12.5x17 mts with a very aggressive tread pattern installed. also hub rings to make the wheels hubcentric. the shop put in 8 ounces of Tech Plus beads. i still have vibration above 55 mph. is every brand of beads pretty much the same or could i expect a better result if i went with dynabeads? so many people swear by them

 

Hard to say, I can't find many details on the tech beads.


8oz in each tire right?


8oz is a minimum for that tire size, heavy tread = a heavy tire = more beads.


Good idea to balance the tire in the traditional way before installing the beads, did they?


Hub centric, is this a dually?

 

I run the beads in my 37" surplus military Hummer tires. If I remember right, I put 15 oz. in each tire. Specs called for 12oz. The extra ounces won't hurt and will prevent having to break down tires and rims to add more. The coolest part to me is they are reusable!

 

was lug centric. the rings made them hub centric. tires really arent that heavy. bout the same weight as the stock bfgs that were balanced at the factory and i never had any issue with. i just didnt know if the dyna beads might be an improvement over what ive got.

 

Why make it hub centric?


Are you sure it's the tires vibrating?


Dynabeads probably are better, Tech doesn't provide much information on what they're beads are, made out of, size, etc. This tends to make me assume the worst.