I'm having a heck of a time finding a tire shop that can balance my tires properly. Has anyone ever tried Dyna Beads? They are small ceramic beads that are placed inside the tire and self balance off of rotational force, In theory, i can see how it might work.

 

I've not personally used them but my dad is currently using something similar in a his diesel motorhome and he loves it. His dealer recommended the Centramatic product and he's had no issues in a couple of years and probably 30k miles of traveling. Some of the guys around here with larger/heavier tires are just using sand... not sure I'd go that route as I'd like to be a little more 'scientific' than that but it seems to be working for them.

On a side note - what wheel/tire combination do you have and what types of issues are you running into?

 

It has 18" Ford Wheels with 275/65 Continental ContiTrac tires. No one can get the vibration out when it gets above 65mph. The last place made it a lot better but it's still enough to make things shake.

 

my friend here at work was just talking about this. he browses a lot of offroad forums where they are using the soft pellets used for the air-soft guns. he just tried it on a truck and swears by it.

 

I'd check the tires and wheels themselves - you may have a slightly bent wheel or a tire which is either cupped or slightly out of round. Not uncommon.... unfortunately. I've had a few customers in similar situations and I let them watch the balancing process where they can see the tire/wheel spinning and usually see for themselves the bend in the wheel or a problem in the tire.

Jack up each corner and spin each wheel by hand looking for any problems in the tread and for any possible bends or problems with the wheels. Tire cupping is usually fairly easy to spot and feel. Put on a pair of gloves as things embedded in tire treads can cut you pretty easily. Run your hands back and forth across the tire and check for even tread wear. Sometimes it's visible at the right angle where the some of the tread is higher or lower than the rest. If this is the case you may have an alignment or suspension issue actually causing the problem. If you do have a problem it typically will not go away but can be minimized by moving the biggest offender to the rear of the truck.

If you don't spot anything visibly wrong try to find a dealer in your area which has a Hunter GSP9000 road force balancer. This machine does a high speed balance and uses a weighted drum on the tire to check for potential problems. It can then recommend different weights or even remounting the tire on the wheel to minimize the impact you feel. These balancers are pretty expensive (13-15k).... so find a larger dealer or franchise and they will usually have them. Ask to watch the process and see if you see any wheel or tire problems while they are working.

 

Some wheels can't be balanced because they weren't made right. I bought some "seconds" one time to save a few bucks but it definitely wasn't worth it.

 

you can also have them match balanced... which matches the heavy point of the wheel to the light point of the tire... thus the heavy point of the tire is opposite the heavy point of the rim.. also you can set most balancers to 1/10 of an ounce instead of 1/4...
though I agree with Tdappleman its probably an additional issue. see if you can find someone with an ex or SD and completely swap tires and rims with them and take a test drive... this will eliminate or confirm the tire/wheel combo being the issue... test the other vehicle with your rims/ tires installed on it too if you can... maybe u can find a local FTE member to do that with you..

 

i put air soft pellets in my 33's on my bronco and dont have any problem any time i get new tires i am using the pellets the sand will clump if any water gets in the tire from air compressor

 

i had a similar problem had my tires done a couple of times when i went to change the brake pads i put i dial indicator on the rotors to check for straightness and notice the passenger side was way out then i checked the hub flange and it was out about .050, installed a new hub from ford and it everything measured perfect and my vibration is gone at 65-70 mph just an idea maybe something else is causing the problem i never would have thought it was the hub still not sure if it was the hub flange or the bearing , bearing had no play in it.

 

how many air soft bb's should you put in i've had balance problems on 2 expedtions and now the x