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Balancing tires with beads

mikeginn

Jr. Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2011
Messages
82
I have installed a jbg disc conversion on the front

Bought 4 new tires and 2 rims a long time ago. 15x10 with 4 inch backspace

Will the calipers knock off the magnets?

I have to buy 2 new rims anyway, would less backspacing help?

How about wheel spacers?

I also read about balancing the tires with airsoft pellets inside the tire. Anyone tried this? How did it work?

Can't afford new tires and rims again. How can I make my stuff work?


Again, appreciate your assistance.

Thanks

Mike
 

malonejy

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 21, 2001
Messages
1,032
I recently did the dynabeads and I like them. They were a whole lot more expensive than the airsoft pellets but I decided to go with the product that was meant to do the job. Quite a few people do use the airsoft pellets and I've always heard good things about them.

I've only had one issue where I was turning a corner and the tire started to wobble really bad. I think I wasn't going fast enough to keep the beads in their proper spot so the tire was extremely out of balance for a few seconds. I actually though the lug nuts must have been loose. No issues other than that one time.
 

burntfish

Sr. Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2005
Messages
862
Loc.
ouray, co
A little info is needed.
What size tires.
Rims steel or aluminium.
Weights are lead and not magnetic.
I love the beads in my tires and they work out real good. If I could have used regular weights I would have just for the ease of installation.
 

66ALRIDE

Contributor
Just BIP It!
Joined
May 9, 2005
Messages
1,785
Loc.
Dothan, AL
I'm using the airsoft beads and they a big difference. Nice thing about the beads if you do any mudding and the mud is stuck in the rim, the beads will offset that. I will only run beads in big tires from now on. The only drawback is at low speed they may not seat in the correct place.
 

jboomer

Sr. Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2007
Messages
506
Loc.
Havelock, NC
I ran a search and this is the most recent thread I could find regarding using tire balancing beads. I've got an '08 Sierra with a 6" lift running 35" BFG A/Ts on 18" rims as a DD. I just put my second set on this summer. The installer balanced them with the stick on lead weights and complained profusely about how hard they were to balance out. But, he did a pretty good job with a very minimal shimmy at about 60 mph. After about 3000 miles, I brought them in to a new shop to have the tires rotated and to see if they could rebalance to eliminate it altogether. The shop tech came out after getting the tires off and asked if I wanted to run these tire beads instead. I'd never heard of them before, but he said he'd vouch for their effectiveness. So I went along.

I've driven about 50 miles or so on these things and between 55-65 the steering wheel shakes so bad I can barely hold onto it. So, I'm back at the shop having them removed and the weights reinstalled. Having researched these, I've only read good reviews about their effectiveness and I'm not certain why they didn't work. Newer tires that balanced pretty good before with weights, but definitely no good with beads only.
 

xcntrk

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
2,473
Loc.
NOVA
I'm using EQUAL powder. Seems to work pretty well overall. Sometimes if you rapidly change speeds (think sprint to 55mph) it takes a moment for the powder to equalize inside the tire and for that short moment you can feel the unbalance. But once it catches up and balances correctly it's smooth. I would think the beads or pellets work the same...

http://www.imiproducts.com/index.php/products/equal/
 

bsquared

Contributor
Sr. Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2010
Messages
960
I'm running the Dynabeads as well. I've got 31 BFG Mud Terrains and I think I added 5 oz to each tire. Works pretty well, but I'm planning on adding 2 oz more to each because of some vibration between 55 to 65.
 

allenfahey

Bronco Guru
Joined
Mar 18, 2004
Messages
2,672
I have 42 Pitbull Rockers and I tried to use the stick on weights but the tires/rims were at the max weight limit for the balancer here at work. I decided to use air soft pellets. I think it was something like 11-12 oz per the Dynabead website chart. I figured when wheeling the tires will get chunks missing out of the tread and the beads should compensate for it. I've wheeled 3-4 full days on them and driven it a couple hundred miles up to about 60 MPH and there is no vibration at all. I can hear the beads fall when I go take off but once moving all is good. Maybe jboomer, they didn't put enough in or too much??
 

br0nc0xrapt0r

Loves pickles
Joined
Sep 28, 2007
Messages
5,437
I loose chunks of rubber all the time, beads work great. I have used Airsoft pellets, dyna beads, and copper BB gun bb's. Best so far is 1500 count packs of BB gun BB's in each tire.
 

jboomer

Sr. Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2007
Messages
506
Loc.
Havelock, NC
The shop was as baffled as I was. Their beads come in a package and the instructions are 1 pack per tire. I didn't get to study the pack to see if there was an accompanying chart. He did mention that maybe they didn't add enough weight; however, instead of adding more they elected to just vacuum them out and balance with weights at no cost to me. They are now balanced perfectly.
 

Hors'nround

Full Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2007
Messages
230
Loc.
Spruce Grove Alberta
I've had brass air soft beads in my 33" tires on my crew cab one ton for three years and I put the same beads in my 36" SS at the beginning of this summer (I don't think I will ever use wheel weights for off road tires used on and off road).

I've ripped off the clamp on and stick on weights in the past.
 

Broncobowsher

Total hack
Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Messages
34,821
Worked tires several years ago. Truck came in and it just felt "old". Did my usual tire balance and they were all over the place. I heard something, broke the tire down and found a bunch of beads. Cleaned them out and balanced them good. Nothing else and the truck felt much "newer".

I am a little bit of a NVH tech as well. Figured out what was going on. If you look at tire vibration as sound. A fixed RPM is a fixed tone. Imbalance is the height of the wave. You get a fixed frequency that is easier to induce a shake at a specific frequency. Get a couple tires to get into phase and you get a shake that comes and goes at a steady speed.
The tire beads take that fixed frequency and muddy it up into white noise. It isn't a fixed tone that you can dial in on. As the beads move around it breaks up that resonate tone.

For a trail rig that sometimes has to go at highway speeds, beads. You will scrap off weights, tear off chunks of tread, bend rims, its going to be a noisy beast anyway, a little more white noise in the chassis won't mean a thing.

For a nice riding street rig, put wheel weights on. It will keep the clean tight feel of a street rig without getting that "old" feel.
 

inthmtns

Jr. Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2013
Messages
90
Loc.
Martinsdale, MT
Just my opinion:
I've used the beads on a couple of sets of tires and honestly... though they did work at highway speeds... I didn't care for them and had them removed, I was happier with weights... .

They drove me crazy at speeds below 50mph... In town, every time I changed speeds or came to a stop, the shaking occured all over again until they evened out. Once you get into the HUGE tires I think beads are your only real option.

If your track bar bracket is loose, or a combination of steering components are getting worn the beads seem to bring on the dreaded Ford 'death wobble' a little quicker too.
 

4BTEB

Full Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2011
Messages
261
Loc.
Rhome, Texas
I've used counteract beads in my 34" TSL's and they have always run smooth at high and low speeds. Got them off Ebay.
 
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