Wheel Balancing Beads ?

[Grenvilleter]

Has anyone ever tried the wheel balancing beads on hard to balance wheels?
Another post prompted me to ask here.
I ask as when I got new tires a couple months ago, the shop could not balance the wheels properly so they put in some balancing beads instead of lead weights around the outside edge.
I have not done any "high speed" stuff but truck steers and rides smooth as can be up to 75 mph.

 

[BrianSD_42]

What tire type, size and brand?

I haven't needed to use them but I've heard good things. There is also always the possibility of a bent wheel - don't rule that out.

:spider:

 

[MStudt]

When you get to larger tires, that's the way to go. I was running 44's on my old Jeep and I used airsoft bb's to balance them, and it worked great. The theory is that the bb's will gather in the out of balance area once you start moving. With the tires we run on our 4runners, you can get by without doing it.

 

[Grenvilleter]

First heard of this when I changed the tires on a large News Gathering truck I was operating at the time.
Looked like there was about 2 or 3 hand fulls of sand in the tire. When I asked, was told it was for balancing.

Kinda forgot about it till I got my new tires installed on my runner and the installer came to me and said they could not get a couple tires to balance so they would use the beads instead on all 4 tires.

Out of curiosity, I google it up and found a thread where there was the usual "snakeoil" replies but I did manage to find out it does not work on small tires very well or low profile tires. As a matter of fact, it did not recommend them on anything smaller than my runner tires which are 265/70/16. General Grabber AT2's

I really like it so far !

 

[MStudt]

You can get balance bags that break open once they're spun on the machine. The larger the tire the harder they are to get balanced. Some people use balance bags, and some just buy airsoft bb's. Either way you can find all kinds of information on Google. Tons of Jeep guys do this since we're were always knocking the tires off the beads.

 

[02SE]

First heard of this when I changed the tires on a large News Gathering truck I was operating at the time.
Looked like there was about 2 or 3 hand fulls of sand in the tire. When I asked, was told it was for balancing.

Kinda forgot about it till I got my new tires installed on my runner and the installer came to me and said they could not get a couple tires to balance so they would use the beads instead on all 4 tires.

Out of curiosity, I google it up and found a thread where there was the usual "snakeoil" replies but I did manage to find out it does not work on small tires very well or low profile tires. As a matter of fact, it did not recommend them on anything smaller than my runner tires which are 265/70/16. General Grabber AT2's

I really like it so far !

Balancing beads are used often in the Commercial Trucking industry. Lots of Motorcyclists (mostly cruiser riders) use them too.

I know of a few Teams that use them in extreme highspeed Land Speed Racing.

Also a few NHRA Top Fuel teams that have experimented with them in front tires. Mixed results in that application.

Anyway, for the most part people have good results in street legal vehicle applications.

A tire that can't be balanced with weights, points to a problem wheel, and/or a tire with poor uniformity. I'd find a shop the uses a Hunter GSP9700 RoadForce balancer, and an operator that actually knows how to use it. Finding a competent operator can be a problem.

That machine if used to it's potential, is capable of identifying defective wheels, and tires.

 

[Harleydoc]

I used to run them on my heap I used to have because of the tire was hard to balance.

 

[Harmsie]

I've been using them on my motorcycle with a 240 rear tire and they've been great.

 

[BrianSD_42]

With those tires balancing should be no problem.

Do you have a bent wheel?

 

[Grenvilleter]

I don't think there is a bent wheel as I had no symptoms of such however, my tires were wearing out so I did an alignment and got 4 new tires.

I put the tires on Rims that I was unfamiliar with so maybe there was an issue but , if so, I still have no symptoms.

In full disclosure, I had my tires done at Canadian tire, a multi-chain hardware/auto retail outlet. They hire students for lots of these jobs and these tires are not the easiest to balance due to their size.

As the person was having difficulty, I suspect to save time the shop foreman told them to use the beads to expedite the job as they were running late.

Regardless, everything seems to perform well so I'll do a paint job my other, original rims and probably just swap the tires over this summer and not worry about balancing as I'll keep the beads.

 

[BrianSD_42]

my runner tires which are 265/70/16. General Grabber AT2's

Just my 2 cents ... Your tire size is 100% stock (aka normal) and not considered oversized.

So anyone who tells you it is your tires doesn't know what they are talking about. If the beads work great. If you are curious take it somewhere else and have it rebalanced. That should tell you if it is the wheel.

General Grabber AT2 are really good tires, laser balanced at the factory. I run them on my truck.

 

[Grenvilleter]

Do you think the beads could compensate for a bent rim? With all respect, I would think a bent rim would show regardless. Perhaps though... a small amount may be compensated...don't know...
Anyways, as I mentioned, I want to paint up my original rims and swap the tires back to the refurbed rims. It will be easier to check it out then. As long as it's not causing noticeable shimmy or vibration, I'll check all the rims when I swap.

 

[BrianSD_42]

On the rear you prob wouldn't notice a bent rim if they tried to compensate with weights.

This actually just happened to me. I have a bent rim, just found out last Friday.