TIre balancing beeds

So.. Anyone use Tire balancing beads in their everyday truck tires?? Wanting to get new tires for my truck thought I could get tires and mount myself with these beads.

do yourself a favor take them somewhere and have them balanced on an electronic balancer.

Beads won't work well unless they are prebalanced. I use them in my truck tires so they stay balanced throughout the tire life. It works great for that. You will find that it works better to use 1 1/2 - 2 times the recommended amount as well.

What I have seen of them is that they are a SHAM you can balance anything with loose beads running around in the tire.
Walt

Just thought about this, take bucket of water tie a long rope to the handle then swing it around your head if you get hit in the face with the water then it will work.
Walt

I use ceramic balancing beads in my pickup tires. They work great. Maybe once or twice a year i get a little vibration and I have to smack the tires wtih a rubber hammer to knock the beads loose so they can re-balance themselves.

I have started using them in all my vehicles.

Which brings up another question. If you use balancing beads in conjunction with a wheel with the low air pressure sender, isn't there a danger of damaging the sending unit?

I use them on my truck but I use airsoft beads, not the commercially sold ceramic balancing beads. The airsoft beads are cheaper and easier to get. I bought them as an experiment because there were alot of people on the internet saying balancing beads wouldnt work so I didnt want to invest alot of time/money in the ceramic beads. Turns out all the naysayers havent really done it, just talking about it because the beads do in fact work. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Crosman-Airsoft-Heavy-Ammo-5-000-Ct./9222912 IIRC, its 113 beads per ounce and I use the same weight chart for the ceramic beads. http://www.innovativebalancing.com/chart.htm

I have ran into a couple problems though, measuring out 113 beads is a royal pain in the butt. I tried a few different ways to measure them by volume and none worked well untill I tried a rain gauge and that worked pretty well. I dont remember for sure but I think an ounce (113 beads) came out to 1.25 inches of rain so I just added up the ounces needed in the rain gauge and off I went. Untill I found a good way to measure the beads, it went too slow for me to be happy with the setup.

The other problem I ran into was if the tire was egg shaped, it wouldnt balance for garbage. Even doubling the weight made them still hit and miss for balance. One tire I have is egg shaped and I can feel it going in and out of balance on the interstate but below 60mph, its fine. I decided to leave it till this fall and change it then because its bald anyway so I cant use it for winter. That shouldnt be a problem for most tires but with larger truck tires it is an known issue to have egg tires right from the factory so its worth mentioning.

have been using them on our motorcycles for years tires ware better and never any cupping they also run cooler and I have test that many a times run them in little 8 and 12 inch trailer tires also so and at 70 pulling with the bike never get any vibration. also have used them in my dump truck front tires 425-65-22.5 and they worked great

used then for the last few tire changes... they do self balance... and will help to reduce vibration caused by lumps of mud/dirt that get onto the inside of the wheel rim... best invention ever as far as tires are concerned

The brand I use specifically says it is safe to use with TPMS.

Hmm. I guess tire shops are wasting thousands of dollars on dynamic tire balancing machines. All you need is a handful of shiny beads.

(quoted from post at 20:01:47 11/26/13) Hmm. I guess tire shops are wasting thousands of dollars on dynamic tire balancing machines. All you need is a handful of shiny beads.

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Good point. When you put balancing beads in your tires, how did it work out?

We used them for a while and work to a certain extent. The problem we has was when you hit the seam on the interstate it moves the beads around for a while until it re balances (couple of seconds) so going down a rough road they do not stay balance. We had too many problems and got tired of messing with them. The may work good for heavy trucks but not for daily drivers. Balance with a machine only way to go.

The GCR shop where I bought tires for a long time for four trucks used to always put it in. It was noticeable how evenly the tires wore with it. This was a packet of tiny beads that would probably measure about 4 ounces in volume.

Mark, wheels used to be made out of wood too. Technology has improved, and we no longer use wooden wheels on automobiles. Ceramic beads are an improvement in technology.

They seem to be working well in the 31x10.50s on my amigo. I should have used a couple more ounces than the recommended 4 though.