Hey guys, Ive never used Balance bead's and was wondering if they actually work ? I put a new set of 4.50/4.75-16s Firestone's on my car a month ago, Had them spun balanced, and Im getting wheel hop, pretty much from day one, pretty much as I pass between 35 to 40 mph, I was thinking maybe they where out of round and would work themselves out after a few miles... not .. Old guy I know said beads would fix it no matter what the problem is .. What do ya'll think ? Thanks ...
When I was campaiging my TAFC I had beads put in the tires of the tractor unit. What a difference it made.
There is a thread on those with mixed reviews much like the other bias issues. I think shaving was favoured over this newer phenomenon. Perhaps a helpful thread...with other links...the name here is Dyna Beads... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/dyna-beads-truth-or-gimmick.811234/
I have had my Firestone Champions roadforce balanced and there are still as you have experienced rough spots. One con is shaving apparently must be done when tires are new as bits of road debris can f up the blade...so beads might be the cats meow.
Just kidding Dave... Small beads you pour through the valve by weight to eliminate out of balance see my post above for link to another thread on them... Here is the link again... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/dyna-beads-truth-or-gimmick.811234/ A link to a supplier...there are many and I have no affiliation...just to glean https://dynabeads.ca/?SID=89ivpavsui3jlabbd599d55dj5
I've seen some that didn't work out well, now understand I have limited experience with them but this is what I've seen so check into it before buying. Ok, in the early stages and cheaper ones were metal and on a car that sat a lot I've seen them turn into a big rust block that once it broke loose in the tire it was terrible to drive. Second, seen the ceramic beads after awhile of driving slowly beat themselves into dust and then basically worthless. Now as I said these are just the 2 types I've dealt with. They may indeed have better materials that they are making these out of today. Although the metal I would never use, the ceramic may work well for you if it's not something your putting hundreds of miles on at a time.
SO- Is there a formula for beads to weights? Say if I loose 1oz of weight, do I add 1oz of beads? Got an ugly amount of weights I'm not thrilled about... Even road force balanced. Got me some 78 yr old wheels, and .......well.......
Put about 3 golf balls in them. Old truck tire guy told me that was 10x better than the beads. I couldn't tell the difference in beads, golf balls, or lead weights. I always end up with bouncing tires anyway.
I guess the bead installer person will have to run the tire on the machine to determine how much beads go in I can't imagine just randomly tossing in an ounce would be dead on accurate.<< Wrong...quoted from Q&A http://www.innovativebalancing.com/news.htm Q: Can I put the tire on a balancer to see if it's working? A: No. Dyna Beads operates on physics principles, and requires the tire assembly to be in motion against a road surface to detect the exact counterbalance position. An electronic balancer has a solid, fixed mount, and does not allow the tire to react to imbalance.
Always respect opinions but I have done some snooping and this place says it can be run in tubes so hey I may be a guinea pig of sorts...This place has lots of info...again I have no affiliation...just interest like you all. http://www.innovativebalancing.com/ Link to determine how much below... http://www.innovativebalancing.com/Classicchart.htm
I used them on a friend's car. We bought the cheapest Air Soft ammo at the store and added a small handful in each tire. These are too big to fit through the tire valve, we added them as we were putting the tires on the rims. The car seems to drive okay. I can't imagine that they actually balance a tire, probably they work by damping rhythmic vibrations.
Cool. try it out. We have never done the beads in tubes. Have not used the bead method a whole lot. We just had a few customers make the request. The beads we have gotten come in small bags, you can put the beads bag and all in a tubeless tire. The bag breaks down while driving and the beads just go loose inside the tire.
There is a lot of Q&A...one other note is they recommend new tubes due to old oily air buildup...It even says you can add beads and leave the weights on but just add less than recommended with out. My car is out of balance only in a small MPH range between approx. 55-60. It would be nice to nail that...its worth a try as shaving is not an option. And there seems to be a special valve that goes in place of the old one and it appears normal from the outside.
That's the way they do it at the truck shop. My current truck has a deal called Centramatics on it, it's a bolt on deal that fits between the wheel and drum with a circular tube filled with a light oil and steel beads. They were on it when I got it, and when I get rid of it I'm keeping them, they really seem to work. Tires are wearing smooth with very little vibration. Not sure how small they make them, but think they might make them for pickups.
I used them in my 1 ton dually. In the back, I couldn't tell any difference but had a vibration up front 55--65 mph which was really bad on some roads. When I put new tires on the back, I left them out and had them balanced. On the front , I had some cupping on the tires and left the beads in the front and had them balance the wheels and tires. I think it's a little better up front but we noticed that the stock steel wheels up front have a slight wobble to them and I think thats most of the problem.
I just looked, and they do make them for cars and pickups! http://www.centramatic.com/wheel-balance.rhtml Says for 14" and 15" wheels, Ford and Chevy bolt patterns. Check them out.
I work in a tire shop and we use a product called Counter Act and we had a customer call just yesterday about putting beads in a bike tire with a tube , He found on their web site that the sell tubes with the beads already inside! but if you want to just put some in your tubes, we now just use glass beads for a blasting cabinet.....one of our suppliers told us about using them and they work just as good ! I would put 4oz in each tire for about that size.
I mounted a car tire on the back of my Honda VTX 1800 and nobody would mount or balance the tire due to liability issues. I ran that tire 35,000 miles and it still looked like new where I was getting 6,000 miles out of a bike tire. The bike was smooth as glass with the beads in there.
That sounds like a recipe for disaster! I'd be afraid the glass beads would deteriorate and eat the tube up. The plastic beads would just become dust and not hurt anything. Glass and rubber don't mix!
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