On the Airstream Forum they recommend Centramatics to balance the tires on Airstream camping trailers. Even an Airstream trailer dealer recommends them on all the new trailers he sells.
Guess I screwed up cause I have beads in tubes with Firestone bias plies now for over three years. No problems so far.
The way I see if the tire has an issue is to jack the car up so it won't waddle while spinning the wheels, put a block of wood close to the tread leaving about an eights in. gap then have someone spin the wheel while watching the gap. Makes it a lot easier to see up and down, side to side movement.
We used the Equal powder in the big super single tires. We had tried balancing and shaving but still had issues. The powder solved it.
we have run the glass beads in semi truck tires with 1000's of miles on them and the look just the same when we do change the tires..
It should be moved to the Hokey forum @mad mikey at a minimum. That is something we should be more conscious of when we post. I think its tech and it helps run less that perfect vintage tires...heck we're drowning in radials....its not an external thing...Funny ya got me thinking of the discussion on period air in tires...
Went to the 'dark side'.....LOL. The beads work great for balancing in most cases. If you have out-of-round issues with the tire or wheel, they won't correct that.
If you are using old Ford wheels you must get them balanced on a machine that centers on the lug nut holes. Most balancers center on the hole in the center of the wheel. The hole may not be centered properly. I had this problem. I would find a place that has a balancer that uses the lug nut hole. Lots of luck on that. Or get them spun balanced on the car.
^^^^ or how about wheels that aren't just as true as they once were new? granted, we can have weights all over,=both sides of the wheel, but to just keep em' a lil hidden requires different methods....
The hammer on weights actually don't bother me I just want to smooth out that shake or bounce at 55mph and this may make the difference. Going to look into it.
I have tried anywhere from 16 to 26 psi fronts and had a regular and lastly a road force balance which made the most difference. What I currently am running is about 19psi cold. There is entirely a chance I may have to replace the tires with new despite tread being very good. The Guy who roadforced said one of the two has a balance issue which he weighted to a higher speed where the bouncing happens which by the way does smooth out beyond approx 58-60mph. I also installed new shocks last year which did improve the ride quite noticeably. Thanks for asking Dug
Stogy,I had this bounce you are describing on a few 560-15 Cokers I ran on my 34 Plymouth. The only way to get rid of it was to shave the tires and balance them afterwards. If you want to check for high spots, run them on a balancing machine and hold a piece of chalk to the tread while the tire is turning. You will quickly see all the high spots , and there will be more than one. I had better luck with Firestone. But once the tires are shaved your car will cadillac down the road at any speed. I had a hard time to find a shop that had a tire shaving machine around here. An old tire shop specializing in trucks had one and let me use it. For free. Chatting about old cars and trucks included, hahaha. Sorry, I don´t know anything about the beads...
When they were spinning while being balanced how out of round were your tires? From what you describes in your first post it sounds like the notorious death wobble. How much toe in do you have? This doesn't sound like a balancing issue to me.
I read they can't or won't shave old bias plys and these are at least 7 years old due to road debris impregnated in tire. I wish I could find a place then I would see about old tires being shaved. The tires do have an bit of untrue movement but I felt this is what the weight is counteracting. One has a side shift or bow which may have been a defect from the get go. They are expensive so I thought to try this bead thing by chance and if no go go new as in Coker Champion but new. I don't think I was saying it was to crazy But I did get that as well but have since aligned and added the thing that is always referred to as a bandaid. Since that was done no death wobble period. But the front end still shakes at about 55-58mph not violently but noticably. My death wobble when it did occur was between say 20 to 30mph and trust me I know what that is... After the Align and addition of new shocks and SoCal Bandaid thing I did a 250 mile trip without one death wobble incident and for the most part it runs very smooth and very true however there is that range which happens to be a quite used cruising speed there is a shaking at the front. I can see the rad shell shaking. I don't really like it but I have driven 2 years like this.
@Baumi I am Running 5.60x16 Coker Firestone Champions at front backs are 6.50x16 same and I love the look. @Dirty Dug when the guy had it on the machine he gave the one front tire a number that he said they would say is at the maximum threshold for acceptability. So what he was saying is it wouldn't be perfect. So even if I throw in these beads it may be a form of polishing a turd so to speak. I just thought I would give it a whirl.
Stogy, if no professional person will do it for you, you could try what I did before I found the truck tire shop. I ran my wheels on a balancing machine, held the piece of chalk to it while it was turning to mark the high spots, ground them down with an angle grinder and repeated this procedure to the point when I had a smooth and equal chalk mark on the tread... it took me easily 1 to 1 1/2 hrs per tire, it was an ugly dirty mess I ended up with but the result was just as good as if it was done with the tire shaving machine.
Wow thats quite an operation you took on there. I don't have access to a balance machine either but I am in a new area of residence so I will get on the ole phone and start dialing tire shops...never know. Thanks Baumi. I saw a video on tire shaving its messy too.
Ryan (the boss here) did a post on the the beads describing a personal experience. I'm running '35 Frod wires on my ride and really didn't want hammer on weights on the wheels for appearance sake. I called the Dyna Beads company and spoke to a rep in customer support. Very helpful. Yes, they can be used in tubes. My personal experience is that they work great. Absolutely no vibration at all at any speed in my bias ply Coker big and littles. I'm going to put them in my suburban too as the tire shop never seems to be able to balance those properly even with different sets of wheels.
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