Balancing Beads
- Thread starter JMT
- Start date
Bababooey
TJ Enthusiast
I’m thinking about going with the bigger airsoft pellets option because you don’t have to worry about special valve cores.
Yeah when I bought my 31's from DT they tried 6 times to get it right and never did. They said they would road force balance them for extra money, but I was like that is BS because that is like charging me for mount and balance then never getting it right then charging me more to do it the right way. Eventually 4Wheel parts fixed them first try, but then I bought my new 33's from TR and they got it right the first time with minimal weights using road force balance. I wasn't aware of it, but from what I gather they need special training to be able to do it.
The bead thing would be nice if I could go without the tire store completely that would be awesome. I once tried them at Goodyear many years ago and didn't have much luck with them, but I have a friend who swears by them on his motorcycle, so I am still trying to make heads and tails of it. I think it will come down to just giving it a try.
Brianj5600
TJ Expert
So I mounted my new tires last night and decided that it would be OK to use steel BBs. In my research on the web I found many people that are happy with steel BBs. They must have very loud exhaust or deaf.
They make a lot of noise until they are pinned to the inside of the tire by centrifugal force. Balance was good once the BBs found their place. When coming to a stop the BBs fall and make a loud crash on the wheel.
The previous owner used what appears to be airsoft BBs in 3 tires and none in the fourth on the Jeep. The spare has zero miles on it and airsoft BBs.
I re-used the beads originally in the tires. I also mounted 3 of my pull offs for my Overland Trailer build. Two or three tires on the Jeep have steel BBs in them that I will be changing out for airsoft BBs. Two of the trailer tires will be needing BBs swapped out too.
Moral to the story...don't believe everything you read on the internet.
They make a lot of noise until they are pinned to the inside of the tire by centrifugal force. Balance was good once the BBs found their place. When coming to a stop the BBs fall and make a loud crash on the wheel.
The previous owner used what appears to be airsoft BBs in 3 tires and none in the fourth on the Jeep. The spare has zero miles on it and airsoft BBs.
I re-used the beads originally in the tires. I also mounted 3 of my pull offs for my Overland Trailer build. Two or three tires on the Jeep have steel BBs in them that I will be changing out for airsoft BBs. Two of the trailer tires will be needing BBs swapped out too.
Moral to the story...don't believe everything you read on the internet.
Does it make a difference whether the beads go into a regular wheel or a heavier beadlock wheel? I have extensive motorcycle roadracing experience representing one of the best known tire brands in the world (15+ years) and owned a business that supplied superbike racing slicks capable of 180+ mph, so I know that quite often we were balancing the wheel itself more than the tire. In fact, we would often 'zero-balance' a wheel and tape those weights down with silver plumbing tape in order to make the wheel perfectly balanced before mounting a tire; I made sure all my guys knew that you never remove the weights under the silver tape. By doing this, it would also require less weight to balance the tire because the wheel was already good.
My gut feeling is that beadlocks might require a bit more weight because the wheel itself could require more weight to be balanced. Another option might be to first zero-balance the beadlock wheel (obviously with stick-on weights), then mount the tire with the beads. At the end of the day, the more weight you have between wheel and tire, the more weight it could be off at the 'heavy spot'. I know every tire and wheel manufacturer likes to brag about their 'tight tolerances' but I've seen plenty of OEM and aftermarket wheels that were grossly out of balance, as well as tires that were badly out-of-round or just just took a ton of weight to get them to balance.
Thoughts?
My gut feeling is that beadlocks might require a bit more weight because the wheel itself could require more weight to be balanced. Another option might be to first zero-balance the beadlock wheel (obviously with stick-on weights), then mount the tire with the beads. At the end of the day, the more weight you have between wheel and tire, the more weight it could be off at the 'heavy spot'. I know every tire and wheel manufacturer likes to brag about their 'tight tolerances' but I've seen plenty of OEM and aftermarket wheels that were grossly out of balance, as well as tires that were badly out-of-round or just just took a ton of weight to get them to balance.
Thoughts?
I researched this for my '67 VW Beetle a couple years ago. And it seemed like about 75% were happy. And the other 25% weren't. I have no idea why. So I stuck with weights. @JMT has alot more patience than I do. I guess if you lived in a rural area. It would be great to be able to mount and balance your own tires. Without having to travel far. But I've yet to hear that this is a solution for 100% of us. Until then I think I'm gonna stick with weights.
OP
My hunch as to why some are happy and some are not is that some have tires that are round and others out of round.
OP