Poll: did tire balance beads work for you?

Did tire balance beads work for you?


  • Total voters
    74
Ran 12 oz. of plastic pellets to try and balance 35" Goodyear MTR's. Didn't cure the vibration from 40-55 mph so finally gave up on them.
 
The Centramatic balancer works on my 22.5 Wheels on my Kenworth. I had a set of steer tires, that would shake you to death. No matter who tried to balance them. Got them cut and trued, and was happy for a while. Then out Centramatic's front and back. You could feel the out of round, until 30 MPH. Then smooth up to 87 MPH, that's as fast as the old gal will run.
Going to order a set for my TJ before I buy new tires next month. Also just a heads up, also used Air soft beads in 38"s on my old 1975 Dodge power wagon. They did the trick for 2 years before getting beaten to death. Also used the powder in my 2004 Chevy Duramax with 19.5's. Had a 4200 lb truck camper in the bed and a 20ft boat behind it. Could not keep the 19.5" in Blance. Added the Equal powder and it was stilll good 4 years later when I sold it.
 
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I used the beads on a set of 40 stl swampers on a 78 bronco and they worked pretty good. Haven't used them in years cause I don't run tires that big anymore.
 
The Centramatic balancer works on my 22.5 Wheels on my Kenworth. I had a set of steer tires, that would shake you to death. No matter who tried to balance them. Got them cut and trued, and was happy for a while. Then out Centramatic's front and back. You could feel the out of round, until 30 MPH. Then smooth up to 87 MPH, that's as fast as the old gal will run.
Going to order a set for my TJ before I buy new tires next month. Also just a heads up, also used Air soft beads in 38"s on my old 1975 Dodge power wagon. They did the trick for 2 years before getting beaten to death. Also used the powder in my 2004 Chevy Duramax with 19.5's. Had a 4200 lb truck camper in the bed and a 20ft boat behind it. Could not keep the 19.5" in Blance. Added the Equal powder and it was stilll good 4 years later when I sold it.

If you want to save a few bucks I will sell you a set of centramatics I used for maybe 200 miles. PM me if your interested.
 
If you want to save a few bucks I will sell you a set of centramatics I used for maybe 200 miles. PM me if your interested.
I may not have enough post to PM you? Don't see the button for it? Pm me and will try to get together on them.
 
I think whoever wrote the material for Centramatic's website doesn't understand how they work either haha. Here's what they say at https://www.centramatic.com/wheel-balancer.rhtml?modelNumber=300-345 under FAQ > "What is inside the rings?"
Now that just doesn't make any sense at all. If there's a gradient that would cause a liquid to flow to the other side of the ring then round bearings will roll that way too! I don't doubt that they work, but it looks like even the manufacturer thinks magic is involved :LOL:
Too late to edit my post but I've since realized that what they said does make sense. So I need to correct myself. Here's why it does make sense:

Once the imbalance is taken out of the wheel by shuffling the bearings around then the wheel will begin spinning around the axle with no wobble whatsoever. In other words the balance ring will be exactly centered on the axle.

When that happens the bearings will happily remain where they are within the ring as the ring spins around. Because ball bearings don't care how close they are to one another and don't have any desire to spread out evenly as long as they aren't all touching of course. And so it remains in balance because the bearings stay bunched up where they went.

However the fluid in a fluid-only ring (such as the other balancing ring that is filled with only Mercury) doesn't like to stay piled up in lumps but will want to spread out evenly throughout the perfectly centered ring. Yet the ring can only balance the wheel by having the fluid piled up in lumps so as soon as the fluid spreads out again the imbalance returns.

So in my mind under ideal conditions a fluid-only ring will only ever get something like half the imbalance out of a wheel. But a ring of bearings can potentially get all the imbalance out.
 
Could not help the curiosity and grabbed me a pair of Centramatics ... and so far ... ummm.... how do i word this ... is my Jeep shaking like a mazafaka means they are working?

I know my tires are out of balance, but holly guacamole, are they that bad?!
Everything is good up to 45 mph, 45-50 that is when fun starts. 60 and above i start to wonder if my Jeep falling apart worth balancing out this tires :unsure:
 
If anyone is considering to get Cetramatic 300-345 through amazon that are shipped and sold by Truck Parts World, do yourself a favor and get them elsewhere.

Centramatics not only did not work for me, they have made things much worse, and as a result my whole Jeep is shaking. I thought to myself it would be a simple deal to return or exchange through amazon - nope.
Instead of working this out, the distributor is dumping all sorts of nonsense, their own policies and fees on me.
On 4th email with them and still I don't know wtf they are doing, or if they even know what they are doing.

Nothing against Centramatic, simply get them else where or directly from them, difference is like $15 for shipping compare to amazon.
 
What size and does it effect off road driving?
I have the Centramatic 300-345 set, which fits TJ and JK wheel bolt patterns. It should fit any rim 16" or larger and most 15" rims as well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WN75H64/?tag=wranglerorg-20

There is zero effect off-road, as the internal beads do not set until you hit about 15 mph or so. You may notice a bit of noise at very low speeds, similar to sand in a metal tube, but other than that you will not notice a thing off-road.

They are primarily intended to balance the wheel at higher speeds. At highway speeds they make an impressive difference.
 
I run balance beads on all my trailers and my trucks with 19.5 and larger wheels. I love them. Just make sure your tire changer knows you have them because it can be messy when they change your tires. Those things roll everywhere if your not careful. You can also reuse them when tires are replaced.
 
I run balance beads on all my trailers and my trucks with 19.5 and larger wheels. I love them. Just make sure your tire changer knows you have them because it can be messy when they change your tires. Those things roll everywhere if your not careful. You can also reuse them when tires are replaced.
Mine are on their 5th set of tires
Just scoop them out and re install