Balance Beads

[jabtyler]

I am looking for information on balance beads.
I just got a set of 40" tires and one shop would not balance them, the second shop said they would do a road force balance. while I was waiting for the balancing to be done the sales guy came over and asked what I toque my bead locks to, I said 23 Lbs, wait why? he said, we put balance beads in and we are re torquing the bead locks. I was a little surprised they would do that without asking me first, and that they would do bead locks at all.
The ride in town is nice and smooth, but as soon as I hit 70mph there is some solid vibration, enough the check engine light came on with a U1514-87. I searched for it and this is what the internet said.

"U1514 Jeep Wrangler engine diagnostic code is about in terms of how often you should get your tires rotated, it's different for every vehicle and type of tyre, but having them rotated at every oil change is a good rule of thumb. Check with the tyre manufacturer for a more specific time frame. Remember that the more often you rotate your tires, the more evenly they'll wear, and when you have the tires rotated, you should also get them checked for balance and alignment."

So now that I have balance beads, should I add more to get them to work, or should I get them removed to be replaced by stick on weights?

can you have too many balance beads, what happens if I put 5 Lbs in will it just take longer to get going and balanced and make a hilarious noise?

whats the best way to get balance beads out, pull the valve core and they will all spray out, or do i need to take the tire off the wheel and use a shop vac?

I don't know a lot about balance beads but maybe we can get together and everyone can share their experience with them?

Thanks.

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[58Willys]

I use balance beads in my motorcycle tires, they work really well. I used balance beads in the front tires of my OTR tractors (semi cab), worked well there too. With 40’s, you probably need the larger beads. Any yes, only way to remove them is take the tire off and vac them out.

 

[Some Random Guy]

I use balance beads in my motorcycle tires, they work really well. I used balance beads in the front tires of my OTR tractors (semi cab), worked well there too. With 40’s, you probably need the larger beads. Any yes, only way to remove them is take the tire off and vac them out.

+1.
Gotta pull tire to get old ones out. Also, larger beads will eliminate the most annoying part of beads, fouling a valve core.

 

[DOOKEY]

Does the vibration stop? Like it's going back into balance?

 

[jaymz]

99% of what I’m seeing is this:

BCM U1514-87 Engine Controller Secret Code-Missing Message

I’d be much more inclined to believe that that’s the proper description. I have no clue what it means, but I can assure you that your Jeep has no idea whether or not your tires need to be balanced.

Beads will not come out the valve stem on anything with TPMS. They’re about double the size of the hole. You’ll need to break a bead from the wheel if you want to add or remove beads. I put about 6oz in my 35’s. 40’s will probably take 8-10oz. Might start by asking the tire shop how much they put in.

 

[Jmos4]

Hi,

I use beads on my 35's, here is the company I used, they have charts and pretty good about calling them as well.

https://www.innovativebalancing.com/mobile/charts.php

Regards,
Jim

 

[rkwfxd]

I have ZERO experience with balance or any other kind of beads. But I am going to guess you just need more of them.

 

[wibornz]

Chances are you do not have enough beads in the wheels. You can add more balancing beads by removing the valve stem core and putting them in through the valve stem. Also note that balancing beads come with a different valve stem core that helps keep the beads out of the valve stem. Use core that comes with the bag to save you some hassles.

 

[Jim1964]

I don’t know how they told you they were doing a road force balance and ended up installing beads. AFAIK those are two incompatible processes.

RF requires installing fixed weights to equalize the force against a simulated road surface roller.

Beads are moving weights obviously.

 

[jabtyler]

No, the vibration does not stop. I have heard of people hitting a bump and the vibration starts then fades out. I am guessing I don't have enough weight in one of the tires. Any thoughts on how to tell which tire needs more beads? I don't have TPMS sensors. I don't know if they put a different core in, I'll pull one and take a look.

 

[jabtyler]

what happens if you have balance beads and stick on weights? do they fight each other?

 

[DOOKEY]

what happens if you have balance beads and stick on weights? do they fight each other?

Balance media will always try to offset the imbalance. You need the proper amount of media to offset the imbalance. If you use too much it will have to spread out and do more work. I feel like you have a bigger issue going on than just balance. Like the tire is off center on the wheel. What wheel are you beadlocks?

 

[DOOKEY]

Watch this video. The important part is how they use the 20 gram weight to offset and 1oz of media to balance.



How much media you use depends on how out of round your combo is.

 

[CaJLMetalHead]

Here is my experience..

I run 40 inch Atturo Baja Trail Blade Boss tires on Method Beadlock wheels.. I installed Monster Valves for ease of adding beads through the Monster Valve (smart move that more than justifies the cost of installing them)

I first tried to balance the tires with balancing beads alone.. my rig was basically undrivable... I removed the beads, and took the rig to a tire shop, they did their best to balance the tires (this Atturo tires are beefy, they weigh 103 pounds the tire alone, LOL) .. balancing required a lot of stick-on weights, some of them glued on top of each other, so I took detailed pictures of the weights and locations because they fall off, especially while off-roading..

Combining stick-on weights with balancing beads tamed the wheel vibration at speed a lot to the point I can drive 75 MPH with no issues, some tires have more deformations than others so there is always a troublesome tire that vibrates more than the others and you can feel the vibration move around when you rotate the tires, I have one that loves to vibrate between 72 MPH and 78 MPH, and there is nothing much you can do about it... however, I noticed that after rotating the tires, the thread wear tames the vibration over time..

My recommendation would be to first take it to a tire shop, get the best balancing possible done with stick-on weights, install a Monster Valve system and then add about 12-16 ounces of balancing beads, keep playing with the amount until vibration is reduced at highway speeds, I can provide more tips and photos if you decide to go the Do-It-Yourself route

And yes, you will have to remove the beadlock ring and pop the tire on one side to vacuum the beads (the tire shop re-torqued the beadlock rings? I guess that they removed them to add beads, I hope they know that they need to re-torque while the tire is deflated)

These are the balancing beads I used, you get a lot for your money !!
Amazon.com: Magnum+ Tire Balancing Beads Bulk Tub 17.6 lb. with Scoop for Truck, SUV, car, Van, RV and Off-Road Tires. TPMS Compatible Glass Balancing Beads. : Automotive

This is the Monster Valve kit I installed
PowerTank MON-8200 4 Piece Monster Valve Kit with Monster Chuck | Quadratec

 

[DOOKEY]

The best method I've found to figure out balance media is to use a bubble balancer. You need to balance a combo on a bubble balancer. However much weight it takes to level the combo is how much goes inside the tire.

Not really an easy task though. Assemble a whole combo just to tear it all down again? No thanks. That's why you get charts with recommended amounts. That's all BS. I have personally witnessed wheel and tire combos require 0oz of weight to balance. It's rare with out bigger tires but it happens. What happens if you put weight in the combo? It has to balance itself.

Watch this video about bubble balancing.




Another huge factor to think about after watching this video is the heavy side of the wheel and the heavy side of a tire. If you mount the heavy side of the tire on the heavy side of the wheel it is my belief that there is no amount of balance media that will cure your issues. You have to offset the heavy sides for balance media to work. It should be done anyways. Just like road force balancing.

The next bigger obstacle is knowing whether a single beadlock wheel actually centered the other bead or if you side loaded the tire on the wheel.

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