Lets Discuss Balance Beads

[dd31]

I have some new 17x9 rocktrix wheels and 315-70-17 patagonia mts to mount up.

I'm trying to decide on balance beads or stickon weights.

I used airsoft beads in my YJ which had 37 military tires, dana60s, etc. and that setup seemed to work okay, but I never really drove that jeep over 60mph. my JL i plan to drive daily with the 35s. I don't regularly drive on the highway, but dont want a wobbly mess when I do.

Anyone with experiences with legitimate balance beads? Youtube has widely mixed reviews

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[DOOKEY]

Balance beads are tricky. You read pros and cons and there never seems to be a middle ground. Why? Lack of info. I've heard it many times. They are either the best thing ever or the biggest waste of money. I believe people fall into a trap when looking at a chart to pick their required weight.

The charts lie.

I have personally experienced many different wheel and tire combos that require zero OZ's of weight to balance. So what happens when the chart says you need 10oz's of weight to balance your combo? The media has to offset itself. Which isn't a fun situation.

Wheels and tires are out of round. So you need to balance them. We all believe that. But no 2 combos are the same. You can mount up 5 wheel and tire combos and get 5 different weight requirements. Why? Because wheels and tires aren't perfect.

If you have a combo that is so far out of round there is nothing you can do to balance it. I also believe that people get trapped into a false sense of balance when the tire monkey puts the combo on their machine and gets it to read 0.

You have to start with the out of round nature of a wheel and a tire. Years ago wheels and tires were balanced using a bubble balancer. You place your combo on the bubble balancer and you'll see one side is usually closer to the ground than the other side. I call that the heavy side because that is the direction the combo is out of balance.

If you get the heavy side of the tire on the heavy side of the wheel you'll have a difficult time getting the combo to balance. That's why road force balancers were created. You can measure what's going on and adjust the tire on the wheel to get the least amount of hop in the combo.

Then you balance.

In my opinion, that step has to happen for balance media to have a chance at being right. Once you find out how to mount the tire on the wheel you need to put the combo on a bubble balancer to see how much weight you need. You put weight out at the tread and however much it takes to bring the combo level is how much goes inside the tire.

I'm a big fan of media. Especially when we go chunk tread off road. The media will move around and help you out. I feel like installing media correctly is a bunch of work. Mount them up just to measure then tear them down again to install. Not a lot of people like going that distance to get it right. If you're one of those people... pay to have them balanced traditionally with stick on weights.

 

[dd31]

Wow, thank you. Thats well written with great information.
I think i will check balance of the wheels first, and mount tires and check balance. And add beads as necessary. These are cheap tires, so i dont have high expectations, but want to get the balance as good as possible
Ive pretty much written off having someone else mount and balance because i just cant find a tire shop with people who care.
Im legitimately thinking of buying a tire & balance machine just so i can do all my other vehicles too

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