Take It From Me — Avoid The Beads

[vtech243]

Learned a big lesson from my first set of 37s and thought I would share. The first shop that did my tires put beads in the tire in an effort to better balance the tire. I had no idea. I was getting a really bad shimmy in the wheel from 40 - 60 MPH. Based on all my research it had something to do with balancing or alignment. To complicate things further, I had just installed the Mopar 2 inch lift at the same time as the wheels/tires which was going to make it tricky to isolate problems right off the bat.

I brought the Jeep to 2 different wheel/tires shops that had “basic” (traditional) balancing machines AND got an alignment on top of that. The first shop told me I was good to go (I was not) and the second shop told me I had tire defects and would need to contact BF Goodrich. I was ready to sell the thing.

Enter road force balancing, Hunter Engineering & a knowledgeable mechanic. Doing a road force balance with Hunter equipment (and removing the beads) was a night and day difference. Jeep rides just like stock. If you feel any shimmy or recurring shakes my advice would be to find a shop that can do this (DONT JUST GET A NORMAL BALANCE!). Cost me $150 / tire to remove the beads, re-mount the tire & do a road force balance but boy was it worth it. Hopefully this helps someone else with balancing issues avoid the headaches I went through.

Happy Jeeping!

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[Steveo]

I had a gal tell me "no beads" once, too. Good advice.

 

[WXman]

$150 per tire? Holy hell. The shops here do that for $125 per vehicle.

 

[Rhinebeck01]

snipe:

Enter road force balancing, Hunter Engineering & a knowledgeable mechanic. Doing a road force balance with Hunter equipment (and removing the beads) was a night and day difference. Jeep rides just like stock. If you feel any shimmy or recurring shakes my advice would be to find a shop that can do this (DONT JUST GET A NORMAL BALANCE!). Cost me $150 / tire to remove the beads, re-mount the tire & do a road force balance but boy was it worth it. Hopefully this helps someone else with balancing issues avoid the headaches I went through.

Happy Jeeping!

Hunter Force Balance is the only way to go!

IF a shop doesn't have a Hunter machine to use on my vehicle, then I go elsewhere.

Don't settle for anything other then a "Hunter Force Balance"..
Always demand Hunter Force Balance..

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Don't use beads!

 

[vtech243]

$150 per tire? Holy hell. The shops here do that for $125 per vehicle.

They had to take the tire off the wheel & remove the beads for all tires which increased the price. However the Hunter Balance is more involved and usually costs a little more. Also I'm in NYC which is always king for being super pricey. Again -- was worth it for me.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Thanks for the edjumacation..

No seriously, I had no idea what balance beads were until I saw this, which forced me to Google it.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Pat Goss has a good vid on explaining the basics of what a Road Force Balancer does.

 

[pangmaster]

I love this forum for great info like this. Thanks!

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