Poly beads for tire balance

[Crash33]

How are the roads you drive on?

Yukon Joe

I have them in my 37's now. Mostly paved roads, local and highway. Approx 3-400 miles a week. Some gravel roads. The only time I notice any variation in tire balance is over a bump in the road, the tires will unbalance for half a second and then right back to smooth ride. Nothing shocking or alarming, just a little hiccup, then smooth riding.
My big Superduty was a daily driver with 46's and a lot of highway driving... rode like my Raptor.

 

[Deezel]

Has anyone used the EZ-Bead brand of balancing beads? I've heard good things about the Dyna Beads but these EZ-beads have some pretty **** reviews on amazon..

https://www.amazon.com/Z-Tire-Beads-Balancing-Applicator/dp/B00VOB9I52/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1517246477&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=tire+balancing+beads&psc=1

Most of the bad reviews are about the pain of the install thru the valve stem (I'm breaking the bead so don't care) but quite a few people are saying they don't work. I'm betting they didn't follow the instructions or had a bunch of moisture/bead lube inside the tire. I think that would make the beads stick together and screw it up..

They are also about half the price as the dyna beads.. hoping that isn't for a reason.

Some of the guys saying you can use air gun bbs make me think the material doesn't matter much..

---------- Post added at 01:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:25 PM ----------

I ended up ordering these (my new wheels are here so I can't wait lol, gotta get that prime delivery)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06W587TLT/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'll let everyone know how they work out..

 

[dewalt]

Do they work any better than linseed oil?

 

[AndysLog]

only negatives ive ever really heard from them. they constantly move and "rebalance" if you will. like at low speeds initially you will have no balancing since you do not have enough outward force to keep them rolling around the wheel.


likewise once you first start getting force going to get them rolling and moving around the tire, it takes time to get them to the unbalanced spots.

so take that for what it is, i have seen people use them before with good and just ok results. i personally have never used them. id rather just use the weights and a good shop that has a good balancer and know what they are doing.

 

[Deezel]

Update on mine. Got them installed on a new set of wheels, with used Goodyear Duratracs. They seem to work great at lower speeds, but I get a vibration around 75mph and some weird pulling/shaking in the steering wheel that did not exist previously. Just had my alignment done a few weeks ago and the truck was dialed, so it's not my alignment.

I used 10oz worth of beads, so I'm wondering if this is too much or too little. For those that have had success which kit/brand and how many oz of beads did you use?

 

[Jimbo]

Wheel Adapters, Wheel Spacers, Hub Rings, and much more! | Motorsport Tech

Click on "Motorsport Tech", enter vehicle, then go to hub centric.

I don't have these I just did some research when I was thinking about buying Method wheels.

I just ordered up a set of these.

 

[Deezel]

Ok, did some more reading on this. The reason I'm feeling shimmy in my steering wheel, which I didn't previously have is because the beads do not work well for lateral balancing..

I had a type of hopping, or radial balance issue that existed before and that is completely gone.

This makes sense as the beads use centripetal (radial) force to work, which throws them outward to the edge of the tire. This force will by massively greater than the side to side (lateral force) so it would be very difficult for the beads to move and compensate for this type of imbalance.

It makes me wonde if trying more beads would help, as maybe the could redistrubt across the width of the tire, but I'm sure you can get to a point of having excessive beads and ruining your lateral balance.

I'm hoping the place I had these mounted at can do a lateral balance with wheel weights while leaving the beads in for radial balance. They were skeptical about these and warned me they would charge me again to have to break the bead and vacuum these out.

long-ass story slightly longer: for future people wanting to try this out I would advise you to have your wheels checked for balance before installing these. If there is a minimal amount of lateral balance issue these would probably be successful and you could then add them thru the valve stem.