Rockcrawlindude
a rock crawlin’ dude
Well, I’ve recommended balancing beads many times over the years. I’ve told people that if the beads didn’t work, they needed more of them.
I have used balancing beads many times before, steel wheels, aluminum wheels, beadlocks, 37”s, 38”s, 39”s and 40”s. I’ve use them in TSLs which are not great tires on the road, and I’ve used them in cut up tires I took off a rock crawler and put on a street rig.
Well, I am here to tell you I was wrong. Sometimes adding more weight still wont balance and maybe beads don’t always work.
I recently got new tires and the tire shop balanced my tires with tape weights on the wheels. Some of the tires took lots of weight, but they were balanced out and rode smoothly. I’ll attach some pics.
Well, rather than take them back to the tire shop and have them do something about it, I decided to just bead balance them. I use counteract balance beads with good luck so I added 8oz per their recommendation after I cleaned the wheel weights and leftover tape off of the wheels.
I took a ride and had pretty bad vibrations so I added more weight because I had 3 extra 4oz bags leftover from the last vehicle I balanced at home, so I added it evenly to the tires which brought me to 11oz per tire, more than the recommended amount. In the past, adding a little has evened out any little leftover vibes.
I still have a really bad vibration at 55mph, edging on wobble territory. I drove around a bit and scratched my head a bit and then gave up.
So, I’m posting this from discount tire where I came back and told them the truth that I jacked up the work they did, that the wheels were balanced but I just didn’t like the stacked weights. They are fixing me up for free. Honesty goes a long way, I suppose. They could’ve charged me for this labor. Poor fellas gotta shop vac a bunch of beads out of my tires and they’re going to spin the tires on the wheels and see if they can cut down the weight in one spot.
I’m not sure why this set of tires doesn’t want to bead balance, maybe it’s a side to side balance that their machine can detect or maybe it’s just because it’s so much weight in one spot. Balancing beads can be a good option and they can work in many scenarios but they may not be best for every scenario.
I have used balancing beads many times before, steel wheels, aluminum wheels, beadlocks, 37”s, 38”s, 39”s and 40”s. I’ve use them in TSLs which are not great tires on the road, and I’ve used them in cut up tires I took off a rock crawler and put on a street rig.
Well, I am here to tell you I was wrong. Sometimes adding more weight still wont balance and maybe beads don’t always work.
I recently got new tires and the tire shop balanced my tires with tape weights on the wheels. Some of the tires took lots of weight, but they were balanced out and rode smoothly. I’ll attach some pics.
Well, rather than take them back to the tire shop and have them do something about it, I decided to just bead balance them. I use counteract balance beads with good luck so I added 8oz per their recommendation after I cleaned the wheel weights and leftover tape off of the wheels.
I took a ride and had pretty bad vibrations so I added more weight because I had 3 extra 4oz bags leftover from the last vehicle I balanced at home, so I added it evenly to the tires which brought me to 11oz per tire, more than the recommended amount. In the past, adding a little has evened out any little leftover vibes.
I still have a really bad vibration at 55mph, edging on wobble territory. I drove around a bit and scratched my head a bit and then gave up.
So, I’m posting this from discount tire where I came back and told them the truth that I jacked up the work they did, that the wheels were balanced but I just didn’t like the stacked weights. They are fixing me up for free. Honesty goes a long way, I suppose. They could’ve charged me for this labor. Poor fellas gotta shop vac a bunch of beads out of my tires and they’re going to spin the tires on the wheels and see if they can cut down the weight in one spot.
I’m not sure why this set of tires doesn’t want to bead balance, maybe it’s a side to side balance that their machine can detect or maybe it’s just because it’s so much weight in one spot. Balancing beads can be a good option and they can work in many scenarios but they may not be best for every scenario.
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