Balancing beads

semicolon

semicolon

Active Member
I installed some wheel spacers recently and was also going to do a 5 tire rotation. To my surprise when I took the spare down there was a noise of something loose inside. I've only had this Jeep for a short time so I hadn't had the spare off yet. Thought it might be balancing beads but took it to Discount Tire to break it down and confirm it wasn't TPS pieces. Sure enough it was balancing beads. I had them removed and balance the tire with conventional stick on weights. I've heard of balancing beads but have no experience with them. This tire had zero miles on it and none of the tires on the ground had them. Has anyone used these before? The guy at Discount said these are more common in commercial tires, he seemed surprised to seem in this application.
 
Was talked into trying them on a motorcycle, 1 week later had them removed.

It takes a while for them to distribute to where they are needed and make everything very uncomfortable, especially on 2 wheels.

I filed them as snake oil and never went back.
 
kevman65 said:
Was talked into trying them on a motorcycle, 1 week later had them removed.

It takes a while for them to distribute to where they are needed and make everything very uncomfortable, especially on 2 wheels.

I filed them as snake oil and never went back.
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I couldn't imagine them on a motorcycle. Had to have crazy vibes from accelerating from a stop
 
jesse3638 said:
I couldn't imagine them on a motorcycle. Had to have crazy vibes from accelerating from a stop
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Because of the tire size and contact patch, MC tires change quite rapidly. Was told the beads could compensate for this and stick-on weights couldn't.

Yes, crazy vibes, like riding on an egg shaped wheel.
 
semicolon said:
I installed some wheel spacers recently and was also going to do a 5 tire rotation. To my surprise when I took the spare down there was a noise of something loose inside. I've only had this Jeep for a short time so I hadn't had the spare off yet. Thought it might be balancing beads but took it to Discount Tire to break it down and confirm it wasn't TPS pieces. Sure enough it was balancing beads. I had them removed and balance the tire with conventional stick on weights. I've heard of balancing beads but have no experience with them. This tire had zero miles on it and none of the tires on the ground had them. Has anyone used these before? The guy at Discount said these are more common in commercial tires, he seemed surprised to seem in this application.
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Someone was reading the internet from someone else who said they use them and “no issues”. I see this play out on the Facebook groups, and one guy who always say he has “no issues” with the 6” Rough Country lift that he bought for $900 will come out of the woodwork to say the balance beads work.
 
There was a time around 2009 when Discount Tire was refusing vehicles with wheel spacers and/or beadlocks. I had AEV Wheels, 37" MTR's and 1.5" Spidertrax bolt-on spacers. Because they wouldn't balance or warranty them (unless I rolled them in 1 by 1,) I went the balance bead route and it was okay. It takes time for the beads to settle, so stop and go, or slow traffic is when you hear them slide around in the tires.

I initially used AirSoft BB's, and when that seemed to do the trick I moved onto the more expensive tire balance branded steel BB's when I removed the wheel spacers and went to ATX Slabs (beadlock wheels.) The steel ones settled faster and weren't as noisy. If I recall correctly I was using 8oz in each tire and the steel BB's cost about $60 for the 4 on the ground. It's odd the OP's jeep had them in an unused spare, unless the previous owner had extra.

There's a place for these in the automotive world, but they'd be my last resort.
 
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wayoflife said:
Yeah… no. No offense but balancing beads are 100% snake oil. To me anyway.
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Sounds like some good Mythbuster-type content for you. :ROFLMAO:

Other than paying stupid money for small chunks of metal. They don't balance-out 100% of the time. At times you'll get up to speed and if they haven't settled in their sweet-spot they are counter to what they're supposed to do, requiring you to slow down until they settle. Not like death-wobble, but a hopping tire.

Aside from the tire balancing headache - I'm feeling a bit of nostalgia from those days at the moment... Things were so simple back then. Wheeling on the weekend and driving to work through the week. I have built my Jeep to a "toy" that can't do both anymore.
 

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TonyT said:
Sounds like some good Mythbuster-type content for you. :ROFLMAO:

Other than paying stupid money for small chunks of metal. They don't balance-out 100% of the time. At times you'll get up to speed and if they haven't settled in their sweet-spot they are counter to what they're supposed to do, requiring you to slow down until they settle. Not like death-wobble, but a hopping tire.

Aside from the tire balancing headache - I'm feeling a bit of nostalgia from those days at the moment... Things were so simple back then. Wheeling on the weekend and driving to work through the week. I have built my Jeep to a "toy" that can't do both anymore.
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Nice spyderlocs. Did they finally discontinue those? I was looking last week and couldn’t find them online. Always wanted to run them. Never did…

PS, sorry about the balancing beads, op.
 
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