Tire Balancing beads - BB's?

Have you ever seen how fine those commercial balancing beads are? You also will need the special valve stems to keep the beads from coming out and/or keeping the valve from seating properly and causing a slow leak when checking or reducing the air pressure in the tires.

I never heard of substituting them with BBs.

My tire dealer said these tires were too small for balancing beads to be effective. :)

a quick check on the internet gave me this info:

http://www.innovativebalancing.com

they promote their use on any size tire!

I'm using 2 oz of Crossman High Impact .25 grams 6mm seamless Airsoft BB's in my 5.30 x 12 utility trailer tires, and they run smooth.

The beads do not always work in all tires. From the Dynabeads web site

Dyna Bead web site wrote:
Dyna Beads ® with Low Profile Tires

You will note that we do not market to cars, SUV’s or personal minivans, mostly due to low profile, low aspect ratio tires.

If you have low profile tires, that being any tire with an aspect ratio 65 or below, you may have balancing issues that precludes using Dyna Beads as the sole balancing method.

Our official policy is that we do not advise using Dyna Beads in any car, truck or SUV tire with an aspect ratio 65 or below unless used in conjunction with weights.

I did try the bb's in some 65 aspect ratio tires on my Honda Odyssey, and it worked most of the time. After a few thousand miles, had the beads removed and the tires road force balanced and learned that one of the 4 tires could not be balanced at all. So....maybe the BB's work in 65 aspect ratio tires also?

There are some posters on this form that use the airsoft BB's to balance their motorhome tires.

Let us know how it works if you decide to try the BB's.

Fred

I use the ceramic DynaBeads in my 14-inch trailer tires. They work well.

When I buy new tires, I slice through the sidewalls of the old tires and recover the beads for use in the new tires. I put the beads in through the valve stem after removing the core.

I don't use the special screened cores as I have experienced no problems with just using regular cores.

I use an engraving tool to provide a vibration source when pouring the beads through the valve stems, which is not necessary but does speed up the process. I believe it's a tip explained on their web site.

Yeah! Air softBB's why didn't I think of that?

OK, that's the way I'll go. I have 15" tires - I'll use 3 oz. I have an electronic balance so I'm set.

WooHoo - Thaks

Jframpey wrote:
Yeah! Air softBB's why didn't I think of that?

OK, that's the way I'll go. I have 15" tires - I'll use 3 oz. I have an electronic balance so I'm set.

WooHoo - Thaks

I wrote this 7/13/16, in another thread, but never got an answer:

I have had brake drums that took 5.5 oz. to bring them into balance. When mounting a 4 oz. out of balance tire to that drum, it would require 1.5 oz. to 9.5 oz. to bring the assembly into balance, depending how they are oriented. How many oz. of beads would I add?

I find the heavy spot of the drum and the heavy spot of the wheel/tire and then mount them opposite, then balance the assembly.

I have the beads in my 22.5" commercial truck tires. They work fine. That is the only way the shop that put the tires on balances big truck tires. They don't use rim weights at all.

Lynnmor wrote:

Jframpey wrote:
Yeah! Air softBB's why didn't I think of that?

OK, that's the way I'll go. I have 15" tires - I'll use 3 oz. I have an electronic balance so I'm set.

WooHoo - Thaks

I wrote this 7/13/16, in another thread, but never got an answer:

I have had brake drums that took 5.5 oz. to bring them into balance. When mounting a 4 oz. out of balance tire to that drum, it would require 1.5 oz. to 9.5 oz. to bring the assembly into balance, depending how they are oriented. How many oz. of beads would I add?

I find the heavy spot of the drum and the heavy spot of the wheel/tire and then mount them opposite, then balance the assembly.

Ignoring a dissertation in physics I can say that you will require less than 9.5oz as the beads run on the inside of the tire and have a greater effect due to the distance..

basically.. the turning effect of a force is known as the moment. It is the product of the force multiplied by the perpendicular distance from the line of action of the force to the pivot or point where the object will turn. the extra distance is of course the distance from the rim edge to the inside of the tire..

typical lead balance weights are heavier than necessary due to the fact that they are attached to the rim on a smaller diameter and therefore have a smaller moment..
consider a tire of 30 inches diameter with a rim of 15 inches diameter and a 4 oz balance weight.
the weight is 4 oz at 7.5 inches radius so the moment is 4*7.5 = 30
the same moment could be obtained with a weight of 30 / 15 = 2 oz if it were possible to mount a weight on the circumference of the tire.

The weights that I mentioned were at the rim. I understand that the beads would be a few inches beyond the rim but they can't all occupy the same space. Because the beads will be spread out, my guess is that they would need to be approximately the same weight as lead weights on the rim.

I am not convinced that using beads is a good idea. The quantity to be used is just a guess. Every time the vehicle falls below a certain speed the beads fall away causing the assembly to be out of balance till things get sorted out again.