Balancing beads with car tires

Has anybody ever tried using balancing beads for a set of car tires? I know they're mostly used with semi trucks, but I've read some places where they say you can and others saying you can't. I don't see why it would be a problem, and if it does work, it's better than having the stick on weights that fall off after a couple thousand miles. This site sells kits for car and truck tires https://www.abcbalancingbeads.com/

We have mounted and balanced a lot of tires. If you have stick-on weights that are falling off, someone is doing something wrong. That is not normal.

The balance beads have their place. We have tried them. For certain applications, they work. But for the vast majority of passenger car and truck balance though, the tried and true clip on and stick on weights are hard to beat.

Two things about the beads, DO NOT breath them and it takes a minute or so of driving after every stop for the beads to re-balance the tire. Not a problem for over the road situations, but not cool in stop and go traffic. And they are much more expensive than the others.

I am not saying that my theory is correct but I wouldn't use them. They are designed for tire types that may not be passenger tires.

I had a good tire and a rim with a leak from rusty rim. Tire was good and rim was straight so I popped the bead and slipped in a tube on a tubeless tire. I made it about 5 hours out of town and the tread left the tire. Still had pressure and all but the tread peeled off. I credit this as I used a tube in a tubeless tire and they were not compatible. Might have built up undo friction inside the tire when they flexed, maybe it was limiting the natural flex of the tire, not sure but it happened. I am open to other opinions.

It seems like passenger tires would flex more than truck tires so the beads would be moving more often or two much causing undo heat or bead degradation.

So unless the tire is made for them I wouldn't use them.

Btu that is me.

The beads listed in the link don't rotate around in the tire, they claim to use a static charge and stay in place for the life of the tire. There's a few videos on their website about the difference compared to the regular equal that's used. I'm not against it, however I'm not completely sold on using it, I figured I would just ask if anyone has used it out of curiosity. As far as the stick on wheel weights falling off, the last three sets of tires that I've had mounted and balanced have all fallen off after a while. My vehicles rarely get driven due to having a company vehicle for work, so my tires last for years, so maybe part of the issue Is the adhesive wearing out after a couple of years.

great response IMO

may also be they are not prepping the surface before putting the weights on. When I was starting out as a tech in Engineering I lost a 10.00 bet on an adhesives ability to hold. it all had to do with my not prepping the surface. Lessons paid for are best remembered

My tape weights are falling off too, been on about 2-3yrs?
How should the rim be prepped?

I just use a spray of brake clean and stick em on. Put tires on my truck and the wife's car a couple years back....had to literally peel the 10 yr old weights off. The ones I put on are still there just fine. Asked a couple techs I work with.....between us aprox 80+ yrs experience.....none of us have had issues losing tape weights??

Try a new tire shop. Never had a weight fall off. Let alone several.

My buddy sells plenty wheels tires at his body shop. He used laqure thinner on aluim, or plated wheels, and wax grease remover on painted ones since he had it on hand.
Stick ons stay on.

https://www.amazon.com/Loctite-Plas...;hvtargid=pla-4584207589768777&psc=1

The left hand tube in the LOCKTITE Plastics package does not have liquid in it -
instead it is a “magic marker style pen”
with a felt tip that spreads a kind of “Primer layer for glue sticking improvement” .

Since I have several of these markers left over after the superglue tube either runs out or hardens, Ihave tried the markers with completely different glues than Loctite.

So far this has seemed to have helped every time.

I do not know whether it would help lead balancing weight adhesive stick better to wheels.

on a whim, i bought some air soft pellets one time [only $4.99 at wally world for a giant size bottle of pellets] and tried them inside some tires on my "bus" [caravan].
i measured the amount for each tire on a postal scale, installed one side of the tire on the rim, dumped the pellets in, then installed the other side of the tire.
they seemed to work. as these tires and wheels were my winter tires, i used them for several seasons and all seemed ok. as last year was a virtual no snow winter, [] i didn't put them on.
would i do it again ? i really don't know.
just my own personal experiment. your mileage will vary.

How do you figure out how much air soft to put in?

brake clean may work depending on it's composition but is a good start. If one chooses to get really anal do the following.

1. Acetone wipe the area until a white paper towel stays white.
2. Follow with and alcohol wipe down, again until the towel remains white.
3. Scrub the area with a mild abrasive 220 or coarser. The scratches create more surface area for the adhesive.
4. Follow up with another alcohol wipe down until clean.
5. Apply adhesive weight trying not to touch any part of the adhesive.
6. Applying as much pressure as possible roll the top off the weight with a wooden or metal seam roller
A bit over the top but I'll bet that weight will be hell to get off

In any discussion of tire balancing “best practice” it is worth repeating that the best involves using a modern Hunter Tire Balancing machine.
If a tire shop is not using a modern Hunter it would not surprise me that they also make bad decisions about the details of making sure an adhesive weight stays on.

I have never used the tire pellets but in the late 1970s I bought four behind the wheel spacers with steel pellet in oil that were an improvement. After about six years of use one of the four spacers began to leak oil. I later thought about buying some of the mercury filled balancing units.

It has been my experience that Bridgestone brand tires come from the factory better balanced, including being better than cheaper tire brands that Bridgestone’s parent company also owns.

In the 1980s I had to learn balancing of electric motor rotors, then huge roots blower vacuum pumps, then large fans and centrifuges. Balancing is challenging if you have to do the math by hand. I still own a 12 volt portable electronic strobe with digital rpm readout, which helps a lot to spot problems, but becomes highly dangerous when you can forget “stopped motion” fools you into sticking your hand into a spinning machine.

I've been chasing a vibration in my 3500 dually. Tried the beads. No real change. As far as stick on weights. If the wheel is not coroded or dirty, they don't fall off.
Doug

Never heard of any of this, interesting. But at the same time Ive never had a problem in the area.... So I will try to forget reading this.

i just used the guidelines i found on line as to the amount in ounces needed of the "beads" per tire size, then used that figure to measure out the same amount in the air soft pellets.
i used a postal scale, put a cup on the pad, then zeroed out the cup. poured in the pellets until i got the correct amount, done.
rinse and repeat for the other three tires.
i had studded winter tires on the front, and i wore those things down to almost the wear bars and didn't have any problems with vibration of any kind.

I seem to remember some magic gimmick in the 60's or 70's that involved balancing beads in your cars tires, maybe JC Whitney deal ???

There were also these LINKY

or these

I have used them in a Geo Metro. As said earlier they might require some seconds of driving at speed to settle in. They also work best on tall skinny tires and are not recommended for wide low profile tires.
There are good products for over the road trucks which use mercury or balls in oil, in a ring, between the hub and wheel.

I have beads in my rear tires (275/50 15) no problems, did two 1500 mile road trips with them.
The rears always required a lot of balancing weights so I went with the beads instead.

Old bookmark
https://www.balancemasters.com/

I have used dyna beads in a few different sets of tires on my jeep, mostly super swampers, and I have them in the front skinnies on the dart. I have never had any problems.

On my GTS with repro Bias Redlines and the factory mag wheel covers, I didn't want to put clip on weights on my nicely painted rims and stick on would look out of place. I used Counteract beads Counteract Beads. I used them on my trailers tires in the past.
They work fine for me. If the car sits for a long time, the first mile or two will have a shimmy, but it goes away fast. Bias tires have a tendency to take a set anyway when a vehicle is parked a long time, so the shimmy could be partly tires or partly the beads. Either way, it resolves itself. Given how out of shape my bias tires were when mounting, you would not get a true balance anyway until they were broken in a while.

On an every day ride with low profile tires, I would use stick on weights, but for a restoration project, the beads are fine. Use their website to calculate the weight you need and get them on Amazon.

Question... Would the weights need to be removed if using the beads? Or can I just leave them on?

I removed the remaining weights to clean up the rim before getting them balanced again.
The adhesive remained on that rim, it was the foam part between the 2 outer adhesive sections that gave out and separated.
So it was h*ll getting that adhesive off the rim and ended up removing the paint too.

No need for the old weights. I suppose they can stay on, but the beads are doing the work now.

I forgot to add that I put the tire assembly with the beads on the Hunter balancer just to see what would happen. Machine was giving errors for rim slippage, would not even balance. I think the beads spinning up during the initial measurement was causing confusion and assumed the rim was loose on the spindle.

Before the beads I was getting like 3.5oz weight readings and pretty terrible road force readings, nearly 30 lbs. And yes, my rims were pretty true, 2 were NOS. I measured runout prior. As mentioned those tires were way out of round. But they are so soft in the tall sidewall that I guess you can get away with it on the antiquated suspensions back then. New car, no way you could.

Are you saying that the beads stay in place during short stops? How would they do that since they are free floating inside the tire?

I believe that they fall to the bottom every time that the rotation slows enough or stops. And it then takes a bit of speed and a little time for them to get back to where they need to be. I have tried them a couple of times. They have their place. But for most around town applications, they are not the best choice.

No, beads don't stay in place. The Counteract beads are designed not to clump up with moisture, as some other brands do apparently.

I think what occurs, at least with these repro bias tires, is prolonged sitting causes substantial enough tire deformation that the the beads cant overcome initially. This is a big block car, so there is some decent weight on the front tires. Once the tire starts to get back into round (about 1 to 2 miles), the beads are able to balance properly. I have not tried traditional weights on these tires to know how they behave in comparison. I am good with what I have now and the beads.

You add beads based on the tire size, so I suppose if I put in a extra large mass of beads, maybe I would not have as much of a start up issue, but then rest of time would not be needed.