sjester

I've got my front end in good shape, but the load range E 285/75/16 BFG all terrains will not stay balanced with lead weights and I want to try the balancing beads and it seems that the Dynabeads get the most thumbs up here. A couple of questions

None of the tire places in my small town use them, is there a better place to buy than from Innovative direct?

Are the filtered valve cores necessary?

Can they be installed in the driveway by removing the valve core and pouring them in?

If you've installed them yourself as a replacement for lead weights did you leave the weights on or take them off?

Thanks!
Steve

infidel

I've always bought direct from Innovative.

You can probably get by without the filtered cores but for a buck each why mess with it?
Without the filtered cores if you ever have to let air out of your tires and don't have a compressor to blow back to clear a regular core it could leak.

Innovative sells a bottle for installing though the valve stem. All it is is a catchup type squirt plastic bottle with a short clear tube that fit's over the valve stem.

Doesn't matter if you leave the weights on or not. I always take them off since they're useless with the beads.

Dr. Evil

I use Counteract beads and they work great, even with normal valve cores.


http://www.counteractbalancing.com/

Its much easier to install them before the tire is mounted.

RickCJ

Better thru patchboy than In.
If your BFG aren't round nothing will smooth them out.
Beads are snake oil! If your tire is good weights will make them run smooth. No magic beads will.

sjester

Oh they stay balanced for a short period of time but they throw weights and there is a bunch on each of them.........gonna give the beads from either Innovative or Counteract a try..hate to keep polluting the roadside environment with a spray of lead

Geico266

I've used the beads for years, and reuse them when I put new tires on. Far from "snake oil" they work fine at all speeds and compensate for tire wear and rocks in the treads. Lead weights cannot do that. Go with what the MFG recommends per tire, don't skimp. At any speed I can look in my side mirrors and see no vibrations at all, ever.

Yes, you can install them in the drive way, but it is time consuming. Get the bottle & the filler kit, and you will need the filtered valve stems.

Totallyrad

There's a set of Centramatics in the classifieds. I can give them a thumbs up, good product.

sjester

I can't find the centramatics in the classifieds I guess they sold. While I was working the search, either here or another site, I saw where someone was selling sets of centramatics for $45 a set a year or two back. Too bad I missed that deal, but the beads aren't much more expensive

RickCJ

I own a tire shop and tried the beads a couple years ago in all types of tires and most were removed and lead weights used to get them balanced properly.
Gets very expensive to dismount, remove beads and rebalance with weights for 25-30 unhappy customers.
They did seem to work best on tall skinny tires, 235/85s 255/85s. But any tire that needed to be dynamically balanced or called for more than a few oz. of weight they did not work well enough.
I'm glad they worked out for you. Sure wish I had the same luck.


ps the centramatics work as good as the beads

Totallyrad

Those who got the $45 ones got a deal. It was actually a mistake on the part of the retailer and they lost money, big fiasco. Try this link below.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/.../26625/cat/all

Geico266

The best results I have had were to balance the tire with weights then add 5oz of beads per tire. The 285 BFG's were smooth as silk for 30 - 40K miles before I changed tires. I've done this for the last 3 sets of BFG's.

RowJ

Is that experience or just negativity.
I used beads for last two sets of tires. Got 5000 more miles, per set, with beads than without.
They rebalance everytime you put the truck in gear....as opposed to driving today on rubber that was balanced 1 or 2 yr ago, when there was much more rubber on the tire.
Plus they balance mud buildup inside the wheel, stones caught in the tread, etc.

I switched to Centramatics this yr. Exactly the same principle. Just got sick of buying more beeds with new tires.
And using two sets of wheels/tires made that even more expensive.

RJ

Totallyrad

The truly nice thing about beads or balancers like the Centramatics are they are constantly adjusting for changes in tire wear, chunking and rotor wear, anything in the rotating mass of the wheel. When I was a kid my dad used to go to a guy in Scio, Ohio to have his tires balanced. This guy used a machine that balanced the wheel on the car. Because he balanced the entire wheel assembly it was smooth as silk for about 5k miles then you needed to do it again to adjust for wear. The beads and balancers do it continuously without the need for "adjustments" as the tires wear. I can safely say my tire life is extended by 4k per set. The balancers do pay for themselves, both in fuel savings and improved tire wear which means more mileage per set.

On a side bar, you'll notice the handling will improve due to less rebound when you hit bumps in the road. I can't say with absolute certainty but I'd think this would also reduce the frequency of DW on some trucks.

jfpointer

They do work, but be prepared to spend quite a while getting them in the tires. You put them in this little bottle and squeeze them in through the valve stem--takes hours to do all four. If I decide to use them again, I'll take the truck to a tire shop and have them install the beads.

mikmaze

I think I am headin for beads soon, today if possible...... went through warranty on a set of hankooks that were out of round, now the new set was perfect on the way home, but day 2 started to notice vibe....... go out look at rims and check notes..... rf supposed to have 2 weights......... only see one. Ntext few days I lost more weights and gained more vibe. I gotta find out where a budy got his beads put in so I don't have to chase all over to find them and waste fuel/ time.