Tire Balancing

[Silverslk]

Well, some of you know but most don’t. I sold my 33x10.50x15 Bajas last weekend and SCORED a set of 35” Bajas last night at a little tire shop in Santa Ana. The guy mounted them for free but said he couldn’t balance them due to size and weight (old balance machine). So, being partially tight and partially broke, I am trying to find ways to not pay to balance the tires. My question is “What do you guys think about those “balance beads”? I have heard nothing but good things about them but I am a skeptic.

[BajaBronco13]

Well, some of you know but most don’t. I sold my 33x10.50x15 Bajas last weekend and SCORED a set of 35” Bajas last night at a little tire shop in Santa Ana. The guy mounted them for free but said he couldn’t balance them due to size and weight (old balance machine). So, being partially tight and partially broke, I am trying to find ways to not pay to balance the tires. My question is “What do you guys think about those “balance beads”? I have heard nothing but good things about them but I am a skeptic.

Andy, Phillips Tires in Santa Ana off Main charged me 5 per wheel to balance my BFG 35s on Ford Bronco wheels. Might be worth stopping by. I have no opinion on the balance beads, I've never used them.

Chris

[bajascott]

i ran sand in my baja's on my ranger(i diddnt drive it everyday)but it worked for a while untill the humidity rose up in the summer(i was in arizona at the time)

[SteveG]

For a heavy ass Baja TA the balancing sand (not affected by moisture) is probably a good idea. I've used it in LARGE tires for cutomer vehicles but never in my own. If they were on my truck I would start by trying to have someone balance them. If they require a ton of weight to balance then try the sand.

Getting it done free is going to be tough.

[Copykat]

I had the glass beads at one time. They worked good for the first week but then everything turned to crap. Ended up getting them removed and balanced properly. If it's a DD I'd recomend spending the cash to get them ballanced by a shop. Beads are prolly OK for the weekend toy. Not for both. Been down that road and learned not to go down that one again.

When I put the 35's on I had a shop balance them. So much better and smooth right from the start. If your worried about weights on the wheel lips, find a shop that can put the stickem on weights.

My Wifes Civic has no real lip for weights to clip on to and the shop used the stickem weights like the factory setup.

[Silverslk]

Yeah. Not a fan of clip on weight on the outside but balance is better than looks in that dept. The tires guys don't care and say they can't balance as good with stick on weights because they can't place weights on both sides. It can be done. I worked at TSW wheels for a while and you can stick the weights close to the outer edge on most wheels behind a spoke or something. Anyway, I guess I'll go to the place Chris went to this weekend and see.

Thanks guys!!

[bajascott]

i had a place balance my hancook mt's here. they are heavy tires, but i had them off the bronco when i had them balanced.
they put the stick-ons on the wheels and when i installed the wheels the front calipers took the wieghts right off.(they had double stacked the weights. got it fixed but anyway watch out for that.they'll get shreded as soon as you move the bronco out. just a heads ups thought i would share my experiance.

[yikes]

Andy, I'm a big fan of the Dyna Beads from Innovative Balancing. I've been using the standard size for the past two or three years in my Toyos and have had zero issues. In fact, when I mounted the new tires recently, I swapped the beads over. These are not the size of the Airsoft pellets. They're small enough to fit into the valve stem, but it's very time consuming to put them in that way.

[Silverslk]

Andy, I'm a big fan of the Dyna Beads from Innovative Balancing. I've been using the standard size for the past two or three years in my Toyos and have had zero issues. In fact, when I mounted the new tires recently, I swapped the beads over. These are not the size of the Airsoft pellets. They're small enough to fit into the valve stem, but it's very time consuming to put them in that way.

How do they do Brian? Are they as smooth as a regular wheel weight balance? Thanks for the input.

[philofab]

I've run several sets of Toyo M/Ts without any balancing. I couldn't tell the difference when new or close to new. Toyo makes a very high quality tire.