Airsoft Pellets for balancing tires?
 

I have read a bit about it and seen some Youtubes, but have not TT anyone who has actually done it.

If you have, please tell us how it worked

motorcycle guys like dyna beads, probably take a good bit to balance a tire though.

I picked up a large container of airsoft pellets at a garage sale a while back for $1, figuring I'd try this out sometime. Haven't had an opportunity yet, though.

What would cause round beads to settle both on the side exactly opposite the heavy part of the tire radius or correctly on inner or outer aspect of the tire? Seems to me they will
Just roll around completely useless??
Steve

I don't know if they work or not but I have definitely seen where a lot of people say that they do.

I have heard that the use them, or something similar, in 18-wheeler over the road truck tires???

And I've heard that you're used in tires on lifted trucks, 35 inch Etc.

But just because I've heard it, doesn't make it true, and that's why I was hoping somewhere that's actually done it would provide some feedback

Good reading here: http://http://www.innovativebalancing.com/news.htm

You don't want to go there with the beads!!,..Myself and other members of our motorcycle
club tried these and they just make a mess of trying to balance at all speeds...Think about
it,..your gaining momentum from a standing start and the beads find their inertia on the inside of the tire,thats fine until you slow down or come to a stop, they mix all up again and fall where ever and the beads keeps trying to find their position over and over again!.
Once a set speed is going the beads do their adjustment,but a sudden stop or a fast
increase again,you feel the imbalance...The beads would be a + at the Bonneville salt flats
but not at differential speeds,..of course that was mine and the clubs opinion.
PS,.one member had a slow leak in his tires and was finally found that the problem was with these beads had found their way in the rims bead!

Bluesugar. Thanks for the info!! What your describing makes sense.

Most bikes and some of our cars can accelerate and decelerate very fast so what you describe may be reason to avoid.

Is it just HARD accel/decel that creates the issue or would it still be an issue even in something with slow accel/decel like an 18 wheeler?

I use beads to balance the 37" MTRs on my F350. In fact, most guys running large tires use beads to balance.

They work OK. It would be easier to tell how well they actually balance if I was running a smoother tire.

If the Normal balancing procedure is not fixing the problem, there could be:
An internal tire separation
Wheel incorrectly mounted on the balancer
Balancer needs calibration.
Wheel out of round
Stiff spot in tire causing a high road force number/variation.
Flat spot on tire from a panic stop.

I have these in the rear tires of my 78 Cutlass race car, 27 X 10.5 - 15 Hoosier Quick Time Pro on 15 X 8 Weld Prostars. No vibrations.

I have he beads in my '62 Lincoln. The car has 20" rims with 40 profile tires. Dyna beads are not recommended as the sole balancing method for tires with that short of a sidewall. The tires are balanced OK, but still had some vibration. I left the wheel weights on and installed 5 oz of beads per tire. They call this a maintenance amount. They did take out most of the remaining vibration. I'm happy with the improvement they made.

Again, what makes the beads find the light or heavy spot? Answer, nothing. It just dosnt make sense that it would work. There is no correlation between annout of balance situation and beads!??

Unicorn magic LOL. No seriously I don’t get it either

I am not saying that they do or do not work well, but the theory of how they work is explained here:

http://www.innovativebalancing.com/HowItWorks.htm

Thanks. Now I know it's Bull dukey! Is this made by the same company that makes the "turbo" air cleaner intake inserts and the deal that gives you better gas millage when you wrap it around your fuel lines?
It seems to defy physics and logic?
Oh well, thanks for the link.

I appreciate the diagram because it gives me a mental image of why it might work. It's not that that convinces me though. What convinces me is that they seemingly have fleet customers and people using them in the big off-road tyres. Strikes me that neither group would bother if it was all gimmick. Had never heard of this before.

I really liked the thing about off roaders telling them how to air down their beaded tyres safely without shooting their eyes out with ceramic bbs. Worth the read just for that. :D

Reminds me of the "Tire Balancing Rings" that were sold by Warshawsky & Co.. & JC Whitney Co. in Chicago. I believe JCW is still in business out in Kankakee, IL. Most of you guys are too young to remember this mega-parts catalog house (JCW was the mail order arm of the Warshawsky retail store located on South State Street in Chicago.

The rings were clear plastic tubing that contained steel ball bearings that were supposed to roll into place and effect a correct balance. They snapped onto the inside flange of the wheel much like a trim ring.

They were basically useless devices designed to separate the purchaser from his money.

It's amazing how someone who has never tried them is convinced they don't work.

Jon, it's not that they don't work. ITS THAT THEY CANT WORK!!!!
C'mon buddy, think... There just going to roll around!!!
But **** dude, go for it. I'll even sell ya a bunch I got laying around from my kids.

x2.

I guess all the truck guys using them must be total morons?

Whatever, I use them and I see results.

You go bro, you go!!
If you see results, who am I to argue?
I just don't get how. Maybe it's like a flywheel in that once you get enough rotational mass it just blends it out?
Bottom line is that the beads will never ever EVER stop rolling.
Regards.

Why not just balance a tire in the conventional methods?

Special pellets, with antimatter (don't matter) properties....defy Newton's Laws of Motion.
:rolleyes:

Oh please. Laws of physics say otherwise. Might as well call it witchcraft.


Big tires sometimes need excessive amounts of weight to balance. So a shop screws around, finally finds a sweet spot, and it's completely ruined the first time it is taken off road.

FWIW, I don't see much merit... :noidea:

I know it's beat to death so one more comment then I will let it go. As to the physics, IF you drive at exactly the same speed on a perfectly flat plane, like in a lab for example, the beads might eventually settle into a "place" where they stop moving but A there is nothing in physics that says this will be the lightest part of a tire and B as soon as this speed, or plane changes it will all shift and start rolling again.
What WILL happen according to simple physics is that the mass, aka the beads will eventually find the spot FARTHEST from the center of rotation but there is no guarantees that this is the spot needed to balance.
have a great fall.

Paul, in the case of very large offroad tyres, according to the literature on the site, the issue is that the imballance on a large tall tyre is very far from the rim (tall sidewalls) so the amount of weight that needs adding to the rim is rather large (it has less "leverage" being closer to the centre than the tyre tread) and also dynamic imbalance is common on these tyres as tread gets damaged and mud gets lodged etc...

One of our members here testifies that he uses the product for his large tyre offroader and is satisfied.

Whether it is better than conventional wheel weights or not for street muscle cars is probably another question. But I think people are being a little quick to mock. If you saw the "how it works" on the site it's not that hard:

1. balls initially roll everywhere somewhat evenly
2. a heavy spot on a tyre causes the tyre and wheel to move in the direction of the heavy side
3. Newton's first law says the balls being free to move move in the opposite direction towards the lighter side
4. the faster the tyre spins the less the balls want to change position (stuck harder against the inside of the tread)

So, yeah, the physics makes sense or is at least plausible. Does it work? Is it worth the hassle and the risk of shooting yourself in the eye when you let air out of the tyre? Dunno. I guess that's why the post was made to discuss...

Sam

The tires on my Lincoln were balanced, and the balance job was OK, but not great. In dealing with the wife's Mustang, I had to have the tires balanced 3 times. In the process, the wheels got damaged.. And of course, they don't remove the old adhesive when they remove the old weights, and you can see the old adhesive when you look thru the spokes of the wheel. Which means I have to pull the wheels off and remove the adhesive.

Since the Lincoln wheels were somewhat balanced,, I decided to skip the part where they damage the wheels and don't remove the adhesive and try the beads instead. In this case, the beads did remove almost all the remaining vibration. The nay-sayers can say what they want, but i didn't have to take the car to the tire shop, I didn't risk any wheel damage, I didn't have to pull the wheels off when I got home to remove the adhesive, and I improved the balance to the point where I'm happy with it. In addition, because of the beads, I'll likely not need to rebalance the wheels until it's time for new tires.