Beads or BB's for tyre balancing

[Happyoldgit]

Holy thread revival Batman! 😉

We stuck a load of balancing beads in the front tyres of one of our trucks that were proving difficult to balance with weights. Worked well and worth a go for the modest amount of £££ involved.

[Bowie69]

Yes, literally had two tyres removed today because they were leaking around the bead -the culprit were the beads. Two otherwise identical wheels happily hold air.

They just turned to dust inside the wheel and didn't make any marked difference, IMHO.

I wouldn't go anywhere near them again, just run them traditionally balanced, or not at all as I am doing now.

So with HOG's reply we are still really split, and totally unhelpful  

[Tobias]

I've ran steel shot as in shot blasting shot. Small steel balls. If the tyre is moist inside or frequently topped up with moist compressed air, there is a fair bit of rust inside, but if they are dry on assembly and only normally reinflated, there is no significant amount of rust or dust, even  after many years and miles of use.

 

I attach two pictures from Norway last year. Here is what happens if you do NOT do as I say, but do as I do...

I was in a hurry between two trips last year and left a tyre outside in the rain between taking it off a cracked rim and remounting it on a new rim. I was in a hurry, so didn't clean the water out thoroughly. A week and some 1000-1500 miles later, there was heavy imbalance in the wheel and we took it off to reveal what you see in the pictures. the shot had caked together due to the water and created very heavy vibrations. Cleaner rim and wheel and added normal weights, to get us home. then happily put steel shot in again. I put about 3-4 table spoons worth in each 285/75-16 tyre. 2-3 in smaller.

[Maverik]

I ran some dynabeads for about 2-3 years as I was struggling getting some wheels to balance. They where perfect, did there job and when I changed the tires last I kindly asked the garage to try recover them and I got them back in a Tupperware box, looking the same as when I put them in, no sign of wear or breakdown.

Quite impressed with them really in the end.

FYI - I installed them through the valve rather than them being installed with the tyre.

[Happyoldgit]

4 hours ago, Maverik said:

I ran some dynabeads for about 2-3 years as I was struggling getting some wheels to balance. They where perfect, did there job and when I changed the tires last I kindly asked the garage to try recover them and I got them back in a Tupperware box, looking the same as when I put them in, no sign of wear or breakdown.

Quite impressed with them really in the end.

FYI - I installed them through the valve rather than them being installed with the tyre.

That's them, Dynabeads, for the life of me I couldn't think of the name of the ones we used in the 7.5 ton MAN fronts. I added then via the valve when it was at the 6 o'clock position having first removed the core. New tyres last year and they balanced fine so the beads were no longer needed.

[Bowie69]

Yep, mine were dynabeads, more like dynadust when I had the tyre off.

[landroversforever]

No idea what brand they were but they were in mine when I got the 90, they certainly weren’t dusty when they came out and I never had any vibrations. 

[martyn668]

I had Dynabeads in my tubed 7.50 x 16 for many years. A set of Avon Rangemasters and a set of remould MTs. Very happy with them in both sets of tyres. Filled all 10 tyres through the valve, although it did take FOREVER. No choice though as both sets of tyres had inner tubes. I think from memory that I had to buy the smaller size so they would fit through the valves. I was very pleased with how good they were, and the chap in the UK who sells them is very helpful on the phone. Lots of free advice.