After extensive research on balancing techniques, it became clear to me that some praise and swear by balancing beads while others think they are a total waste of time and money.

In the midst of all my reading, I formulated an opinion that many that hadn’t had success might not have used an appropriate amount. Since balancing beads are always moving to offset the imbalance in a tire, you can never really have too many, yet too little will never work. The bottom line is I decided to give them a go when I purchased my new 37s. Since I wanted to keep my TPMS and often air-down, I selected the Off-Road Dyna Beads that are a larger bead. I consulted with Innovative Balancing on the appropriate amount of weight per tire and purchased five 10oz bags.

I found that the actual installation of these beads is a bit of a PITA when using narrow traditional wheels. These beads are to be poured in and while the directions stress to keep them out of the tire lube it is near impossible to do so. If you were using wider rims it would be better, but really the only way this can be accomplished without some beads touching the tire lube would be with bead-locks.

Once the install was done, I hit the road and my first impressions were not so good. In fact, they were pretty bad. But, as I mentioned, I did have some beads get into the lube so I was hoping maybe some were stuck and would free up once the lube dried. The following morning I had to take the rears off to better trim the pinch seam and as I moved the tires about my shop I could clearly hear the beads moving and they sounded free. Optimism began to grow but was extinguished quickly on the next test drive. The only way I was able to make the balance even sub-par was to white-knuckle it to 70MPH and then slow down to an appropriate speed of 55 on my country test roads. When cornering I could actually feel the beads move and cause instability. On two occasions this wouldn’t settle until I came to a complete stop and restarted.

Before I sucked the $120 in beads into a shop vac I called Innovative Balancing again for a consult. This time I spoke with another person which I later learned was the owner. This resulted in a fairly lengthy conversation where, after I told them what I was experiencing, they said the beads alone wouldn’t work for me. Before I get into the details, I would like to express my dissatisfaction with the fact that I was not informed of the possible balancing inadequacies when I called to discuss my application the first time. They also were unwilling to refund even a portion of my purchase on a product I was unable to use.

So if you’re still with me, here is the skinny:
The balancing with beads “technology”, if you can call it that, was developed for over the road truck tires. These tires have a bunch of tread weight variance, but the sidewalls are pretty consistent and have little variance. This created an up/down imbalance as the tire rotates and the beads work very well at correcting this type of imbalance. Unfortunately, most off-road tires DO have a bunch of tread on the sidewall and therefore have sidewall weight imperfections. This not only creates an up/down imbalance but also a side-to-side imbalance that beads can never correct for as centrifugal force is pulling the beads away from where they would need to be.

My tires had a severe amount of lateral (side-to-side) imbalance and, if anything, the beads made the whole thing worse. According to Innovative Balancing there is a procedure to use traditional weights in combination with the beads, but this requires a balancer that can spin a tire very fast and for a long time. Unless you find a shop that is still using really old equipment very few balancers still do this. Besides, if I am going to rely on traditional weights what is the point in the beads?

I ended up sucking the beads out of the tires and doing a traditional balance. And after driving several hundred miles with them balanced this way I have NO noticeable vibration. I am quite pleased actually. I accept that this is something that I will have to keep an eye on and likely have to have redone.

The reason I posted this is I think it gives some insight to why some love and some hate beads. I still like the idea of beads. If I were to rip off a lug, or have tires full of crud, the beads (in theory) should adapt to this change. But in practice they didn’t work for me. I wish there was a cut-and-dry list of tires that they will or won’t work with but to the best of my knowledge there isn’t. It seems to be a hit-and-miss thing even amongst the same type tire. I know two guys that I wheel with that have had VERY good experiences with the same beads that failed me. All I can say is if you are going to try them, you should be prepared for the possibility of them not working.

As a side note, if you drive on a bunch of 25-45MPH roads the beads will likely disappoint you, even on an ideal application as the tires haven’t spun up fast enough to get the beads where they need to be. (An imbalanced 37 gets a pretty good bounce at 30MPH.)

Anyway, this is what I learned, hopefully it helps you. Happy Jeepin’, and I hope to see you on the trail.

 

Thanks for the great information. I'm going through your same problems now, except I do have bead locks and they're a pita to pull apart, I have rock monsters.

I just went to a local tire shop and made an appointment to have them do everything. I'll ask if they have the high speed machines, that may be an option.

Anyways, just wanted to say thanks

 

Sure thing, glad the info helped!

 

I used 8 oz of air soft bb's in my 37's and it works great. Cost me $25 at Dicks Sporting Goods.

 

Pretty much same experience with Allied bead locks and 35's on my 2 dr. Been fighting them for a couple weeks now.

Started with 10 oz in each tire, shook like mad at 45 mph and only got worse above that. Second your comment on sharp turns, could feel the weight shift and whole front end start to wobble.

Tried rotating tires, adding another 4oz of beads per tire, checking each tire for out of round, overinflating, underinflating, starting out slow, starting out fast. Nothing seemed to make it feel safe.

Broke the tires down and removed ALL of the beads, huge PIA.
Re-mounted and drove them with zero weight and only noticed slight shimmy on right front. Swapped it for spare and they're pretty damn good!

Took them off for now so I can get the tries siped and road force balanced.

Some people seem to have great luck with the beads, I was not one of those lucky ones.

 

I tried them on my first jeep, long, long ago... 33 MT/Rs...

NEVER worked right. ended up sucking them all out and going with a normal balance...

I agree the left/right balance of these bigger tires can't be worked out well with beads....

maybe they work fine on big rigs and minivans, but not here!

 

I dont think the airsoft or plastic beads have enough mass to really do the job well...

I have used stainless BB's and Copperhead BB's in everything from a Subaru WRX that was used to auto-x as well as daily drive to my old/chevy... I also have never used 8-10 ounces, only 1-2 shot glasses per tire and never had a problem. (so just a few ounces)

The biggest issue I have with running them is trying to find someone willing to put them in while mounting the tires...

 

10oz is 10oz no matter what the material is... If they move freely in the tire they should go where ever the imbalance is, (provided its in the tread where they can go). If it's in the side-wall it is physically impossible for them to ever get where they need to to properly balance a tire.

 

correct, 10oz is 10oz... but 10oz of plastic beads takes up a lot more space and spreads that 10oz out over more of the inside of the tire instead of just where the weight is needed. 10oz of steel vs 10oz of plastic - one of the two is going to be able to put more mass/weight into a smaller, more focused location - which seems like it would be what you would want for balancing.

Cant do anything about the sidewall issue, not disagreeing with that... just that I havent experienced it

 

I see your point....