Any experience with balancing media?

F

frickjp

Guest
There has to be a reason they sell this stuff.
I have tried a set of 34's with 225 grams of #8 shot in them. Today, I put 200 miles on a set of 235/85-16 with 175 grams of #8 shot. Same results with both sets.
It almost seems cyclical. Driving along smooth as can be, then almost violent shaking for a while, then OK again. It seems as if the tires do this individually, rarely in sync, so there's almost one giving up a shimmy all the time. Speed has little effect, it happens at 50 as easily as it does at 90.

So, has anyone actually used any media with good results? Before I toss down $75 for some magic ceramic beads, I'd like to hear that they actually work.

And why can't you just use anti-freeze?
 
az_max

az_max

1
Apr 22, 2005
7,463
2
frickjp said:
There has to be a reason they sell this stuff.
I have tried a set of 34's with 225 grams of #8 shot in them. Today, I put 200 miles on a set of 235/85-16 with 175 grams of #8 shot. Same results with both sets.
It almost seems cyclical. Driving along smooth as can be, then almost violent shaking for a while, then OK again. It seems as if the tires do this individually, rarely in sync, so there's almost one giving up a shimmy all the time. Speed has little effect, it happens at 50 as easily as it does at 90.

So, has anyone actually used any media with good results? Before I toss down $75 for some magic ceramic beads, I'd like to hear that they actually work.

And why can't you just use anti-freeze?
Click to expand...

I'd think it's all snake oil. I've ridden in jeeps with the shot in the rims and have experienced the shake. Seems worse with mudders. I'd have the rims checked for balance/out of round, then have the tires balanced on them.
 
F

frickjp

Guest
Well, I doubled the amount today, now at 350g per 235/85-16. You'll be driving along smooth as glass, then it will set up this cycle of shake-like-Hell/smooth. The slightest turn in the road seems to shift the shit and the shimmy starts. Is it the lead shot, the amount, or the whole idea? If anyone has actual experience that this works, I'll try something other than lead shot. Otherwise, I'll dump the lead back in the reloader and just balance them on the machine.
 
D

D2 2003

Guest
Another vote for snake oil. Unless one of the outfits that sell those magic beans, er whatever they call it, can explain the physics as to how a tire filled with a foreign substance, rolling along at 50 or 60 mph+ can have the foreign substance distribute itself such that it balances the tire, I'm never going to believe it.

The results you are getting with lead shot are telling you what you already know. The stuff shifts around randomly in the tire, sometimes better balance than at other times. It's all happenstance and no good science behind it.
 
B

barefoot

Guest
ive never tried or driven with the beads but i drove an fj with equal in it many times. shakes til you get up to an even speed then smooths out nicely. would constantly fall out of balance on the i-state and just sucked ass around town. this particular fj had a lot of driveline slop and letting of the gas abruptly would almost always send it shaking again. every once in a while 2 or more tires would shake in sync....it would get ugly! i could imagine a girl being able to orgasm from the vibration.
 
D

D Chapman

Guest
I ran Equal. It sucked.

Now, I have 35" tires and I use ceramic parts cleaner beads. I think I have 12oz per tire. Due to the tire being basically a Bias Ply, until they warm up, the ride sucks. But, after a few minutes, the ride smooths out and the truck runs fine. By no means is the ride like a "car", but for 35's on beadlocked rims, it rides very well, IMO.

The beauty of it is even after trail ride involving snow or mud, the beads will counter balance the wheel when mud or snow becomes trapped in the rim.

For me, it works very well.
 
Jimmy

Jimmy

Well-known member
Apr 10, 2006
743
64
Aurora, CO
I ran 10oz of good ol' Daisy BBs in a set of 37" Boggers on MRT beadlocks and drove that ol' Heep 4 hours one way at highway speeds to Paragon to wheel. The only thing is I can't report on if the BBs made a difference; the tires were mounted off-center by the previous owner and while I had them broken down to straighten them out, I tossed in the BBs as an extra measure. Never experienced any wobble/shake/shimmy from them. Anyone who knew I drove that on the highway at 70mph was impressed - I'm guessing those Boggers were the closest to round that Interco ever made. :)

This time around with the Disco I'm going to try out 6mm .2g air gun plastic BBs. As I knock off the weights on each rim, I'm going to toss in the appropriate amount of BBs as a replacement and strip off any remaining weights. I'd like to know who the bonehead was that balanced my 265/75 MTRs on the factory alloys - most of them have two weights per side... more opportunity to create an imbalance.
 
P

Porter

Well-known member
Apr 20, 2004
124
0
My neighbor is the manager at American Tire and he says that stuff doesn't work. The tire is super off-balance until the stuff spreads out, and then as soon as you slow down, it has to rebalance itself again. Not that it matters at all in the discos, but it generates a lot of centripetal force which then make it difficult to slalom - hence the reason high performance cars don't use that stuff

Also, from his standpoint, is a logistical nightmare to repair. Its gets into the valves and it makes tire patching from the inside tough as well.
 
SCSL

SCSL

Well-known member
Apr 27, 2005
4,144
152
I used to have equal in my tires & had bad shakes. Horrible. The equal didn't do a damned thing.

Then I took them to get balanced at a shop that specialized in large truck tires & they ride very well. Took a lot of weight but who cares....
 
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