Tire balancing beads

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85Yota

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Apr 5, 2022
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I'm going to be driving my ford on the street and I'm running 40" BFG KR3 tires on trail ready beadlocks so balancing tires with weights isn't an option. I've heard of people running balancing beads aka air soft BBs. I've never done this so was curious what you guys have used or any experience on this in the past. If you have used with success where did you get the bbs and how much per tire. I've read it's oz per lb of tire but want real world experience not just Google answers from random people but rather random people in the off-road community with experience with off-road tires not just street stuff.
 
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i was always curious about this and always afraid to take the leap.. the bfg 39's i got from nick had beads in them (although some fell out on my garage floor) but the truck rides pretty damn decent with them. I am a believer now.
 
So there is this thread on a rock donkey site that has some mixed reviews. Some say they work perfect sometimes and horrible other times and OK majority of the time.

irate4x4.com

Road tires - bead balancing vs traditional weights?

Centramatics worked fair on my daily 2500, last set of tires went 60k last set of Toyo open county at for me , no grip in the rain, I'm back on Nitto g2...
irate4x4.com irate4x4.com
 
Does anyone know the weight of the 40" kr3 BFG or know how many oz of balancing beads would be ran in them?
 
This is what we use. I think we source them from a local semi truck tire shop.
 
Update. 10 oz. Wasnt enough. Truck had a vibration until about 65mph then it went away.
 
Yeah I read 1 oz per 13 lbs of tire weight. So you may have too much beads in those tires since they're not 130lb tires.
 
I have about 13k off road miles with air soft beads. I think I put 10 oz in each 32" tire.
Too little and it won't quite balance, too much and nothing will happen.
If you get a lot of mud on your tires and wheels, I would add more beads.

I bought them at Walmart. Any cheap source is fine.
The beads never wore down, they just got some black color from the tires.

My tires wore perfectly even and I didn't really have to rotate them.
On a smooth paved road, from 0-96 mph, the tires were smooth as glass.
I never had any hop or vibration. I highly recommend trying them.
 
Rad! I'm going to try this. Thanks Scott F for the recommendation
 
I’ve used 14Oz per wheel and tire in 37s and trail gear beadlocks before. Didn’t have any tire vibrations that I could tell.

When I went to 40s on forged beadlocks honestly I forgot about the beads until I did all the rings and didn’t wanna redo them. Still good up until 80mph.

The old timer at the shop I work at always says to run the tires on 0PSI around the block of your house for a couple laps to get the sidewalls hot; then jack up the axles, inflate to ~30 psi and retorque the bead ring.

He said it helps to keep the tire concentric to the wheel which is more important than what weight can do for that big of a tire. I haven’t tried that method yet but he runs radial TSL’s on the street and has 0 issues
 
Good advice, as I have beadlocks on all my trucks ha ha. (why can't I just leave shit stock? LOL)

Thanks triple_fcked

So what balance beads would you recommned? I found some ECO beads on Amazon and it says 8oz. for 37x12.50x17 tire (forged Walker Evans) eveywhere I read people put more....hmmm
 
I used the cheapest airsoft bb’s I could find on amazon, about 14oz per wheel, which was like a full pint glass of bbs, turned the tires into rain machines lol.

If you’re using new tires, align the red dots with the valve stems, that helps as well
 
Thank you! I'm going to try it. Having my 2022 Ram 3500 with a vibration sucks ass!
 
Back when the dodge was on military 37x12.5x16.5 military tires (trash) I filled them with 12oz each. The balanced out nicely.
For what it's worth, I haven't balanced my 40" kr3s ever, and it's been drivin on the street for a few years now. After the initial 15 miles of them being cold and square, they are great. I do have some more beads laying around. Maybe I should toss them in.
 
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