high-density ceramic beads for tire balance
 

Has anyone ever tried these high-density ceramic beads for tire balancing. I have been trying to figure out if they work appears to be limited info. If they do work where do you buy them? How much. Any downside to them?

The reason I'm looking into them is with a truck and two cars and changing tires every two years, I spend 300.00 each time just two balance my tires.

I can change the tire on a rim no problem, looking for a solution to balance my tires on my own.

Lots of 18wheelers use this method. 4x4s with big tires do also. Not just the fancy packaged ones either. Airsoft bbs, 177 steel bbs (rust), and even ball dearings (rust). Airsoft bbs are plastic so the rust factor doesn't matter. Those 3 require breaking down the rim and pouring XX pounds in for XX inches of tire size. The packaged ones come small enough they can be poured in a valve stem and that's their selling point. I have done it with the airsoft bbs and it works ok, wouldn't do it on a tire that was gonna see speed of over 60 on a regular basis. Over on pirate4x4.com they had the ratio of how much to put in for tire size. Been so long since I've had a tire over 33 I don't remember it off the top of my head anymore.

I would hate to be the guy behind somebody on the freeway that tries this with steel or ceramic and has a blow out. Seems to me to have the same effect as shooting a shotgun at the front of a truck.

The pre packaged "weight" ones work well on large tires (we use them on our busses) I wouldn't use anything steel/metal ESPECIALLY with aluminum rims (think sand blasting aluminum with steel shot) there won't be much left. Airsoft BB's could work but their larger size means they MAY not balance as well.

We always used airsoft bbs in the 38s we ran on our 58 and never had any problems but like I said I don't trust any of them at fast speeds.


I forgot but lead shot is used on rock crawlers. It also adds weight to counteract top heavy rigs. You don't want to have to change one of those tires loaded.

So fine for offroad or slow moving, but a no go in my regular cars with 195/75/14 and since I use my truck in the bush but also on the highway also a no go. I'm now loking into some manual tire balancers, but cannot find much info on them.

Whoa whoa...guys....fill me in....I never heard of putting airsoft bb's in our tires...

Dyna Beads Applicator w/Spout | Rocky Mountain ATV/MC

They work well. But these are the only kind I'd use for highway driving.

http://www.counteractbalancing.com/BaginBag2.htm
These are what I use in my 32's & I haven't had any problems with over a year of use. Mine also came with valve stem caps that have a red end with "CBB" (Counter Balance Beads) so people removing the tire from the rim know they have counter balance beads inside. For the 32's I think it was about $15/tire for the CBB's.

Any problems at highway speeds?

Nope, no issues at all in the city or on the highway up to 75 or so mph. Except the funny looks from people when I feel I should "recalibrate" the counter balance beads & kick the tires lol. I can hear them drop on the rim & then when I drive they rebalance the tires. I do that about once every 2 months.