Dyna Bead Balancing Solution

[GIJOE]

Does anyone use this tire balancing system in there vehicles? If so do you recommend it? Tire Balancing Products



Joe

 

[texasjohn]

There was a thread on this maybe a year or so ago..... I looked into these beads.... some people like them... others don't/didn't understand how they worked (me included)... I decided against trying them... I decided that if I have a tire unbalance problem, there is something that I need to do other than put beads in it.... just my decision on the topic. Seems that it was a little pricey, too...

 

[Rara Avis]

Here is another version... "Centramatic Automatic Truck Wheel Balancers will save you tires.Trucks and Hummers, wheel balancer, tire balancer, Centramatic,tire balancer for horse trailers,tire balancing,wheel balance,spin balance,tire rotation,18 wheeler,tire tread,wheel weights,ti

 

[Skyco]

A guy I work with swears by them on his Chevy dually. I may try them on my F350. The tire department at Sams Club doesn't have the correct weights for my OEM aluminum wheels and they keep coming off. Turns out there are a multitude of different weights for different wheels and of course most tire places don't bother to actually use the correct weights, instead grabbing whatever they have....

 

[hudr]

I have run the Centramatics on my last 2 pickups and I like them. There is not a wheel weight one on my K3500 Crew Cab Chevy. And I get no cupping or unusual tire wear. I even had an extra set on a 14k# trailer for a while and they seemed to help. I didn't have a good long term test there as I traded the trailer.
Dad ran them (Centramatics) on his OTR truck for years. They cut his tire wear (especially on the steering axle) to nearly nothing.
As for the beads, seem like a pain if you ever had to change a tire, most tire shops hands would probably say "what's this #$%&!" and pour them in the trash. Although I do remember Dad putting a few golf balls in the trailer tires on the big truck.

 

[patrick_g]

When very new I upgraded my Dodge/Cumins 1 ton 4x4 pickup to 19.5 inch Alcoa aluminum wheels and Michelin X steel belted radials. They came mounted and aired on a pallet. They came with a powder in them that resembled medium course aluminum dust but no traditional external wheel weights. I have about 70,000 miles on the mud and snow tread and they are a bit over 1/2 gone. I have never had a tire balance problem.

To put this in perspective: Other drivers who put on lots of miles per year on these same tires but with highway tread get from 100,000 to 200,000 miles on a set of these tires. Mine will rot off before I wear them out as it is not a high mile truck. It is 1997 with about 75,000 miles. I have received excellent results with the "powder" and will likely do something similar when I replace these tires for age related safety reasons long before they wear out.

Pat

 

[podagrower]

I don't have this type of product in my tires, but I have been using a product called "Equal". I am running 33x12.50 tires on cheap aluminum rims on my redneck dream machine. These rims are hard to balance, the truck is impossible to align, and going to the tire shop for rebalancing every thousand miles got old pretty quick. Since I started using the equal, I have stripped off the wheel weights and the truck rides better than ever.

 

[dirt clod]

I've heard of people that run big offroad tires on there trucks useing BB's for balance. These tires can be off balance by a lot.

 

[Sully2]

Does anyone use this tire balancing system in there vehicles? If so do you recommend it? Tire Balancing Products

Joe

I use them on my motorhome tires ( 12R-22.5 ) and at 70 mph the rig runs as smooth as glass. Basically the same product as "Equal" except Dyna Beads are ceramic and thusly cant "clump together"

 

[Sully2]

There was a thread on this maybe a year or so ago..... I looked into these beads.... some people like them... others don't/didn't understand how they worked (me included)... I decided against trying them... I decided that if I have a tire unbalance problem, there is something that I need to do other than put beads in it.... just my decision on the topic. Seems that it was a little pricey, too...

Any rotating object will rotate around its center of mass. If you put a large weight on one side of the tire, the center of mass for the tire will move towards that weight,and the tire will try to rotate around that new center of mass. The result is that the ride will be rough as the tire is pounding the ground because the axle moves up and down, trying to keep the center of rotation ( which is now not the same as the center of the wheel) at a constant point.

Now, if you put something inside the tire that is free to move, it will try to move to the point furthest from the center of rotation. That is because the force on the sand, golf ball, or equal is directly proportional to the radius of the rotation. This movement of the sand, or whatever will continue until the center of mass for the wheel is exactly at the center of the wheel (also known as the axle) At that point the tire is balanced until you stop and the stuff falls to the bottom of the tire. Whenever you start up, the whole balancing act resumes. If the stuff clumps, it can't move and the tire won't self balance.

 

[GIJOE]

Thanks for the info guys. I will be purchasing a new set of tires in the coming weeks, and I think I will give the Dyna Beads a try. I just wanted to hear other testimonials besides what is on their web site.

Joe

 

[patrick_g]

Hey there, Red Stick Joe, I betcha those non clumping ceramic beads do just fine. They have to blow a lot of smoke to justify the high prices but the powders work so ceramic beads should work too and the non clumping is a bonus that may have me buying the beads for my next set of tires.

I was worried when I had a tire down for maint and the mech used one of those hand held little mops to lube the bead with soapy water. I was worried about the powder getting wet but you can dry it out by letting out the air and replacing it with dry air a couple times with several miles in between draining and refilling. You will lose powder or beads or anything else loose to move inside your tire when the average guy opens it up to patch it or whatever so best to have some spare material.

Pat

 

[Dargo]

I'm not saying these systems don't work (I've never used them), so please don't take it that way, but why is it that when I once had a goon mount a tire that had about a gallon of water in it my results were not so great. I was in college and it about drove me nuts! For a while my car would run down the highway just fine. Then, all of the sudden, it would just about shake the darn dash out of my car! I'd stop to see what the problem was, find nothing, go on about my way and all would be fine.

I had them balanced twice. Each time the goon balancing the tire assured me that he'd found my problem. He said my tire was out of balance "big time". I'd end up with the same issues later that same day. Finally an old fella at a roadside service station offered to help when I stopped and told him that I had a tire about to shake my car apart and couldn't figure out why. He said he had an idea of what the problem was and broke it down. Sure enough, his thought was right. He got about a gallon of water out of that tire. He then properly balanced it and I never again had a problem.

My question is this; if water can flow around inside the tire just like a powder or beads and was a disaster, how do these products described previously work??

 

[SPYDERLK]

I'm not saying these systems don't work (I've never used them), so please don't take it that way, but why is it that when I once had a goon mount a tire that had about a gallon of water in it my results were not so great. I was in college and it about drove me nuts! For a while my car would run down the highway just fine. Then, all of the sudden, it would just about shake the darn dash out of my car! I'd stop to see what the problem was, find nothing, go on about my way and all would be fine.

I had them balanced twice. Each time the goon balancing the tire assured me that he'd found my problem. He said my tire was out of balance "big time". I'd end up with the same issues later that same day. Finally an old fella at a roadside service station offered to help when I stopped and told him that I had a tire about to shake my car apart and couldn't figure out why. He said he had an idea of what the problem was and broke it down. Sure enough, his thought was right. He got about a gallon of water out of that tire. He then properly balanced it and I never again had a problem.

My question is this; if water can flow around inside the tire just like a powder or beads and was a disaster, how do these products described previously work??

This is a good question. I think the answer is that it flows too easily and a bump in the road makes it oscillate and sometimes a lot of it sloshes over to the wrong side. Probably the vibe gets so bad that it will not correct until you slow down and reaccelerate. Seems like slime and that ilk would do better. It kinda makes you think tho, what this type of active balancing may do at real speed. If it goes out of wack it could take you right off the road. Also, losses in the 'fluid' exact a price on the rolling resistance, decreasing gas mileage.
larry

 

[Redbug]

A few questions...With these self balancing beads, what happens when you pick up a nail or other puncture? If you plug the tire, will that cause the beads to clump around the plug? Same with a patch? Do most service stations know to save the powder/beads if they are patching the tire, (kinda like what Patrick was alluding to)?

 

[GIJOE]

They have to blow a lot of smoke to justify the high prices but the powders work so ceramic beads should work too and the non clumping is a bonus that may have me buying the beads for my next set of tires.
Pat

Actually the price for the beads for my size tire (265/75-16 8ply) are a little cheaper than balancing on a machine. Around here they get about ten dollars per tire, and the beads cost $8.29 per tire.

Joe

 

[GIJOE]

A few questions...With these self balancing beads, what happens when you pick up a nail or other puncture? If you plug the tire, will that cause the beads to clump around the plug? Same with a patch? Do most service stations know to save the powder/beads if they are patching the tire, (kinda like what Patrick was alluding to)?

Redbug,
Those questions are addressed on their web site. After a repair is made, the excess glue needs to be cleaned. I guess a plug could be used in case of an emergency, but a patch is recommended.

Joe

 

[Redbug]

Thanks for the reply Joe. Just looking at things, I guess the Centramatic system is more usable for plugs, etc., since the movable weights are located in a pan outside the tire. More expensive initially, but permanent for the life of the vehicle no matter how many tires you go through.

 

[patrick_g]

Any increase in rolling resistance due to frictional losses in the "fluid" will be minuscule as the "fluid" only circulates for a very brief time, unless of course you only drive very slowly such that the "fluid" never gets positioned and just tumbles like clothes in a front loading washing machine. In this case imbalance is not an issue anyway.

Don't get me wrong as I am very favorably inclined toward the beads from a usage point of view and $9 per tire is reasonable compared to other choices. Products are sometimes priced/marketed on a cost of production times a multiplier or plus profit basis. Clearly these beads are being marketed based on alternatives. If it costs you $10 or more for traditional balancing then how much will the market bear for say fifty cents worth of beads. Apparently they think the market will bear $9 and so far so good.

Is $9 a rip off? NO, it is a savings in initial cost and avoids re-balancing costs. If you could find a source for ceramic beads for a lot less could you use them and save $? Most likely.

I would be willing to pay the price (likely more then $9 each for my six big 19.5 inch tires) because I am confident of the results and it is worth it to me. On the other hand, if I had an inexpensive source of ceramic beads I would most likely consider trying them.

With the Centramatic system a tire shop can't spill your beads. Hopefully they won't take the Centramatics off and forget to put them back. Another bonus for Centramatics is YOU CAN STILL USE SLIME!!! This is important for some of us.

Pat

 

[SPYDERLK]

Adding mass to the tread area of the tire as these active balancing arrangements do, causes more energy to be lost as the tire flattens onto the road and resumes round shape as it rebounds. The tire deforms almost instantly as it contacts the road but is delayed a little in getting round again as it leaves. This hysteresis gives the effect of always running slightly uphill. A tire/wheel with weights on a non deforming area [rim] exhibits less of this effect owing only to the tire tread itself. This small effect repeated for forty million revolutions will end up costing several dollars in fuel over the life of the tire.
larry