Tire balancing beads, not anal beads.

[mgreenspan]

Beads were the worst fucking thing I ever did to my truck. I bought those silly Equal balancers, paid to have that shit put it, then paid to have it vacuumed out a month later. It was just awful. I went back to weights.

Equal isn't beads. It's more of a powder. http://www.tirereview.com/balance-compounds-help-make-tires-a-sound-investment/

This explains the ideas behind all of the types of products available.

 

[discostew]

I'm the total opposite. I hate mounting and balancing tires and sometimes just pay someone else to do it. We even have a semi-automatic machine that doesn't use levers.

What do you guys get for a set of tires. It's 2 hrs where I'm at. Last place I worked it was 1.2 hrs. Hated that shit but don't mind it at 2.0.

 

[fishEH]

Beads were the worst fucking thing I ever did to my truck. I bought those silly Equal balancers, paid to have that shit put it, then paid to have it vacuumed out a month later. It was just awful. I went back to weights.

As mentioned, Equal and beads aren't the same. I've heard of issues with the Equal clumping. That doesn't happen with beads. I've also heard of people using RV antifreeze, but beads seem to be the consensus.

 

[chris snell]

What specifically was your problem?

A shitty, noisy ride.

 

[D Chapman]

I did not have good luck with Equal. It just did not seem to work.

I could not hear the beads, though. Interesting some folks do.

 

[fishEH]

I couldn't hear the beads when moving. Mainly because centrifugal force keeps them against the inner portion of the tread area. I only heard the beads when the truck came to a stop and they would fall against the wheel. I would say if you don't hear the beads drop at a stop then something's wrong.

 

[jymmiejamz]

What do you guys get for a set of tires. It's 2 hrs where I'm at. Last place I worked it was 1.2 hrs. Hated that shit but don't mind it at 2.0.

We get 2.0, but also get 2.0 for a rotate and balance. It makes no sense, so I try to avoid selling tires and leave that to the apprentices. In Va we got .4 per tire to balance and .7 to mount and balance. At Glen Cove we got .4 for balance, and .8 for a mount and balance. The exception at Glen Cove was if we did only one tire we got 1.0 which was nice.

 

[disco_drum]

FWIW I used a jar of airlift pellets in each of my 315/75s and they have worked great. Smooth ride, don't get knocked off, and relatively cheap. I totally recommend them. However, since this is Dweb....my recommendation doesn't mean anything! atriot:

 

[bendts]

I just glue small rainbow colored Hula-Hoops to my tires. And with the lighted ones i really look pimp'in.

 

[squirt]

I used airsoft beads on my old D2 with 285/65/18 BFG A/T's. It seemed to work well for the most part. I would occasionally get a death wobble that I didn't have before I used the beads, though I'm not sure I can 100% tie that to the balancing beads.

The rain-stick effect at stop signs got old pretty quickly. I wouldn't do it again.