I have seen a set of golf balls that were run inside a tire for a while, and they were ate up pretty bad. The article said that haveing stuff like bb's and golf balls inside the tires would eat the tires.
I totally understand the idea behind the bb's and I have thought very hard about doing it myself, but I haven't gone that far yet. I have a set of 36x12.50 TSL SX's on my TD now and they are balanced by a machine, and they ride fine and I havne't lost a weight yet. Granted I have thrown weights before.
Well Bill...I have had tires ranging from 31's to 39's, in several brands and styles...always with steel rims...bias play and radials.....and guess what
............the only tires I can get balanced with that little weight are the 205/65's on my car.......the least amount ever on any truck tires I had was like 5 ozs......and that was with 33's. My groun hawgs used like 15 oz PER SIDE ...that 30 oz per tire !!!
NOw....did anyone of you who is using bb's or golfballs ever out the tire on the machine to see if it balances out that way
i just went through this with the tires on my truck, most machines are not made to handle a truck tire, let alone a offroad tire.....i had shops tell me my rims were bent because their machines were to flimsy for a big offroad tire.... find a shop with the right equiptment and you can balance them. my 33x12.50 timberlines have min 0.5 oz weight, and max 3.75 oz weight. ive taken them things way past there speed rating and you couldnt pick up a vibration with a sizmometer (spelling?)
i also just did a set of 37x13.50 X-terrains.... again no vibration whatsoever and the max balancing weight on them is 6 oz, and we even managed to get all the weight on the inside lip on all 4.
the only tires that would never could never be balanced correctly were swampers, and i agree their good mud tires... but thats all their good for so in my opinion why would you even try to balance them. they have a life span of about 1,000 miles on pavement and no matter what those big gooey lugs vibrate. they may be DOT aproved (dont know why) but they are certainly not a street tire.
so if it comes down to the point where you need over 2 pounds of weight and bb's in your tires..... A. your tires arent suppose to be on the street anyway, or B. your not using the right equiptment to balance them.
I dont know where you are getting your swampers at Bill, but mine lasted closer to 25,000 on a daily driver. And they were balanced perfectly the old fashion way .
My whole point in trying BB's is so I DONT have to get my tires balanced. And its working, nuff said. I also have a very hard time imagining a golf ball being torn up inside a tire......
I dont know where you are getting your swampers at Bill, but mine lasted closer to 25,000 on a daily driver. And they were balanced perfectly the old fashion way .
My whole point in trying BB's is so I DONT have to get my tires balanced. And its working, nuff said. I also have a very hard time imagining a golf ball being torn up inside a tire......
there is no way..... no possible way.... that you have a bias ply set of boggers that lasted 25,000 miles, i have a set of 38.5's in the garage with 1,900 miles on them.... and they now look like slicks with side lugs.
This is a very interesting subject. Now of course I have my 35's balanced in town (there are several places in T-Ville) that will balance large off road tires. I have allum. wheels and other than breaking a bead in the mud have never had a problem with the "old way" of balancing. But I would like to know how this churns out as I think internal balancing would be great to do since I drive on the street and in the wilderness.
Well, I went thru 3 sets of 38.5" ground hawgs..and the LEAST I got was 20,000 miles a set out of them. I now have on a set of swampers that I got used, with about 2000 miles one them. They looked new. I have put another 8000-10000 on them, and aside from the obvious wear on the rear from power braking them excessively, they still have about half the tread on them.
All of these have been bias ply tires.......
if yer wearing them out that quick Bill....maybe yer rims are bent lololol
I have couple of buds who run TSL Radials, so far they each have about 10k on em and theyre doing fine.Will they go 40,50k?, i doubt it but so far so good.Also I have heard horror stories about balancing Interco`s, it`s one of the reasons I am stuck with MY crappy General`s BUT neither one of my friends has any hint of vibration (wich makes me VERRY ANGRY...grrrr ). So I get to go to work and get ribbed about my tires, on an alomst daily basis..but it`s all in good fun....ha ha. I do`nt have the green for new tires, even tho I`d reall y like a set(just put a round of Michelins on the family minivan...kids b-fore me), so when I FINALLY get around to fixing the damn leaky fuel line (and I actually get to DRIVE my truck ) I plan on doing the bb thing and I`ll post my comments/opinions.
I've got a couple of buddies that work in a tire shop (got my 38.5" Boggers for $42.00 brand-spankin' new-never mounted) and they lokoed at like I was plumb stupid when I asked them about putting BB's in tires for balancing. They are quite adement that the little balls of balancing magic will only chew up the inside of your tires and kill them in record time. Do these guys know what they're talking about? I don't know; they're pretty limited on the number of functioning brain cells left at this point, but they've all been in the tire business for a decent number of years now. So it's just a thought to consider. Be sure to let us know in about six months or so how the "inside life" of your tires are doing. I'm kinda' seriously intrigued at this point.
while putting stuff inside the tires is generally considered bad(eats the inside) softer stuff like plastic golf balls and lead shot won't be as bad as harder stuff like steel BBs....
I dont know where you are getting your swampers at Bill, but mine lasted closer to 25,000 on a daily driver. And they were balanced perfectly the old fashion way .
My whole point in trying BB's is so I DONT have to get my tires balanced. And its working, nuff said. I also have a very hard time imagining a golf ball being torn up inside a tire......
there is no way..... no possible way.... that you have a bias ply set of boggers that lasted 25,000 miles, i have a set of 38.5's in the garage with 1,900 miles on them.... and they now look like slicks with side lugs.
well, you must either have a very heavy vehicle or you used way too much air because I have had swampers last me at 10x's longer then your did.
But please tell me about these real offroad tires that aren't made by Interco. I like Ground Hawgs, but it is hard to beat a super swamper. Please don't list all terrains either, those are just aggressive street tires.
this is very interesting!, the tires on my truck, general grabber`s suck big time!! I can`t get enough weight on them to balance em out (not enough physical room on the rim!! :\'( ). They have a ton of runout, some of it being caused by running out of balance for so long. I tried using "equal", no real improvement, tho i only used 4oz per tire (at the recommendation of the tire supply house we deal with @ work). This might be something to try, either that or I`m gonna havta get new tires,don`t even wnat to drive on the hiway the way it is.
You should be able to have them adjusted out becasue those tires are out of round. That is a manufacturing defect not from driveing them out of balance.
Man this is an interesting topic! I know I have been out of the 4wheeling world for awhile, but this is the first I've heard of putting things in your tires to balance them! I do know I purchased an old 2wd truck with 265/70 radials all the way around and the front end vibrated to hell and back. I had noticed a couple of cans of fix-a-flat in the bed so I took it in to the tire shop and the right front tire was full of the crap in liquid form. He had put it in, but never drove it for it to 'cure'(?) so it stayed liquid and threw the tire WAY OUT of balance. Maybe it was just too much, I don't know. But when we cleaned it all out and balanced the tire correctly (and patching the hole) It rode fine. Maybe it's just the bigger tires it works better in!?
I have talked to my tire friend, we are gonna pull one of my tires periodically. I nor he expect any damage, just want to see what happens and document it.
OK...here's the scoop. I did this tonight. I have 39 x 16/15" swampers. They are old, out of balance, and out of round.
I removed all the weights, and put 21 oz of BB's in each tire. I also rotated the tries. I used 21 ozs cuz I think it was Snowflake who said he had 20.5 oz in his 38.5's.
I have driven close to 50 miles, highway and city, and the ONLY time my truck has ever ridden this smooth is with brand new & freshly balanced tires.
IT WORKS !!!!!
Now...the bad part.
Yes, you have a funny tinkling sound when you stop.
Yes, the BB's take a while to catch up, so when you change speed, up oir down, it will give you a vibration for a minute or less.
Yes, if your tires are as out of round as mine are, you will still get some of the vibration from that, but not bad at all.
Yes, at low speeds, the extra weight can be felt in the tires.
This is something I am gonna do when I get a new set of tires. It may even help keep them from getting out of round so quickly.
Theoretically, with a new set of tires, you should be able to use 1/2 the amount of weight needed at the rim, since it is twice as far out. Have to get some new tires to see...anyone want to buy them for me ?? In the name of testing for the good of others onthe site ?? ANYONE !! ANYONE ??
Nice to see the balancing part works. Physics was never my best subject. I don't think round BB's rolling inside a rubber tire are going to do much harm. Tires are made of tough stuff, even inside. 21 oz seems a tad much but ....
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