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BB's in my tires

9K views 70 replies 27 participants last post by  eralov 
#1 ·
OK, I wasnt brave enough to try the golf balls. But I did add BB's to my tires to see if it would 'self' balance them. So far it seems to work, I have been as fast as I care to go (approx 80 mph) and all was well.

To any who care, 37" MT/R's and I added 24 ounces per tire.I might could have got off with less but it was just a semi informed guess. Of course the tire guys thought I was crazy and asked to keep them informed.

Before anyone says I should have used equal or somthing similiar...it doesnt like moisture and if you air up and down it clumps. It works for me and sounds kinda cool when I stop.
 
#4 ·
You probably could have used less but I've heard it's better to have a little too much rather than too little. For what it's worth I have 20oz in 38.5 swampers.
 
#5 ·
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.
 
#6 ·
Interesting..... Tell us what happens if you drive down the road at say 35 mph and do a momentary lock up of the tires (as in a panic stop) and then return to speed? Is there a vibration until the BB's catch back up and rebalance? Maybe we could get lucky and have this interfere with radar guns !
 
#8 ·
Its not always easy to find a place to balance big tires. Wheel weights can and do fall off. Plus when you get out of the mud you usually still have some stuck on your rims.

I have read about this and really wanted to see for myself if it worked. Glad to see Snowflake does it also, makes me feel better about it. ;)

But if anyone ever tries golfballs I wish they report back on it.
 
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#9 ·
I've even read of at least a few people using bio-degradeable non-toxic antifreeze in their tires (kinda like using calcium liquid mixture in tractor tires for extra weight/traction). Golf balls are supposed to work good too, like 3 for a 35-36" or so tire, more as tires get bigger. It seems to my semi-inebriated engineering brain that a larger quantity of small items would work better than just a few large items, i.e. a bunch of bb's or some liquid would ballance better than a few golf balls. Another benefit of bb's is that you could always add them after a tire is mounted if the tire shop won't cooperate, just pull the valve stem and pour them in. Only bad thing to small items is making sure you don't have any in the way when you try to re-seat a bead, and if/how much you lose when you blow a bead.
 
#10 ·
IM going to have to try this! I cannot keep the all terrain's on my RC balanced for nothing I have the stock finned alloy wheels weights just don't like the lip on these rims :mad: The only concern would be say you puncture a tire on the trail and plug the hole with the tar rope plugs so wouldn't the Bb's stick to it? Just thought I would bring that up :-\
 
#13 ·
I cant see steel rims or radials making any difference in my choice to try this. I used BB's like from a bb gun, zinc coated cause they were sold in the biggest container at wally world.

I cant see plugging a tire being to much of a concern, not enough would stick to make the rest not compensate for it.

I tried to seek out more info on this before I tried it, there is no definitive answer I could find.

All Im saying is, so far it is working for me. Do I still have questions about it? Sure.I guess Im gonna find out. 8)
 
#14 ·
Bill- said:
or you could just use steel rims and radial tires...... now theres a thought! hmmm stronger rims, stronger tires, easy to balance? nah..... that'd make to much sense
IM sorry I have never found a set of steel rims that look better than the stock aluminum rims that's my opinion though maybe not yours ;) ! As for radial tires are they made for off road ????? I will just stick with my set up delete the crappie wheel weights (make my rims look better in the process) ;D and put in some Bb's and see what happens
 
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#15 ·
well if you stop buying interco garbage you can get hardcore offroad tires, in radial, with enough plies to stop a bullet....

and if you use steel rims like any real man should...... you can balance them usually within 3-4 oz and they stay balanced because they dont wear like bubble gum.
 
#16 ·
All right now I did not come here to start a flame or anything like that. So there is no reason to attack me because I do not like steal rims! Or call me less of a man because I want to keep the rims I have. I also have to Drive this truck to work everyday and hard-core off road tires are way to bad on gas for this Air Force Senior Airman! Plus I can't afford the HARD CORE OFF ROAD TIRES I don't make enough as a SRA . ;D
 
#18 ·
No I dont look at how many posts I have I don't know your just F-n with me ;D Now I do and it's cool Jackass ;D

Hope to be able to meet you and everyone else at Ram Jam
Later ;)
 
#19 ·
big jim said:
MoPaR MaNiaC 79RC said:
Becuse when using conventional balencing it cost money and doesn't self adjust. the idea behind using bb's is that in stead making flat spot on a bias-ply worse, it'll help to balence them out. and you dont need special epuipment to do it
First of all he did say mt/r which I beleive is a radial tire. Personnally if I were buying a bias-ply tire I wouldn't even try to balance them because they ride like shit anyway. Does anyone buy a big bias swamper for thier daily driver and expect to get a good ride on the highway? How much is it to balance a tire in CT? It should be nominal compared to the price of the tire. Yes I am aware it takes "special equipment" to balance a tire but it has been my experience that this equipment is generally near other"specialized equipment" that is used to mount a tire. When buying tires I take advantage of both of these services.
Well, Maniac was talking from our experience (we're brothers). Thats true, bias plies do ride like crap, and a lot of places wont balance a tire bigger then 33" anyways. We paid $10 per wheel to have them balanced but it dosn't help all that much like you said. So, next time Im just going to spend $10 on BB's for all the tires, that way we wont need to bother paying to have them put lead weights on that arn't very effective, can fall off, and cost 4x as much. And BB's automatically change balance so the flat spots will go away sooner and so on the road the tires will last longer a ride better then with lead.

well if you stop buying interco garbage you can get hardcore offroad tires, in radial, with enough plies to stop a bullet.....
Interco garbage? Show me a better all around offroad tire then a TSL or Bogger.
 
#20 ·
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 ???
 
#22 ·
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.
 
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#23 ·
TheRamChargerMan said:
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.
 
#24 ·
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 ;D.

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......
 
G
#25 ·
phate said:
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 ;D.

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.
 
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