Tire Balancing Beads

[WGF3]

Anyone ever try these before?

http://www.checkeredflagtires.com/beadcharts.htm

[Snow]

So how do the beads know where the heavy spot is?? Even the pictures make it look like pfm ... Think I'll stick with external weights..

[GoinKZ]

[Origami Camper]

So how do the beads know where the heavy spot is?? Even the pictures make it look like pfm ... Think I'll stick with external weights..

Centrifugal force.

When the tire spins, centrifugal force spreads the beads to the inner surface of the tire.
If there is a heavy spot, a vibration will occur. This vibraiton will cause a little more centrifugal force in the opposite direction of the vibration so more beads move to opposite side of the tire. After several turns the beads will have all positioned such that there is even and constant centrifugal forces.

Anyone here ever used them???

[GoinKZ]

I understand they are farily commonly used in the transportation industry, beyond that I know nothing.

Knowing what I know about tires what OC says is indeed true, it's exactly how we machine balance tires, I GUESS this ould be a perptual balance type thing......not sure there is any advantage to it?!?!?!

[Trailblazer]

I know a couple of people who have used them in their trailer tires and they are very happy with them. One thing they say you need to be aware of is the size of the beads particualar if you use a tire presure monitor system that has sensors that screw onto the valve stems. As I understand it, the smaller beads can be loaded up through the valve stems but these ones will cause problem if you use the valve stem tire pressure monitor sensors. The larger beads, which won't enter the valve stems, come in a bag that gets placed on the inside of the tire and the bag breaks open when going down the road.

Here is a vido demonstating how the beads work:

[JP camper]

How long and how far does it take before they start to do "their thing"?

[Golf Clubs]

I read about these on another board a couple of years ago. General opinion is they work and work reasonably well.
They are not recommended for tires with less than a 65 aspect ratio, but trailer tires don't come in this size so that's a dead point.
Concerns are internal tire wear, and in the event of a blow out you launch a shotgun shell size load of projectiles.
So far as I have been able to determine, they are used mainly by the trucking industry where traditional balancing is a problem due to tire size and weight.

[High-Tech Redneck]

,,, Stop postin' stuff like that , gonna have me twistin' a cap at 9:30 in the mornin' !

,,, I think we had a thread on here a year or so back about these magic beads , to lazy to look for it though .