Actually no its not. I've been running ceramic balance beads in my 235/85's on my Ford hot shot truck since last September. Roughly 50,000 miles on them they are almost in need of replacement, but they are worn evenly and I didn't have to go back to the tire shop once.
I just installed a set of 285 AT retread's on my 97 Cummins a couple of months ago. I had enough beads left over to do two tires the other two I had to have static balanced at a local shop. You cannot tell they are balanced differently or that they are retreads. Had two buddies ridding with me this weekend and they couldn't believe how well my truck rode with retreads & beads.
I buy my beads from this guy very nice, even responds to emails on sunday. About to purchase more from him to do my other two tires, tires on my girl friends car, and have some laying around when I need new tires since I have my own mounting machine.
They make balancing beads. They are way smaller than BBs and we use them all the time. One there's no ugly weights and two bigger tires can take a lot of weight sometimes. Your local tire shop should stock them or be able to order them.
I have 35x12.50r17 Toyo AT 2's on my truck right now with 6 ounces of balancing beads in each one. Rides great, no shake. I've balanced TONS of tires this way.
If you can find a "skilled tech" stick on weights work just fine. My local tire monkeys can barely seem to figure out how to take the tire off the truck, let alone balance them.
Airsoft bb's work great. Dont use metal or steel bb's if you have tire sensors. They will destroy your sensors., weights are great, but they fall off in time and after a awhile will need to be redone, as the tire wears and the bad spots will move around and the weights at that point are no longer useful. I like weights myself, even if they have to rebalanced every 6 months. I hear beads or powders work great. Ive had big rig shops tell me they have used golf balls, baseballs, antifreeze, bb's, and even sand. Youtube balance beads or balancing powder, see how they work
Yes it is ok to do both.... the static balance (stick/clip on weights) will take care of your low speed balance, and the beads will do the high speed balance.
Case in point I have a 79 Chevy 3/4 ton lifted on 37" hummer Goodyear MT OZ's mounted on Weld Aluminum wheels. I used air soft bb's to balance them because it doesn't get driven much so they won't break down quickly. It has a slight wobble/out of balance around 35-40 mph. Goes away after that good all the way to 70mph.
One of my 285 retreads on my Cummins has clip on weight and beads because when I picked the tire/wheel up off the floor after pouring beads in the back side of the wheel/tire bead came unseated and spilled 2-3 oz of beads on the floor. The other had just clip on weights and the truck rides smooth as can be. Like I said though I'm ordering more beads soon to fix that situation.
Use to use balancing powder and beads on our semis at work. Did more bad than good. Tires wore out way worse, bounced like hell till the crap figured out what it wanted to do. NEVER AGAIN. Biggest nightmare ever.
I am going to give the beads a shot just ordered some yesterday, I have had hell trying to keep these 420's balanced. Even if they only help I would be happy. At 60 MPH the vibration is nearly unbearable. Tire shops have been able to get them balanced but it requires a bunch of weight and within a week the weights start falling off every time.
Have even had them trued again perfect balance for about a week or two until the first weight fell off, I only drive the truck a couple of times a week now but it was like every time I would drive I would find a weight a few days later. I honestly don't think there are any left on any of the wheels now and it's only been 4 months since they were done and less than 5000 miles on the truck since then.
i am surprised no one mentioned this but water seems to work well not to mention free. but only in the warmer states for obvious reasons. i used it in my old landfill truck (lots of nails requiring lots of repairs) and also my 97 grand cherokee (33" tires - mainly off road toy). no complaints but ideally static weights work better for all conditions.
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