I have a friend who “balances” his tires by adding 3 ounces of air-soft BBs to his tires when he mounts them. He swears this is as good or better than adhesive lead weights. Anybody out there heard of this or tried this?
I used to have tire balancing rings on my truck’s wheels. I think it is the same idea as your friend’s BB’s, fluid/sand etc moves through in a channel in the ring to automatically balance the tires. Seemed to work ok, never had any tire imbalance problems but eventually got tired of having them in the way when working on the wheels so they are now in storage. I balance the tires use the traditional method, wheel weights.
A little googling shows there are products available you just put inside the tires during the mounting process too that presumably work on the same idea as the rings.
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I suggest you not follow any of his automotive advice
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db,
Thanks … I think.
Could ya 'splain why? Does it sound like witchery?
Just too easy and bypasses the $5000.00 balancing machine?
Or you’re good at physics and know what them beads will and will not do when spinning in a tube at 70 mph?
And why do you not trust my friend who you know absolutely nothing about?
(Sorry to point the finger - I’m just looking for information)
Here’s a case where they didn’t work
I saw something like that in a J C Whitney catalog years ago, I have never found them in a customer’s tire. I think if you place them in your tires, you will soon need to remove them because they cause a vibration.
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If this was a industry accepted way to balance tires than why do tire shops still use balancing machines . I have no actual proof but I don’t think doing this air soft bead think to tires and wheels having Tire Pressure Monitors is a good idea .
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It is still Voodoo to me and I don’t remember any of the details except I have seen it done in big tire vehicles, like Jeeps Wranglers that have custom wheels with oversized tires that are very heavy, maybe the tire is to big for the hood to close in order to spin balance the tires or wheel tire combos that just don’t balance out in the real world… But I remember vehicles that we just couldn’t balance the wheels properly and would send them to shop down the road that did custom wheel/tires and they would use beads, the trick is to know how much beads (weight wise) to use in a given wheel/tire combo, to little and not enough weight to balance the tire, to much and well the beads do there job but with the excess beads don’t go to the proper place and can cause a vibration…
So on normal wheel/tire combos, the beads are not recommended and can cause balance issues, but on lets say 37" plus size tires with deep tread and large tread blocks, the beads seem to work… Again, it is Voodoo to me and I don’t fully understand the how, when and where parts of it, just that I have seen it work on really big heavy wheel/tire combos…
Please don’t ask me to explain it cause I can’t… lol
For wheels that have the pressure monitors, steel beads should be mandatory. 
Would I be correct that the tire beads you refer to are different from air soft beads ?
Honestly I don’t remember what they used… What ever this stuff is, from what I can remember from a few years ago, things may have changed since I retired…
Do Tire Balancing Beads Really Work? | Counteract Balancing Beads.
All I know is that it’s a method that exists (but airsoft BBs are not the standard thing - you can search for the products sold for such things).
My own approach to tire balancing is to take the vehicle to a pro tire installer and ask for a mount and balance.
Airsoft BBs work. I’ve used them to balance motorcycle tires. Top load washing machines use the same principle with a hollow ring partially filled with water around the top of the tub. There is a YouTube video with a GoPro camera mounted inside a tire with balancing beads.
Thanks - that’s some good information !
I had never heard of using balancing beads in a typical auto tire but after a little research this looks like “a solution in search of a problem”, when the alternative of a good computer balance is so cheap and easy.
Various sites mention that it’s not appropriate for low profile tires, which have become ubiquitous, the additional unsprung weight and another mentioned only a 75% rate in calculating the total necessary mass of the beads.
Then there’s the theoretical issue of the effect that a bunch of beads, rebalancing after every stop and rolling free, would have on the tire’s TPMS?
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I would think that “Air Soft BBs” placed in tires to help balance them (if it works at all…) would be a short lived fix at best… They are call “Airsoft” for a reason and that is because they are soft and rotating around in the tires should definitely wear them out quickly…
However, I do not see how they would do anything but exasperate the problem… The side of the tire that is the heaviest would be thrown furthest from the center of rotation by centrifugal force. That explains the “thump” as the tire rotates and all the BBs would now gravitate to the heavy location since it has the greatest centrifugal forces acting on that side of the tire…
You are correct that the centrifugal force is greater where the tire bulges outward; however if the tire has a heavy spot it makes the tire bounce upward as the wheel rotates, and this tends to shake the beads to the opposite part of the tire. Sort of like if you had a tin can filled with rocks and you shake it, the heaviest rocks would eventually work their way to the bottom of the can.
Airsoft BBs do slowly turn to powder but they last longer than a new tire on my Goldwing. They do not damage the tire. I think the main advantages of the little ceramic beads are they fit through the valve stem and don’t turn to powder.
good article,
thanks!
Interesting video ! Thanks. I think I’m gonna try this. I feel I don’t have anything to loose except possibly pressure monitors, which I don’t really like anyway - more headache than help in my experience