Exactly why do you want to try this, as opposed the professional method of using the proper balance weights . . . ?!
Trying to save money?
You think a tire shop won’t be able to properly balance your rims?
Some other reason?
The fact that I know nothing about your friend is absolutely the reason I should not trust him.
A couple of thoughts:
The theory behind balancing beads is all about overcoming the force of gravity with centrifugal force. So the beads work when the tire is at speed. But they don’t work below a certain speed. I don’t know what speed that is, but several people who have experimented with them report they can feel a vibration that goes away as the speed increases.
I find it interesting that none of the car manufacturers use balance beads.
I find it interesting that none of the tire manufacturers recommend using balance beads. They don’t recommend against it - they are silent on the subject. HOWEVER, they will deny warranty if the beads cause damage.
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Actually, under those conditions, the larger rocks will end up on top. Layman’s terms called the Brazil nut effect but technically called granular convection. I had the same misconception until some years back seeing a demonstration of it. Shake a can of rocks and sand. The rocks end up on top of the sand…
Lots of articles etc on it but here’s one-
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The Tire Pressure Monitors do help . So you want to do something and might ruin the monitors. That makes zero sense.
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Explain please. My older truck only indicates that a tire is low, my car though show actual pressure of each tire.
The usual argument of those who are opposed to TPMS is something along the lines of… It’s superfluous because I check my tire pressure with a hand-held pressure gauge. What they fail to consider is that they can’t do that while the car is moving, and they would have no way of knowing that a tire lost pressure from a puncture until they hear… thump… thump… thump.
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+1
As a follow on, often it isn’t a catastrophic tire failure but a nail in the tread that causes a slow leak. IMO it’s better to know almost immediately that the tire is punctured rather than maybe a week later when the pressure is checked. I can’t tell the pressure is low by looking at the tire when it’s a slow leak but know it pretty quickly with TPMS.
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DB,
I can unashamedly say, yes, it is about the money! I am a committed DIYer with an old tire machine but without a balancer
What size are your tires? Beads appear to be a bad choice for low profile tires. Most are these days.
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I guess the key part of the comment is the “in my experience”.
My first - and current- car to have them is a 2011 Santa Fe on which two sensors have failed [on their own - no beads involved]
causing me to need to check the tire pressure only to find that all was well. Now I either pay to have them replaced or fall back to the tried and true method of being mindful of the pressure and checking them a couple times a month.
… which will do nothing to help warn you in the event of a puncture while you’re on the road.
I also check my tires a couple of times each month with a hand-held pressure gauge, but I also do a quick check each day with the TPMS in order to see the exact pressure in each tire–both “cold” and after driving several miles. The TPMS will warn me if a tire suddenly becomes dangerously-low on air, but I want to know about their pressure status before one of them might get dangerously low–hence checking daily (on long drives, a few times per day) via the readout from the TPMS.
I would say that the comparison of Balancing Beads to the "granular convection’ of rocks and sand or the “Brazil nut effect” on colloidal particles is “NUTS” (Period…).
The beads are rolling around the inside of the tire and they will find the “lowest spot” which is the heavy side of the tire as it turns and the heavy location is thrown away from the “center of rotation” and the "Thump"is caused as much by the out of balance condition of the tire as the “high spot” caused by the heavy side being thrown away from the center of rotation.
My vote is for Off Vehicle Spin Balancing and it that does not cure the “unbalanced condition” (vibration…) then the technician should remount the tire on the rim, and if it still persists, then an on-vehicle spin balance.
After that, you call in a “Shaman” who will do what shaman do… (convince you that you need to put a copy of the Beach Boys song, “Good Vibrations” into your 8-track tape player… and it will not bother you anymore…
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/Beach_Boys_-_Good_Vibrations.ogg
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Everyone should be doing that, anyways, on all their vehicles, with or without TPMS
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Slow down and try to follow along in the conversation. The quoted part right before my post is the topic of my post- not the beads in the tire. You seem anxious to find fault…
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A tire could be perfectly round & still have a heavy spot.
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