Balancing Beads

[Joe Gilbert]

At 24,000 miles I could just begain to feel a very slight shake in the stearing when driving. After reading a post on balancing a couple of weeks ago, and noting that DriVer had good suscess with these, and being made aware that Workhorse approves of this balancing method, I decided to add the "magic beads".

I Purchased a kit for all six wheels from Innovative Balancing. Using their plastic bottle and tubing to connect to the valve stem I found I could add the beads as fast as they would run out of the bottle. No problem at all adding the beads and replacing the original valves with the filtered valves supplied.

Rotating the tires and adding the balancing beads cured the slight shake and the coach really runs smothly down the road.

If you don't have a torque wrench to retorque the wheels I'm sure one could get the beads into the tires as long as the valve extenders were removed. Having said that I wanted to get a look at the calipers, pad and rotors so I removed all six wheels.

Add me to the list of happy "magic Bead" users.

[Joe Gilbert]

At 24,000 miles I could just begain to feel a very slight shake in the stearing when driving. After reading a post on balancing a couple of weeks ago, and noting that DriVer had good suscess with these, and being made aware that Workhorse approves of this balancing method, I decided to add the "magic beads".

I Purchased a kit for all six wheels from Innovative Balancing. Using their plastic bottle and tubing to connect to the valve stem I found I could add the beads as fast as they would run out of the bottle. No problem at all adding the beads and replacing the original valves with the filtered valves supplied.

Rotating the tires and adding the balancing beads cured the slight shake and the coach really runs smothly down the road.

If you don't have a torque wrench to retorque the wheels I'm sure one could get the beads into the tires as long as the valve extenders were removed. Having said that I wanted to get a look at the calipers, pad and rotors so I removed all six wheels.

Add me to the list of happy "magic Bead" users.

[abarkl]

Make sure you have an extra supply for when you have a tire repaired.

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by abarkl:
Make sure you have an extra supply for when you have a tire repaired. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>If the tire gets dismounted for any reason the mechanic could knock off a wheel weight. It's happened to me before and I didn't have a spare weight plus I didn't realize it until a few hours down the road.

Carrying a spare/bag container of equal shouldn't be that difficult.

[Joe Gilbert]

In my case, I read all of the literature concerning removing the existing balance weights and than elected not to remove these. So If for any reason I need a tire repaired the original weights are still in place.

[holly]

that will be ok if they put the tire on the rim in the location it was befor it was removed

[dieselclacker]

I thought the whole idea of balancing beads was to get rid of the weights. If regular balancing with rim weights are required, whats the point of the beads?

Dieselclacker

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by dieselclacker:
I thought the whole idea of balancing beads was to get rid of the weights. If regular balancing with rim weights are required, whats the point of the beads? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Dieselclacker, No physical weights required. Equal is a stand alone product. The weights (must be) are removed.

I previously had used weights on my 2001 W20 and I found that a weight was knocked off after the fact. As stated by holly they marked the rim and tire with a chalk so it went back on pretty much were it was sans weight.

[Joe Gilbert]

It is not exactly true that the weights must or should be removed when adding the balancing beads. It depends upon the placement of the inner and outer weights and their size (weight). After reading all of this info I felt I shouldn't remove the weights to be in compliance with instructions.

I'm not sure how Workhorse or the coach OEM balanced the wheels. If only statically then the beads will improve the balance because these perform a dynamic balance. If the original wheel weights were indeed located dynamically than assuming nothing has changed in X number of miles than the beads would really do nothing. Having said all that my coach really runs smothly down the road with the beads installed.

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Joe Gilbert:
I'm not sure how Workhorse or the coach OEM balanced the wheels. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Joe, Please allow me to answer this question.

A second party mounts tires to both steel and Alcoa wheels and then dynamically balance the assembly. The tires arrive on the assembly floor JIT and are sequentially loaded and positioned in a tire conveyor which discharges the tires to the line via a gravity fed spiral chute.

The wheels come down on both sides of the line and they are mounted and torqued. Subsequently the chassis makes its first rolling motions on the assembly room floor and proceeds to the initial check and startup position.

[Joe Gilbert]

Thanks. I assumed the wheels were dynamically balanced. The instructions concerning removal of weights takes into account if both sides have weights (mine do), the size, and the distance appart. For now mine are still on and the balance feels great. Having siad that I could remove the weights, leaving the beads in a few minutes time if necessary.

Thangs again. You always have good information.

[ozzy]

Were can we get these magic beads and how many monies do we need?

[Joe Gilbert]

Ozzy. I purchased the beads from Innovative Balancing, LLC. Go to their web site and you'll find technical info and pricing. Last week I had the oppertunity to speak with a friend with a very large tire business in Southern N.H. I asked his position on using beads and was somewhat supprised to hear him say it was the "only good way to balance large truck & RV tires" (and he has dynamically balanced such tires for years. His position is that a 22.5" tire, when half worn out, will not still be in balance if conventional weights were used. Needless to say I was happy that I had gone the bead route.

Note: I removed the tires from my Dolphin to pour the beads in. The beads flow so well into the tires that I know I could have done this with the tires still on the RV (up on jacks of course).

www.innovativebalancing.com.