Community Forums

Warrenjo · 10-24-2020, 07:21 AM

Last spring we purchased a 36' Winnebago Journey and have really enjoyed traveling in it. When we purchased it came with brand new tires all around (as in never been on the highway). One thing that annoyed us was the fact that at any speed above 65 mph there was quite a bit of vibration and steering shimmy.

I took it to a commercial truck tire dealer for tire balance. The dealer told me there were tire balance beads in the tires and suggested it may be alignment so I had the wheels aligned. No change.

Yesterday I took it back to the dealer and had the beads removed and the front tires balanced. What a difference. I wll take it back and have the same done to the rears.

Do tire balance beads work or were mine somehow installed incorrectly?

429CV23 · 10-24-2020, 08:10 AM

I've used beads for my last 2 motorhomes, had no issues. I also use them in the front & rear tires on my 2000 Big Dog Bulldog.

If they used an incorrect mass for the tires they won't work well.

yeloduster · 10-24-2020, 08:20 AM

I use beads and my drive is exceptionally smooth. I suspect that there were not enough beads in your tires or you had a tire not mounted so it was centered on the wheel. In order to remove the beads the tires would have to be unmounted and then remounted. The remounting might have fixed a not centered on the wheel issue.

If there is not enough weight in the beads they can't work. Different size tires require different amount of beads.

**Petro** · 10-24-2020, 08:35 AM

I also used beads in my last 2 motor homes. I was very happy with the installation. The installing dealer informed me that if the installer used to much bead lubrication and the lube got on the beads they would lump up and not work properly. Just a thought.

Don

Crasher · 10-24-2020, 09:41 AM

Beads will usually balance the wheel/tire. However, on this set of tires, I couldn't get a good result on the steer tires. I had the dealer remove the beads, rotate the tire 180 degrees on the wheel, remount and spin balance. Now it's perfect and has been for 2 1/2 years and 25,000 miles. It's possible that I might have gotten the same result by just rotating the tire on the wheel, but knew that spin balancing would work.

Gary RVRoamer · 10-24-2020, 11:11 AM

A improperly mounted wheel (off-center on the hub) would explain that and some types of wheel require careful attention to that. If not that, I suspect you either had some condition the beads couldn't correct, or an insufficient amount of them. Spin-balance with weights can counter some problems caused by bent wheels where beads cannot compensate enough. It's rare, but it happens. BTW, the opposite is also true - there are some balance problems that are more correctable with dynamic balance (beads or a Centramatic-type device) than fixed weights.

MSHappyCampers · 10-24-2020, 05:20 PM

I have beads in all our tires and am very happy with the performance!

jackreno · 10-24-2020, 09:16 PM

I had beads and they never worked, best way is have the tire balanced on the rim, this way they can see if the tire is mounted correctly, also use centramatic balancers with the tire balance.

https://www.centramatic.com/wheel-balance.rhtml

beipers · 10-24-2020, 10:55 PM

I put breads in 2 motorhomes and my pickup and wasn't happy with any of them. I finally had to have them removed from the 3500 and have them spin balanced. The shop that did it told me they stopped putting breads in anything smaller than 22.5 tires because they had so many that didn't work. My opinion is that there's not enough room for enough beads/weight in most non commercial tires for then to work properly.

Tha_Rooster · 10-25-2020, 03:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warrenjo

Last spring we purchased a 36' Winnebago Journey and have really enjoyed traveling in it. When we purchased it came with brand new tires all around (as in never been on the highway). One thing that annoyed us was the fact that at any speed above 65 mph there was quite a bit of vibration and steering shimmy.

I took it to a commercial truck tire dealer for tire balance. The dealer told me there were tire balance beads in the tires and suggested it may be alignment so I had the wheels aligned. No change.

Yesterday I took it back to the dealer and had the beads removed and the front tires balanced. What a difference. I wll take it back and have the same done to the rears.

Do tire balance beads work or were mine somehow installed incorrectly?

Mine work just fine maybe they didn’t put the right amount for your size tires.

wingnut60 · 10-25-2020, 10:18 AM

For a permanent fix, check out Centramatic.com Have had them on my last 3 450s. No problem with changing tires and losing beads. Will be getting them on the MH next month.

Gary RVRoamer · 10-25-2020, 10:43 AM

I'm curious about the reports of beads that "didn't work" but no explanation of what or why.

From what I read in commercial/truck newsletters and ezines, most big rig tire shops and fleet garages use the beads. Seems like the problems must be few if that's the case.

twinboat · 10-25-2020, 12:30 PM

A proper spin balanced tire/wheel assembly is dynamic balanced. Weights are placed on the inside or outside of the wheel depending on where its needed.

Beads run right down the center of the inside of tire giving you a static balance.

You can get away with the cheap static balance in many cases but not all. The wider the tire the more dynamic balance comes into play.

https://e-quipfix.co.uk/wheel-balanc...eel-balancing/