balancing tires with bb's

[trail mule]

I have heard of some people balancing there tires with bb's. Is this possible, how many people have done this and how effective is it?

[tkiller13]

Here is a link..Gwinn did it.
http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=80489

[FSJ Guy]

What size tires?

I've been able to get all my tires balanced with regular weights except for my 38" Super Swampers. I used Dynabeads in those tires. A LOT of Dynabeads!

[4x4_Welder]

BBs, even the zink or copper plated ones, will rust and turn to non-functioning dust in short order. Use the heavyweight plastic/rubber BBs, you can get them from wally world for around $5 for just a hair under a pound. These are .2grams per BB, as opposed to .12 for a standard plastic BB, but only slightly less than a steel BB, which is about .32grams.
Use a full container per tire, it's better to have more than less. Any extra will just be in there and not throw off the balance.

[Bobbo]

There is certain products out there that are designed to be put in a tire as a balancing agent. Equal, Counteract, and others. Go to a shop that does semi truck tires. They are formulated and tested for this use. This idea of some other thing doing a better job is not good. I have been doing tires for 15 years and I have seen many people try lots of things, bbs, golf balls, antifreeze, water, ball bearings, I would like to say that I have seen it all, but about once a year someone comes in with a new one. If you are having trouble balancing big tires the first thing you need to do is check the runout on your wheels. If you have more than 5 thousanths runout, trash the wheel or use it for a spare. Then mount the tire. If the tire is way out of balance (more than 10 oz) get some patches that are weighted. These work well as they can be put in the light spot of the tire, or directly opposite of the heavy spot. I belive the patches are available from interco. Then balance the tire. If problems still persist try a in the tire balancing agent like equal. The checking of the rims and regualar balancing of the tires will take care of static and dynamic balancing. Something like equal will help with the radial force variation. The tire tech needs to diagnose the type of imbalance you are dealing with. Keep in mind that some tires are designed with on road performance as an afterthought. If you need to drive your vehicle on road I would stay away from interco tires. I have found them to be the absoulute worst for getting them balanced. I will not argue they are great off road, but keep in mind that that is the sole funtion designed into these tires. Yeah yeah yeah I know some of your buddies road smooth as glass for a million miles, but I have seen hundreds of people fork over top dollar for these tires only to hate them on the road. Most of the other tire companies these days are making great off road tires that also work good onroad. Yeah they are not as good off road, but lets face it not many vehicles are off road only. We have to make some kind of comprimise.

[DanHS]

I wouldn't use airsoft bbs because they are made of light, brittle plastic, the more expensive ones tend to have starch or graphite in them, anyways they could break up into bits and make dust. Steel bbs could rust. I'd use the ceramic beads that are purpose made for this use, they're denser and won't break up. They're not too expensive either, I'll use them when I eventually get big tires on the Chero.