Bias Ply tires.

First off, I know what the reviews and writes up say about driving bias ply tires on the street. That's not what I'm looking for here... I want peoples personal experience with running bias ply tires on a wheeling rig that also sees pavement (second vehicle) I would like to know how they handle, and how successful people have been balancing them. I just replaced everything in my front axle and installed brand new otk steering and over the axle trac bar and am running 36" irok bias ply and still getting wobbles.. tires are used and each tire is worn evenly but not all tires have same tread depth, could this also factor in? the PO did have wheel weights mounted, could an improper balance attempt cause any issues? any questions feel free to ask. Thanks

yes. improper balance can cause vibrations. go get them balanced.

I had the same tires. I use about 10oz of airsoft BBs. Balanced like a charm!

I'm in the "why bother camp" when it comes to balancing, but that's because the LTB would require rebalancing after every trip and 4wheelparts gave up on the Creep Crawlers after 24oz of weights on the first wheel.

As for a little wobble, I found that the zig zag pattern in the center of my LTBs was a cause at certain air pressures and speeds.

Pick up some Balance beads from HD Offroad and lose the wheel weights.

I'm running 36" bias ply iroks, they run fine on the road. Balanced with beads. My rig only sees pavement to the trail.

And the occasion trip to the mall to park on curbs

I use to run 39" bias swampers on my old rig. I would drive it to and from the trails. On the street they felt fine once they warmed up. I never balanced them and didn't have issues. On the trails I liked them much better then 36" radials I was running. The radials I use to puncture them every time Id go out on the trails. The bias were much tougher but I would have to air down real low compared to te radials.

I run bias plys 36 iroks. Some Dw for sure . I run about 10oz of airsoft in each tire

Thanks for all the input!!! keep it coming everyone!!!

loose the weights. i had good luck with Airsoft BBs in a set of 33"" LTBs and a friend of mine ran 6 golf balls in each of his Q78 on a daily driven XJ.

Dyna Beads from http://www.innovativebalancing.com/index.php

35" Maxxis Creepy's. Balances fine, tires are super smooth.

No point in balancing the wheels when they get rock rash every trip out.

I've run both bias & radial Swampers and I liked the bias plies better off road, and obviously I liked the radials better on the street. If it were me, and it was a rig that I didn't HAVE to drive on the street (but could if I wanted to) I'd definitely run the bias tire. I will say that Swampers can be the most out of balance tires in the world straight off the shelf, especially the bias plies and never mind how bad they can be after they've been used for a while. Most people are quite shocked at how out of round they are when the see them all mounted up on wheels and on the balancing machine. Some people go as far to shave the tire tread true to make them ride halfway normally. With used tires, it all boils down to how well they were balanced and cared for by the PO, and how hard they were abused off road. If they were run out of balance for thousands of road miles or have chunks of tread blocks missing good luck with any effort at balancing them.

But to answer your question, yes do everything you can to get them balanced and it should hopefully alleviate your wobbling issues if everything else in the front end is up to snuff. I've heard old-timers at the tire shops say the best way to rebalance an off road style bias ply tire is to run it and get it warmed up before attempting to balance them. I'm not a pro, but it does sound like it makes a little sense since the tires will often flat spot from sitting overnight and will thwart any attempts at traditional balancing methods. Balancing beads are also a very viable option to consider.

Good luck with it :thumbup:

I'm not that old and I can remember when the only tires that you could get were bias-ply. And, when radials first came out (at least in my neck of the woods), they were VERY expensive. We used to drive everywhere on bias-ply tires.

All depends on the tire.

37x13b15 boggers: flat spotting when cold, couldn't balance worth a damn.

37x12.5b15 Creepy crawlers: no noticeable flat spotting, didn't even balance them and they rode great

36x12.5b15 TSL's: Worst tire I have ever had, flat spotting that seemed to never go away, could never get them to balance. Jeep rode like absolute crap, and they were junk offroad too.

36x13.5b15 Iroks: had balancing patches inside the tire. rode better than any other swamper I ran, slight flat spotting, could balance them OK, but still weren't great.

38x13b15 Creepy Crawlers, No real flat spotting, took some balancing to get them to run down the road nice.

Beat to hell rock raced, 38.5x14.5b16 creepy crawlers: These tires are chunked real badly, one even has a flatspot from when vetteboys jeep partially fell off his trailer. 3 of them took some considerable balancing but they still drive decent down the road under my j10. Would probably be a bit less enjoyable in a lighter unibody rig.

the tires are unevenly worn and def have suffered there share of rock rash, im really hoping my biggest issue is the previous balance attempt

Wheel weights can cause worse balance issues once you take a chunck out of your tire in the rocks. I'm dying to try the airsoft bead trick. Personally I have BFGs so I don't really have any issues.

I ran airsoft BB's with my 39.5" TSL's (E bias 8 ply awful tires), 38.5" TSL's (C bias 6 ply), and my current TSL SX's all of which seem to ride well enough down the road. They only seem to flatspot after really extended sitting or when its stupid cold and it went away as soon as warm.

airsoft BBs did not balance my MTRKs. wheel weights did.

I have had good luck with boggers on the road. Put 18k miles on them. Just make sure your alignment is true and keep em rotated. Used steel bbs. made a mess in my rim after a year or so though. I had some 36 inch SXs that were way out of round and shook no mater how much I tried to balance them. I was told a truck tire shop could true them on a machine similar to a big lathe. I sold em instead and got my boggers. been hooked on em ever since. Have not had the 42.5s on pavement yet. Fingers crossed.

Im not running bias ply tires but I do run 7oz of airsoft BB's in my 33" KM2's after 20,000 mi they are wearing even & ride great. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Crosman-Airsoft-Ultra-Heavy-Ammo-5-000ct/15103404