• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

balancing tires with BBs or golf balls

SimpleXJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
east coast
Hi all. I just got a new set of treads, and was wondering if the smaller tires like a 31" could be balanced with BBs or golfballs or whatever, like the larger ones. I burn thru a set of treads pretty quick - I drive my XJ at work for 6-8 hours a day. So It only takes me about 6 months to wear out a set of tires, and I have to have them balanced all the time. Would putting BBs or something like that inside the tire keep the tire balanced thru out its life so I don't have to see the tire shop every month or so?

Thank you

SimpleXJ
 
Yes it would. Finding out the weight needed, on the other hand, is the hard part.

Plus BB's pinging off of the rims get you some strange looks at stop lights.
 
dont you need special valves for that too. think i'm gonna try some golf balls in my next tires or maybe even my current ones. 33s now, possibly 35s next
 
So the idea behind this is that the BB's or golf balls will fly to the outside while driving and balance the tire-- I got that part. But what makes it go to the heavy (or light) spot on the tire?
 
ctavel said:
So the idea behind this is that the BB's or golf balls will fly to the outside while driving and balance the tire-- I got that part. But what makes it go to the heavy (or light) spot on the tire?

centrifical force (sp) kind of like the balancer on your washing machine...
 
balancing via golf balls, sand, bb's, etc. is pretty damn ghetto. There is no reason you should need to do that with 31's, traditional wheel weights should suffice. 36's+ I can understand. But its generally a bad idea to have stuff like that being thrown around beating the chit outta the inside of your tires.
 
So just by the magical forces of physics the weight goes to where it is needed?

Sorry if I sound like a little kid asking these questions, just want to know how and why--
 
Puma297 said:
balancing via golf balls, sand, bb's, etc. is pretty damn ghetto. There is no reason you should need to do that with 31's, traditional wheel weights should suffice. 36's+ I can understand. But its generally a bad idea to have stuff like that being thrown around beating the chit outta the inside of your tires.
can you back this up
 
How exactly can you get these in? I usually get my tires through a main stream dealer, and they see this as unsafe since it could puncture a tire. If you thought balancing a tire with golf balls was confusing, please tell me how a golfball is going to puncture a tire...
Discount tire really is a pain in the butt sometimes.
 
I use equal in my 32" Mud Terrains and it works great, no vibrations in the wheel of any sort. I never heard anything about using BBs or golf balls and it seems as it if it would be pretty difficult to find out how many you would need to balance them. I would reccomend trying out equal, it's not expencive, basically just like sand. Just my .02
 
doesnt it make airing down a pain though
 
Ramsey said:
doesnt it make airing down a pain though
Frequently Asked Questions About Equal Tire Balancer said:
Equal will not clog your tire valves and is very suitable for offroad vehicle use. The Equal granules will never reach the valve core because of the fitment of the AirX Filtered Valve Core that comes with every bag of Equal. The AirX Filtered Valve Core is part of every proper Equal installation, no matter who tells you otherwise. If you purchased the Equal granules but were not provided AirX Filtered Valve Cores, you were not dealing with an authorized or trustworthy Equal stockist.

However, installing Equal in your tires will increase the time it takes you air down. The Equal granules will attach to the screen mesh in the AirX Filtered Valve Cores and will restrict the flow of air through your valve stems. Unless you first push air through the valves before airing down in order to push away the Equal granules from the protective screen, you will find your airdown time will increase due to the restricted airflow. This restricted flow is easy to eliminate by injecting some air into the tires to clean the screen mesh on the AirX Filtered Valve Cores prior to airing down. If you do not flush your tires' valves prior to airing down, then air will merely trickle out of the valve stems because of the restricted airflow.
Daryl
 
csuxj said:
In order for this to work effectively, should it be used in conjunction with traditional wheel weights or without?
without wheel weights.

I have 5 golf balls in each of my 35" MTRs and it balances great as long as I have the pressure over 30psi. If I put the pressure much lower I think the flat spot at the bottom of the tire is big enough that it causes the balls to bounce.
 
The Problem with the sand is you have to use air with NO moisture in it, otherwise it balls up or turns to concrete. Kind of hard when you need to do a trail fix. I've used BB's in beadlock wheels and 35" tires and it was amazing the results. Use the "run-of-the-mill" steel BB's you can find at the discount store. Don't remember where I got this figure, but 8oz BB's per wheel worked. That's my 2 cents.
 
Back
Top