So what did you do with your truck today?

Some people do and are fine with it. Dynamic balancing is a better method since it takes the tire's out-of-roundness into consideration. I run balance beads and don't worry about someone balancing my tires. I love them. Again, some like them while others don't.

IDIBRONCO said:

I run balance beads and don't worry about someone balancing my tires.

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I've never heard of these, what are they?

Old Goat said:

Jesus Freak, found your dream Tow truck.
With those hot stickie humid days coming up in Florida soon. This has plenty of fresh cooling air flowing through the cab. Look close, bet it even has Cup Holders.

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Goat

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Reminds me of Matt’s off-road recovery on YouTube, there’s a guy in the cascades/pnw he does videos with sometimes too and they run something like this. Might even be an idi. (Edit: must’ve been an f series gasser now I think about it)

Had to get towed about two dozen miles (in the vw after a small collision) in southern Oregon couple summers back. Talking to the operator in the truck he was sayen they only run cummins now, think we were in a 6 or 7 speed auto. The 10 speeds were too many gears for all the hills down there? And he drives like 70k miles a year

We started talking IDIs and he was all “those are the best engines” lol

Yeah @Jesus Freak you should build a tow rig

tbowker said:

I've never heard of these, what are they?

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Beads that you put into your tires that balance them as they rotate. Don't ask me the science behind them. I just know that they work for me. I can also say that the tires that are on my pickup bed trailer came off of my truck. I saved most of the balance beads that were in them and now I can barely tell the the trailer is behind me when it's empty. It takes a rough road to be able to feel the trailer bouncing.

IDIBRONCO said:

Beads that you put into your tires that balance them as they rotate. Don't ask me the science behind them. I just know that they work for me. I can also say that the tires that are on my pickup bed trailer came off of my truck. I saved most of the balance beads that were in them and now I can barely tell the the trailer is behind me when it's empty. It takes a rough road to be able to feel the trailer bouncing.

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Huh, now I'm intrigued. Much cheaper than buying a static balancer. Thanks.

tbowker said:

I've never heard of these, what are they?

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Think BB's.
Some folks run BB's, some run fuzzy target shot BB's, some run balance beads.

@IDIBRONCO pretty well said it, & I love running them.

As I understand things as you take off the beads spread out to the lighter side of the tire balancing the tire. Look up balancing chart. Usually 16" or so tires require 4-6 oz of beads.

In my 235-85x16's I run 5 oz. As I mount tires on my tire machines, I also weigh out on my fancy H-Freight scales, I weigh 5 oz beads or BB's & dump them inside tire.

Oh BTW, not sure if it matters, but these guys that take off REALLY FAST at the light , BLOWING SMOKE, filling the road full of diesel smoke....... I got a feeling that balance beads won't work for!!!! Cause beads would go to side of tire that FAST TAKE OFF dictates beads to stay at, instead of spreading out on lighter side of tire & balancing it. And road full of smoke makes the State want to start as well as enforcing SMOGG INSPECTIONS!!! Just my thoughts!

tbowker said:

I've never heard of these(balance beads), what are they?

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I've done beads in my Volvos, and while it's not perfect, it's good enough. I think beads are probably as great as the tire itself, and if you get an out-of-round tire, they just can only help so much. That said, I don't like having to be at the mercy of a shop for, well, anything.
I've also done beads on my pickup, with stock tires and the bigger ones I have now. Same thing different vehicle, out of round screws you and everything else works well.
For the Volvos I run airsoft beads, and the F-250 I used ball bearings like for a slingshot, pretty good sized.
On the F-250, I switched to Centra-Matic balancers so I don't have to break down a tire to add/remove beads anymore. I still mount my own but now they are balanced right away.

Reading around online, the only way a shop can adjust for out-of-round that I've seen is to sand down the tread over the high spot, which is something good tire shops used to do, apparently. But that's been phased out since the 90's, it seems. Now they just break it down, spin it 90* or so and re-mount, and if no joy they get it warrantied.

Back in the 70`s when I was driving my 67 International Harvester 1 1/2 ton 1500 flat bed truck. (It was my daily driver) The tires on it were 7.50 X 17" tires bias ply. When a new tire was out of round, they had a machine they used to rotate the tire/wheel, and this machine had a blade that rotated and shaved off the high place. Seemed like a lot rubber taken off, but really extended the life of the tire.

Wonder why the eliminated that procedure?

I had to stop driving the old Corn Binder when gas got to $0.55 a gallon, couldn`t afford to feed her. That 345 engine got 12 - 13 MPG, but man she sure could pull.
Still have her, she is sitting out by the big shop.
A 7.3 IDI pumped up is what she needs.


Goat

The_Josh_Bear said:

I switched to Centra-Matic balancers

Old Goat said:

Back in the 70`s when I was driving my 67 International Harvester 1 1/2 ton 1500 flat bed truck. (It was my daily driver) The tires on it were 7.50 X 17" tires bias ply. When a new tire was out of round, they had a machine they used to rotate the tire/wheel, and this machine had a blade that rotated and shaved off the high place. Seemed like a lot rubber taken off, but really extended the life of the tire.

Goat

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AI.....that's the secret fix....
I have decided that I ONLY plan on driving my rigs for ONLY one more year!!!!!!~ Will not be worried about balance problems no more, low fuel mileage, NOTHING!!!!

I got Carol (my wife) nearly happy!! Got her wheelbarrow with the 7.3 mounted on it nearly ready for her to go shopping with it. However, it's got a slight Death Wobble with that single front wheel, but I'll get it figgured out.

Now back to my original Secret Fix.......With Artificial Intelligence growing & growing we will have MAGIC CARPETS to ride around, ride everywhere, to work, go home, go to Seven-Eleven, go fishing, etc, etc
I'm very confident & happy that by March 1, 2025 I'll be driving my new MAGIC CARPET!

rreegg said:

Reminds me of Matt’s off-road recovery on YouTube, there’s a guy in the cascades/pnw he does videos with sometimes too and they run something like this. Might even be an idi. (Edit: must’ve been an f series gasser now I think about it)

Had to get towed about two dozen miles (in the vw after a small collision) in southern Oregon couple summers back. Talking to the operator in the truck he was sayen they only run cummins now, think we were in a 6 or 7 speed auto. The 10 speeds were too many gears for all the hills down there? And he drives like 70k miles a year

We started talking IDIs and he was all “those are the best engines” lol

Yeah @Jesus Freak you should build a tow rig

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Yeah, my tow truck is woefully neglected right now. But I really don't want a tow business. I can't imagine what insurance looks like and my observation is to the tow industry is a "get big or get out" type thing and I like just me. So really my tow truck is for "private use", close friends, and a couple FedEx contractors I know.

And I have centramatics on the tow truck, they're perfect. The dually has nothing and it rolls fine at 55-60mph without weights beads or anything. I mount my own tires too.

I was poking around on Google and found a 1500B 1 1/2 ton. By the grill it is a 64. has the big lug nut like the Peterbilt,s., she use to be a AAA Tow Truck. I was at the Lincoln, Mercury, International dealer when they took delivery of it. I thought, WOW! I sure would like to have it. 5 years later it was on the IHC lot for sale, with a new engine, just before taking it out of service, one of the drivers blew the old engine.

OH, and I stuck a 3 spd Brownie in her before I parked her.

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Goat

Old Goat said:

Wonder why the eliminated that procedure?

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My guess would be that it cut down on profits. If you can keep tire life shorter and sell more tires that way, then your profit goes up. I'm sure that they'd say something about government regulations, but that's just a cover story as far as I'm concerned. The other guess would be that they don't make round tires anymore. When I worked in the Good Year store in '06/'07, most of the tires that we mounted would have been sent back for being out of round by the tire shop I worked for for a few months in '94.

These beads are far more common than I ever imagined...I am so out of the loop. I looked them up on Amazon, cheap enough to give a try.

ttman4 said:

However, it's got a slight Death Wobble with that single front wheel

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See, this is how I got started on this bead topic to begin with. The evil death wobble.

Jesus Freak said:

I mount my own tires too.

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This is something I'm considering also, although I usually get my tires at Costco. I'll have to start doing some more cost comparisons.

ttman4 said:

However, it's got a slight Death Wobble with that single front wheel,

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I don't believe that. I've never experienced it before.

All I did today was take the last trailer load of firewood that I picked up back to my garage. I didn't touch one stick of it since it warmed up so much. It's only February so I'm not in a huge hurry to unload it quite yet. In the other hand, it sure was nice to be able to drive down the highway with the driver's window down. That's EXTREMELY unusual in northwest Kansas in February.