Has anyone tried balancing beads with their trailer tires. I have used them on several vehicles and they seemed to work well and on other vehicles there was no joy. I'm thinking in terms of using them in small trailer tires (205-65 x 10). Certainly the manufactures of them recommend them but in the real world of small tires, will they be helpful?

Like you I’ve used them in vehicles, back in my Jeep days.

Never thought about trailers, bet they would work, I don’t see why not.

We used air soft Ammo, don’t remember the ratio. Keep us updated. 
I like balancing my trailer tires, not many people do.

I'm going to give this a try myself.

 

I do a lot of traveling towing the boat like yesterday was an 80 mile round trip. I did not balance the new trailer tires and saw some boat seat vibration yesterday in rear view mirror, and I wondered about it as I drove. This is an interesting solution and will give it a try.

 

Balancing is one thing, but I was also wondering if maybe a tire might not be perfectly round. I'll find out soon enough. Thanks for this suggestion.

In my offroading days, I learned that tire balancing can sometimes be quite tricky. One can balance a cinder block but it certainly won't ride smoothly. Road force balancing is pretty much the gold standard. Trailer tires (small) might not meet the criteria for road force balancing. This will be a long term experiment as the season winds down.

 

RF balancing can identify an out of round condition.

small airplanes use small tires similar size to what the OP is using. Looking at using balancing beads appears to be a mixed bag.

Tom

Tom can you explain more about "mixed bag" comment? I assume pro's and con's?

 

I'd sure like to hear them before I try something new.

1 hour ago, WRB-2.0 said:

small airplanes use small tires similar size to what the OP is using. Looking at using balancing beads appears to be a mixed bag.

Tom

I'm not sure the comparison with aircraft tires is valid. Small aircraft tires are engineered to a completely different criteria. Spin up, load impacting, and heating are critical areas. They are completely different animals and their operating environments are vastly different yet they do need to be balanced.  

10 minutes ago, Crow Horse said:

I'm not sure the comparison with aircraft tires is valid. Small aircraft tires are engineered to a completely different criteria. Spin up, load impacting, and heating are critical areas. They are completely different animals and their operating environments are vastly different yet they do need to be balanced.  

Understand the differences!

Tom

Balancing beads used on trailer tires. Same size that I want to install.

 

 

Thanks @Crow Horse 

Are you having problems or is this preventative kind of thing?

Just asking to see you’ll notice a difference.

My friends that added them through the valve stem said it was a slow process, but it would be a pain to remove the tire and break the bead too. I addd mine when tires where installed.

Keep us updated on the results please.

 

My concerns are preventative in nature. Presently I don't even have the tires yet. Being that the season appears to have ended for me, this will be a winter/early spring project. I'm looking to get all my ducks in a row. 

 

Adding the balancing bead through the valve stem is painfully slow. I've always broke the bead and added them. It's worth the little extra work. If I can fab up mount for my GoPros, I'd like to take some video of the tires without the beads and then again with the beads to make a visual comparison.

 

 

I am doing some research on this as well. I found a couple of videos about it with this one being the most useful:

 

 

Trying to pay close attention to the physics details makes some things very clear.

 

If I followed it correctly, he is saying that these beads work best when a tire is rotating faster than 50mph. Once the tire passes this rotation speed is when the beads begin to spread out for correct balancing.

 

But if a person uses a trailer for slower tire rotation speeds, the beads do not balance out the tire and can tend to move into the heaviest side being thrown outwards the most.

 

So for around town use under 50mph it does not seem to me this is a great idea. But if one travels long distances and exceeds the 50mph rotation speed, the beads are of great benefit, and he said that the beads will stay in their balanced locations until tire rotation speeds drops to a speed that gravity can overcome the rotational forces holding the beads in place.

 

So if one drives from 0 to 50mph only, the beads are not of any value and can cause even more of an out of balance situation.

 

But if one can exceed the 50mph speed to highway speeds of 65 and 70mph, that one can then drop back down to below 50mph and beads will stay in place until rotation speed drops below a certain speed, so the tires may stay balanced down to 25mph, or 15mph, or maybe even 10mph. It is not clear to me what that lower threshold rotation speed is which might be different for different size tires.

 

I am leaning towards trying this out because on most trips I can reach highway speeds and should see the benefit of this idea.

 

But if I do travel in town and have keep speed down, I may try and reach it just to balance out the tires and then back it down if I can get away with it, because it does not sound like a great idea if I can't reach that 50mph magic zone.

 

Am I on track here? This is all new to me.

One thing to consider when comparing auto or truck tires to trailer wheels is size. Trailer wheels usually are considerably smaller than auto or truck tires and they will spin faster. Presumably, the "kick in" speed will be lower. That's just a thought and not fact.

An interesting tidbit of information about using these beads is to be found in the comments under the video I posted above:

 

"As a gas turbine mechanic, part of my job was spin balancing rotating equipment. One of the things they taught us was that there is a “high spot”, and a “low spot”. The high spot is the part that is thrown furthest out from the center of rotation at low speed. When it reaches critical speed, the high and low spots reverse. The governors on our turbines were set to more rapidly accelerate across this speed because it is the resonant speed of the rotor."

 

This is interesting because it tells me that as I increase my speed, for these beads to properly flow out and achieve the desired balancing effect, that they use computer programming to accelerate the rotational speed ACROSS the resonant speed.

 

They do not want the turbine rotors to remain in that resonant speed for very long, in fact, for as short of time period as is possible.

 

So this translates to us drivers on the roads to also do the same. Achieving highway speeds as quickly as possible is best case scenario. Slowly accelerating across the resonant speed is less desirable.

 

No problem for me as I am a lead foot anyways! 😁

 

Here is the rest of his comment under video:

 

"The usual method of balancing was to plot the orbit of the rotor shaft up past critical speed. Then we would put in a test weight to plot the difference. Using that data we could plot a vector to tell us where and how much weight to put in to balance the rotor. One tech got his vector 180 degrees out (easy to do), and launched the rotor about 20 yards.

 

A couple of years later we were issued vibration analysis computers that stopped this kind of error by doing all the math for you. I doubt many techs today could still do the math.

 

My brother, who was an astronomer saw some of my plots and asked when I learned orbital mechanics. Apparently they are the same thing."

 

Who would have thought astronomy can solve tire balancing!

 

This bead idea is an interesting one and I will surely give it a try since I experience some trailer vibrations, and my tires may also be too small to balance the normal way. I appreciate threads like this one very much! So thanks!

Here's an interesting video that has a GoPro inside the tire using balancing beads. I've been watching videos and I'm seeing many variables that might be contributing to the mixed results that I'm seeing.  Tire size and width, adding the correct amount of balancing beads (the charts just might be a starting point), air moisture inside the tire that allows the beads to clump, and other contaminants that allow the beads to clump inside the tire. I'm sure there are more....

 

My balancing routine has always been to have them balanced with sticky weights.  Traditional lead weight clips will rust and and at highway speeds throw the weight into the trailer fender and damage it.  In my circle, most don’t like the beads.  

I have used "Dyna Beads" in my motorcycle tires for years and started using them in my trailer tires about 5 years ago. Because trailer tires re typically bigger than bike tires the amount of beads needs to be increased.  I, typically, put 1oz. in the front bike tire and 2 oz. in the rear. I put 3 oz. in each of my 15 inch trailer tires and have had great results. Fyi, my yearly trailering includes a 3 month Florida get away which is 1500 miles each way and about 1000 miles while there.

Here is an example of efficacy. I looked in the rear view one time and noticed my trolling motor bouncing/vibrating up and down vigorously. This woke me up to the fact that I needed to balance my trailer tires. I decided to try the beads that I used on my bike. I did nothing more than apply  the beads and, when I took a test drive, I noticed the trolling motor was so stable you could balance a shot glass on it. To each his own. That is good enough proof for me.

Quick AI search:

 

Balance beads are an alternative to traditional weights that can continuously self-adjust to maintain tire balance, which is a pro.However, they can be less effective in small passenger vehicles, may clump in cold or wet weather, and can cause issues with TPMS sensors or get stuck in valve stems, making them a con. They are often considered a better option for large tires and off-road vehicles where weights can be knocked off.