tire beads

jdpalmer

jdpalmer

Senior Member
Are tire beads the best way to balance Model a tires. Will they wear the inside of the tube? someone said he just aligns the valve stem with a point on the tire.
 
I have tried any many times to get the beads to work and I cant. I always end up with stick on weights on the inside part of the rim.
 
Never went fast enough in my AA truck to have any problems with tires not being balanced. That is until I put in a Warford overdrive. At the higher speed the Warford allowed me to go the unbalanced wheels were a major problem.
Put in Dyna Beads and the problem went away.
Working very well for me.
 
I use the stick on " motorcycle " weights positioned by a local garage spin balancer. Never a problem since 2011.
 
Jim, this is just my experiences from my customer's, and my personal vehicles.

On my Model-Ts that have demountable rims, I don't have the ability for stick-on weights, nor can I use weights on my clincher wheels as I have no way to fixture them to establish the location of the weight(s). On Model-As, my electronic tire balancer uses hub-centered locating (-as many are) to set the plane, so when you look at the 'hub cap hole' you see that often times the hole is not concentric with the ℄ of the wheel hub. I have found this ever so slightly affects the balance on Model-A wheels, and when I rotate the wheel on the machine 90°, the machine no longer sees the wheel & tire in balance. To some, this may not be a big enough issue to worry with, however if I am going to go thru the effort of balancing, I want it as near to perfect as possible. For what its worth, for the speeds and side loads the typical Model-A tire sees, a cheap static balancer that you can get a Harbor Freight is likely sufficient to use. At that point, use the stick-on weights and then paint them wheel color to camouflage.

Because of the above, I prefer the beads as they are constantly re-balancing the wheel, especially when the tire tread picks up a small rock or stone. The tire balancing beads were actually invented to be used as vibratory tumbler media to deburr very high quality pieces of steel and alloy after machining or stamping. In those applications, generally there is a liquid that the media which eliminates the static that is caused when the media rubs against itself, however ironically it is the static that makes these things work as a tire balancer. Generally speaking, as soon as they seek the light side, they cling to the inside of the tube or tire, so they do not wear the rubber.

Someone mentioned they were not satisfied with their results. The companies that market these beads will be very quick to tell you that the 'balancing beads' are very effective providing the proper amount is used. If too much, -or too little is used, then they do not seem to be as effective. My advice is try them as I do feel they are a great way to secretly balance the tires with little effort needed to do the job.
 
X2 on Brents comments. I didn't know the details he mentioned. Thanks.

2 weeks ago, I mounted 4 American Classic tires and tubes. I used the 4oz. beads. What a difference. It is impressive. Our tires were old, good tread but unbalanced. At approximately 39mph and up, the car would pass through speeds that did about everything you don't want your car to do.

We used to drive in the 35mph range, rarely faster. Now, you cannot keep the car at that speed without watching the speedometer. To test, I've briefly raised the speeds on the smoothest roads. Today, for just a couple seconds, we were running 60-65mph. At 50+ the steering wheel has little vibration at all.

We now drive around 40mph or less most of the time, but we can speed up if we need to travel a busier road for a few miles. We have good brakes and steering. The front end has new components. Bearings are greased regularly. After today's drive, I felt the sidewalls and they were not even warm to the touch.

This info is less than 4 hours old. LOL
 
P.S. on my details above, the beads are a dynamic balance of the hub, drum, wheel, tire, and the small rocks that temporarily get embedded in treads.
 
When new was there any procedure to balance the wheels and tires other than to center the tires red line with the rim and align the valve stem with the light side of the tire?
Is there a way to calculate the amount of beads to balance a tire?
 
What method are you guys using when you install your beads.

I am a believer in the beads, and would prefer them over stickons, but no matter how many times I tried I can not get them to install. I have tried vibrating, small funnels, a few at a time.
 
Model "A" Fords said:
When new was there any procedure to balance the wheels and tires other than to center the tires red line with the rim and align the valve stem with the light side of the tire?
Is there a way to calculate the amount of beads to balance a tire?
Click to expand...
go to Dyna beads web site, they list amount of beads to install, I used a vibrating engraver tool to vibrate stem while installing with bottle they supply. 5 0z./19 inch tire
 
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I made up a stand out of an old front hub and fitted reasonable condition but used bearings so that it spins freely. I put the wheel on it and add stick-on weights to the light part of the rim - job done.
It was only yesterday, I saw 107 kph (67mph) on the GPS in my Phaeton. No sign of wheel imbalance even at that speed.
My system works so I see no need to change.
 
Model A Fords,
I believe when “NEW” these cars were never driven at 60 mph or about 100km per hour, because of the roads 90 years ago.
 
Gary,
I went to the Dyna Bead site. Lots of good information there, thanks.

Floats,
I think your right about the speed back then. They wouldn't need good balance with ruff roads and slower speed.
 
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