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At Joe Vogt’s suggestion, I am starting a new discussion on Dyna Beads / Balance Beads as a way of balancing the tires on or Pierce-Arrow cares.
I understand that they are well accepted in the motorcycle crowd and with fleet trucks.
One advantage is no need for wheel weights to attain smooth high speed sailing.
I know that we are not hitting 100-mph in our vintage Buffalo Aluminum & Iron, but they may be worthy of consideration.
Anyone with experience on the product, please chime in.
Joe, if you will, please post your list of pluses from the other discussion. I did not want to do so without your approval.
Peter, since I added a bit to my original write-up, here is my three cents.
I believe that Dyna Beads can be an effective wheel balancing alternative for cars which do not have low profile tires and for which wheel mounted weights are impractical. Bead pluses include: (1) they will center themselves across the sectional width of the tire, whereas stick-on and rim mounted weights will not, (2) to some extent, they can adjust tire balance for a varying tire shape and size caused by such things as temperature changes, non-symmetrical tire wear, and minor tire damage, (3) they are not visible and do not scar the wheel, and (4) because they act at a larger radius, they are more effective per ounce than weights that are mounted on the wheel. Wheel mounted weight advantages include: (1) they act even at very low speeds, (though they are not much needed in the low speed range), (2) they are cheap and convenient since virtually all tire shops are used to dealing with them, (3) they can be used for low profile tires, while Dyna Beads are not recommended, and (4) they can be installed very quickly, whereas if Dyna Beads are to be installed in an inner-tube, the valve core must be removed, and it can take a few minutes to get the beads in.
When I added Dyna Beads to my inner-tubes, I did it by removing the valve core and putting a flexible, clear plastic tube, about six inches long, over the end of the valve stem. Then I filled the plastic tube with beads and vibrated my hand against the valve stem to coax the beads into the inner-tube. There are much faster methods using machine induced vibration or using compressed air (e.g., see demos on youtube). Tubeless tires are much easier to deal with as the beads can be put directly into the tire.
To help prevent the beads from blocking the valve core open when letting air out of the tire (apparently happens only occasionally), I used special valve cores in my inner-tubes that are supposed to keep the beads out of the core. So far, no problems.
For each tire, the weight of Dyna Beads that I used was equal to (the weight that a balance machine said was needed) times (the wheel diameter where clamp-on or stick-on weights would be mounted) divided by (the maximum inside diameter of the inner-tube when it is inflated in the tire) plus 10% extra as a factor of safety. Note that after the beads are put in the inner-tube or tire, it does not work that you can then put the wheel back on a balance machine and expect it to act as if it were balanced. It will only be balanced on the vehicle where spring action allows the wheel/tire/bead package to rotate around its center of mass, whereas a balance machine forces the package to rotate around the wheel hub, which will not usually be the center of mass.
If one rolls a tire by hand with Dyna Beads in it, you can hear the beads rolling around to stay at the bottom of the tire. So the tire has to rotate fast enough for the beads to position themselves around the inside of the tube or tire and get the assembly balanced. It would be interesting to know what this rotational speed is as a function of diameter, but I have not seen any articles discussing this.
I believe that the Dyna Beads improved the ride of my car even at speeds as low as 25 miles per hour, but maybe this is a placebo effect. If others try the beads, it would be great to hear their opinions.
Dyna Beads is a brand name, CounterAct is another, and there are probably others.
Balance Beads is a third name being marketed
There are also stainless steel ones out there which the sales pitch claim as better as they do not “powder”” over time like the glass ones do. The negatives mentioned on the blogs are that they “”bead blast”” the interior of your rims until the wheel gets up to speed. Not a problem inside an inner tube like we have. I am going to give them a go on my Model 133. I will post results. it will be a while as the beads have to come from across the world to The Land of OZ!”
Tires that are out of round are also a problem. Check tires for out of round before balancing. There are companies that have the equipment to true tires on the car. I had this done on my Series 80 runabout with good success.
The Kelsey-Hayes wheels from about 1934 on were balanced. Weights can be found sttached to the inside bead. At that time, Goodyear provided tire and tube combinations that were balanced. Pierce-Arrow used these with the balanced wheels.
Jak, does the observation that ceramic beads powder over time come from a reliable source or is it just speculation? And if the beads do powder over time, how long does this take and under what driving conditions, does the powder still work to balance the tire, and is the powder significantly more likely to enter the valve stem and block the valve open? I know that unbiased experimental data answering such questions is usually hard to find.
A quick surf of the motorcycle blogs about balancing beads bring up the usual biased/ubiased info. Some seem logical BUT the REALITY is personal experience. Give it a go & report back. Nothing like personal experience!! Opinions are like ***** everyone has one!! One thing is for sure