Yupik Eskimo

Even at very slow speeds, you can't hear anything with the ceramic beads. The beads are very small. I'd say just a 1/4 the size of a BB. Not really alot different than having sand in there.

There have been people who have been using steel shot from 12 guage shotgun shells in their tires. They've said it balances their tire just fine, but there is a little noise at speeds below 10 mph.

I'd say just stick to the ceramic type beads. When moisture and condinsation forms inside your tire, the steel shot will probabaly start corroding and clumping together.

mt_goat

I haven't tried the beads but I have tried Equal and at least with my 33x12.50s it didn't work very well. The main problem with these type of balancing measures are they only do a static balance down the center of the tire. The wider your tire is the more critical it is to have a dynamic balance with weights near the inside & outside edges of the wheel. Here's a thread about my Equal experiment: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/equal-tire-balancer-experiment-failure-55775/

ebelen1

Can't tell by a quick look at the website but how much do you buy?

Yupik Eskimo

There is a chart somewhere on their website that says how much to add (depending on your tire size). With my 265/70/16's, I added the recommended 4 ounces to each tire.

Road Head

I dont understand why the 4runners are so hard to balance. I have had 2 sets of 35" MTRs on my jeep, a set of 32" BFG ats and a set of 30" bfg ats, and never had a balancing issue, and I knocked all the weights off one of the 35s one time. I have had 2 cherokees and a corolla and never had a balancing issue. Why does this plague 4runners?

mt_goat

Lug centric wheels and hub centric balance machines are a bad combo without the proper adapter (which no one seems to have).

CJM

Sorry to drag this topic back formthe dead but I think I have some info you all need to hear...

1. On a normal tire balancer they slap the wheel on and lock it in place using an endcap that screws on. It is super important to line up the little bitty notch on said endcap with the valve stem of your tire! Or it could cause balance issues and read incorrectly.

2. On a hunter machine they have said endcap screw, but they also use cones to mount the wheels on the machine. My 93 camry is lug centric (as inthe lugnuts lock the wheels ont he hub correctly)and this machine will balance the wheels. The trick is using the right cone, you dont really need the haweka adapter if you use this method. Alot of place use older machines or dont use the cone, you should not go thier if they dont have a hunter machine with the adapter or cones.

Course I could be wrong, but having used a hunter machine myself with the cones and balancing my own tires (gotta love school autoshop) I can say that balancing them with 3 different sets of tires overtime not one vibration. The camry is also known to have said issue but I never expieranced it.

3. Different machines use different ways to mount the tire