Putting in X oz's of ceramic beads through the valve stem is gunna be more time consuming than its worth. Just pop the bead on one side and fill it up with BB's.

 

Yes. Like trying to put a ocean thru a garden hose. Just a concept of size discription.

 

I haven't run wheel weights for the past 7 years on my rig. On my 3rd set of tires using bb's to balance. I used to run 235/85/16's (32X9.50) but I've now moved up to 255/85/16 (33-34X10.00). No issues at all other than good balance all the way through the life of the tires. That includes 70k on my first set of mud grips, in all fairness they were a 1ton truck tire so.....
I love it when people who haven't tried something pipe up immediately about how it isn't going to work.

 

Picking up rims tomorrow or next day. Will probably have tires mounted with beads 1st of next week.

 

I just ordered some airsoft bb's. Will post up my success too! I hope this works!

 

I have used Equal in truck tires for years. Same principal. I could see how the Air-Soft BBs would work but I wouldn't use metal BBs. They would be too hard on the inside of the tire. The only thing that I'm wondering about is if the Air-Soft BBs will breakdown in 20k or 30k miles!

 

I wondered the same but the old timer that I heard about it from tells me no. They might get a little smaller. He added a shot glass of liquid WD 40 to each tire w. the bb's to augment lubrication of the inside of the tire.

I'm right there with u Gerdo. I've seen what left over pieces of a valve stem can do to the inside of a tire.

RJ

 

Does the WD-40 get gummy or break down the AirSoft BBs?

 

WD-40's primary ingredient is fish oil. It will not degrade plastic. I am made to understand that it lubricates the bb's. I have experienced where WD-40 had been sprayed on guns about 15 years ago and it got sticky. But it takes a LONG TIME. Much longer than your tires will probably last. Unless you are driving your yota like a show car, only every other weekend. I'm going to try it. It will take a long time to prove, but I will be happy to keep results running on this thread. When tires are replaced.

RJ

 

What is Equal? Not the fake sugar stuff I assume?

 

91, glad to hear that the BB's are working on tires under 35". Earlier in the thread, it was posted that they only work on 35's or better. Thanks for the info.

RJ

 

It is a tire balancing material that is put inside tires.

 

I tried Airsoft BBs in my 33s. It kind of worked but it wasn't better than just having them balanced. The reason I had the BBs removed is because hitting bumps would cause the tire to get out of balance and then hitting another bump would cause them to scatter and rebalance. The inconsistency got annoying. It seemed like it would get unbalanced right before a long smooth stretch and then I was looking for a pothole to hit so I could get them to balance again.

 

Is Equal the tire "sand" that people keep referring to?

Gleny, What kind of tires were you running? Were you running Meat Mud tires? Or ATS? Or street tires?

Just curious if the type of tire will affect the bb's performance, oh and do you remember what ply?

I wonder if ply and tread factor into the BB performance...

Glenny, This is disconcerting news to me as I an a somewhat neurotic person and If this is how the BB's performed I'd be a pot hole hunter for sure and it would drive me nuts...

 

I was, and still am, running the Yokohama Geolandar MT+ 305/70/R16 (33 inch tires). They are my favorite tire so far.


These tires balance just fine. I tried the BBs because after getting the tires balanced they would be good until the next rock crawling. When I air down to 13-15 psi I'm pretty sure that the torque makes the tire slip on the rim throwing the balance off. I keep meaning to try out a light adhesive that will prevent the tire from slipping on the rim but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll try and remember to post up the results if I ever get around to doing that.

 

special adhesive=beadlocks

 

I run the copperhead BB's in mine, not airsoft. I have never had the 'hitting a bump' phenomenon, it's just always balanced and I hit potholes every day on the way to work. It might be the heavier metal BB's that help in this. I think the airsoft bb's are not as efficient as metal ones and wouldn't work as well. I think it's kind of funny that some people are worried about damaging the inside of the tire with metal ones, yet the ceramic ones sold just for this purpose are harder. I just mounted a set of 235/85/16's on the wife's Nissan and went with the copperhead bb's after debating the whole airsoft version. I'll report back on my fourth version of this good or bad, going for the test ride now.

 

Well I just ordered 12 bottles of 2K 12gram airsoft pellets. I have few sets of tires that I need to switch around and figured what the heck. Give it a shot.

From what I have read...33x12.5 and the 35x12.5 take 8oz of pellets. 1 2k bottle of 12gram = about 8.4 oz so 1 per tire and I should be good. We shall see shortly.

 

I have been running dyna beads on my 87 4runner with 33's, and on my 05 grand cherokee with 32's and they work great, no vibration, and when your tires wear down they will be well balanced.

 

anyone run these when out mudding around? how well do they work. The more and more I do these mud bogs, I keep getting the "off-balance" tire "wobble" from the mud stuck to the wheels on the drive home.