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Balancing Tires

Prankster

New member
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Ponca City, Oklahoma
I am still new here, and I don't know if this topic has been covered all that much, but here goes.

Maybe you heard of the golf balls inside the tires, the BBs, and the ceramic beads but; have you heard about using Anti-Freeze?

I was searching for one thing, and I came across something else.
How much you use Depends on the size of the tire.

8 oz for car tires, 12 to 16 oz for pickups but for huge tire I can only guess!
 

Westech

CPL
6,104
208
63
Location
cow farts, Wisconsin
I have used Coolant in Tractor tires to add weight for traction but that has all been low speed. I have used BB's and "sand" and all has SUCKED. only good balance I have found is from weights. Any truck place can balance that size of tire and rim. But.. with such a big bias NDCC tire.. its not going to do much and go out of balance FAST. If you want to balance a tire on the deuce get your self radials first.
 

goldwing2000

Banned
506
15
18
Location
Ingham County, Michigan
I wouldn't think it would hurt anything. Are you having balance issues? I would start with 32oz and see if that helps. You can always add more but it's a little harder to get any excess out.
Running tubeless, you might want to consider a powdered balancer like Equal.
 

John S-B

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Ostrander, Ohio
Not in the past few days, anyway. :lol:

I'm running 16oz of antifreeze in each rear tire and 32oz in the fronts. Yes, it helps.
Are you running the stock NDT's or something else? And how much do you drive your truck, does it sit for long periods?
 

goldwing2000

Banned
506
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18
Location
Ingham County, Michigan
Are you running the stock NDT's or something else? And how much do you drive your truck, does it sit for long periods?
Stock NDCCs (NDTs are a different tire, rarely found on a Deuce).

When it's not broken (just replaced a fubar alternator), I drive my truck to work at least three times a week, 80 miles round trip.
 

Vintage iron

Active member
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16
38
Location
Falmouth Ma.
I was searching on Balancing tires. It took a while but I found all kinds of threads. Yes anti-freeze has been discussed. Equal is no good. They have had all kinds of issues with the valve stems with Equal. BBs don't sound to good either, metal against metal. Golf balls and tennis balls sound to big. I recently heard about airsoft pellets. If I remember right, they are the size of pees and soft rubber. I think they sell them in bulk too? That is what I am going to try in my 14.00's . it is 16 oz for 1400's too. I will go heavier. I hear more is better than not enough.
 

scrapdaddy

Member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Location
Dittmer, Mo.
I've got the ceramic beads in my 11/16 Mich. on the M37. It was a pain to pour them in the valve stem, but I don't use the 37 on the road much, so not sure if they help or not.
 

M543A2

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Warsaw, Indiana
I have had my bias tires balanced at a truck tire shop and it worked fine, using the lead rim clip weights. If the hop is on the rear, many times taking off the outer wheel and rotating it 180 degrees reference the original location will cure the problem.
Regards Marti
 

Jake0147

Member
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18
Location
Panton, VT
These internal dynamic balance remedies do work to some degree. The biggest problem I see with them is that the deuce tire/wheel assembly is too heavy, it takes too much for it to work properly (which is still mediocre to "OK", but never good....). The second problem I see is that deuce tries tend to not be concentric. That is, they have runout in their diameter all the way around them, which would be unacceptable in a radial tire. That kind of counteracts the forces that the internal dynamic balance aids rely upon to cause them to "wander" to the light spot. Instead, centrifugal force takes over and migrates them to the tall spot, which will not only not balance a tire, but it becomes dead nuts opposite of where you'd like the weight to be. In essence, if you've got more than 60 preferably, 80 max thousandths of an inch of runout around the tire, sand won't work.
 

bearboley

New member
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Location
Circleville Ohio
I would think that spin balancing would be the only option for duece tires but finding a shop that does it anymore is difficult, the method that works the best is spinning the wheel while it is on the truck. That balances tire, wheel, drum and hub all together. In the past few years with tubeless radials on the big trucks I have been using the balancing rings that go behind the wheel when bolted to the truck they work very well but they are pricey and I've only seen them for 10 lug budds.
 

peashooter

Well-known member
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205
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Location
Hanover, minnesota
Home Made Wheel / Tire Balancer

I noticed some of the new wheels I bought this summer were balanced from the factory (had lead weights stuck to the inside of the rim, but some didnt. I want them to last as long as possible so I wanted to check the ones without weights to see if the balance was okay.
I couldnt find anyone in the area (including large truck shops) that were able to balance the wheels I have. The wheels weigh almost 500 lbs each and the shops that could handle the 46" diameter, couldnt handle the weight. Anyway I decided to build a simple balancer. I bought a takeout hub assembly for $10, and then machined some endplates for it, pressed bearings in and slid a shaft through it. So far I have just used a jack stand on one side and then jacked up the other side so the wheel is off the ground, the heavy portion of the wheel eventually settles at the bottom and I'll just attache the stick on lead weights to the opposite side until things are about even. It works really good (although I havent attached the weights yet). The Hub wasnt even balanced at first so just the hub by itself would spin back and fourth until it finally rested with the heavy portion on the bottom. I'll add some weight to the other side to even that out. I figure it took some time to make, but easily paid for itself with what it would have cost to balance just 1 tire (assuming I could have even found a place to do it).
 

Attachments

wb9btz

Member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Location
Rochelle, IL
Nice setup you made there! That's the way they did it "back in the day" -before spin balancing machines came along. I've been thinking about how to balance my A3's 14.5 Michelins with all that CTIS stuff and this should make them about as balanced as one can get them. Unless, of course, I can find a shop that can/will do it for me.
 

gringeltaube

Staff Member
Super Moderator
Moderator
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Montevideo/Uruguay
....... I'll just attache the stick on lead weights to the opposite side until things are about even. It works really good (although I havent attached the weights yet)......
Good job so far!
Need some ideas as how to make your own weights? Or how to best hold them in place?...;-)
See it here...


G.
 

peashooter

Well-known member
1,038
205
63
Location
Hanover, minnesota
Hey Thanks for the info/link Gringeltaube. Yes, I'd prefer to make my own.... or rather I'd prefer not to pay for "weight". Lead has actually gotten somewhat tough to come by around here now days. Lots of folks got into Ammo reloading & bullet molding after it started getting difficult to find ammo on the shelves. Cant just go to the tire shops and ask for their old weights anymore since someone will have beat you to it!
 

Jasongantt

New member
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1
Location
Louisiana
Just checking to see how your balancing job worked out from way back. I have some new never used Mrap wheel assemblies with 395s and adapters on my bobbed duece, at 55 it tends to bounce like a wheel or two are un-balanced. I was considering the same thing you did but on the truck. Figure i could just pop the axles and caps off and balance the entire wheel, hub and everything on each axle. What you think?
 

peashooter

Well-known member
1,038
205
63
Location
Hanover, minnesota
Just checking to see how your balancing job worked out from way back. I have some new never used Mrap wheel assemblies with 395s and adapters on my bobbed duece, at 55 it tends to bounce like a wheel or two are un-balanced. I was considering the same thing you did but on the truck. Figure i could just pop the axles and caps off and balance the entire wheel, hub and everything on each axle. What you think?
you could probably get it slightly balanced that way but the stiction of the grease and tightened bearings would probably prevent it from moving very freely. It would certainly be a simple thing to try. Your tire pressure might be too high if it’s bouncing also. I cant remember what I had for front tp with my 395s but it was probably around 40psi, too much and I had bouncing also.
 
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