Beadlock Education

[WILDHOBO]

So I’m switching to Beadlocks. It’s not my daily driver, but it will see road travel. I’ll definitely use thread locker on the bolts, and I’ll check them super often. The wheels are Battle Born Sierras. They’re lightly used, but I purchased all new bolts from Battle Born.

My question is about balancing. I’m not a bead fan, not that I’ve used them. So I’ll try to have an open mind if that’s the best option. I’m mounting them myself, and do my own rotations. Do people take them to tire shops to have weights put on? Is balancing just ignored? From those of you with extensive headlock experience, please let me know how to handle this. Thanks.

Sponsored

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

No first hand experience but from my research many will use balance beads. Many tire shops have issues even touching a beadlock because they don’t want any kind of liability. Maybe an off-road shop would take it in though.

When I go to them I’ll be using Counter Act beads mostly because the allure of beadlocks for me is capability but also the fact that I can do absolutely everything myself without needing a tire shop.

Whichever way you go I’d highly advise not to go with the no balance approach. There’s already stress on the components with larger tires. No need to accentuate that with an out of balance tire.

 

[WILDHOBO]

No first hand experience but from my research many will use balance beads. Many tire shops have issues even touching a beadlock because they don’t want any kind of liability. Maybe an off-road shop would take it in though.

When I go to them I’ll be using Counter Act beads mostly because the allure of beadlocks for me is capability but also the fact that I can do absolutely everything myself without needing a tire shop.

Whichever way you go I’d highly advise not to go with the no balance approach. There’s already stress on the components with larger tires. No need to accentuate that with an out of balance tire.

Very good point. That’s a big allure for me. Just have tires delivered to the house and swap them myself. So amazing.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Ok. After doing some reading, it seems like the bad results are due to people using too little weight in beads, and/or using some diy alternative like airsoft to save money. So I’m sold that beads are the right solution.

It seems like the rule of thumb is 1 oz of beads per 13 pounds of tire. With my 79ln tires, that would call for 6 ounces, so I’ll probably throw in 8 per tire. I don’t think two ounces will hurt anything, and they’ll likely balance better. Thoughts?

And what manufacturer do people like?

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

Here ya go.

https://counteractbalancing.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2021-Off-Road-Chart.pdf

 

[WILDHOBO]

Here ya go.

https://counteractbalancing.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2021-Off-Road-Chart.pdf

Is that the number of ounces?

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

Yes. They sell them in pre weighed packages so you just reference this chart for the size of yours or yours plus 1 and order 1 packet for each tire you need to balance. I saw a suggestion of getting a very small shop vac kind of thing so you can vacuum them out when you change tires to reuse them. Use it only for balance beads and treat it with anti-static before use.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Is that the number of ounces?

They say 14oz for a 37.

 

[Jteakus]

I always mount them up and see how they drive first. I would also skip the thread locker and use anti-seize. Independent auto shops will have no problem balancing your bead lock wheels. Others like Discount Tire will run you off like you have the plague. Summit sells this cool little torque stick making bolt checks a breeze.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-996005-15

As far as balance beads, read this,
https://www.[Banned Site]/threads/love-hate-balance-beads-–-what-i’ve-learned.15860/#google_vignette

 

[Jteakus]

I guess when they say "banned site", they mean it, Here is the summary

After extensive research on balancing techniques, it became clear to me that some praise and swear by balancing beads while others think they are a total waste of time and money.

In the midst of all my reading, I formulated an opinion that many that hadn’t had success might not have used an appropriate amount. Since balancing beads are always moving to offset the imbalance in a tire, you can never really have too many, yet too little will never work. The bottom line is I decided to give them a go when I purchased my new 37s. Since I wanted to keep my TPMS and often air-down, I selected the Off-Road Dyna Beads that are a larger bead. I consulted with Innovative Balancing on the appropriate amount of weight per tire and purchased five 10oz bags.

I found that the actual installation of these beads is a bit of a PITA when using narrow traditional wheels. These beads are to be poured in and while the directions stress to keep them out of the tire lube it is near impossible to do so. If you were using wider rims it would be better, but really the only way this can be accomplished without some beads touching the tire lube would be with bead-locks.

Once the install was done, I hit the road and my first impressions were not so good. In fact, they were pretty bad. But, as I mentioned, I did have some beads get into the lube so I was hoping maybe some were stuck and would free up once the lube dried. The following morning I had to take the rears off to better trim the pinch seam and as I moved the tires about my shop I could clearly hear the beads moving and they sounded free. Optimism began to grow but was extinguished quickly on the next test drive. The only way I was able to make the balance even sub-par was to white-knuckle it to 70MPH and then slow down to an appropriate speed of 55 on my country test roads. When cornering I could actually feel the beads move and cause instability. On two occasions this wouldn’t settle until I came to a complete stop and restarted.

Before I sucked the $120 in beads into a shop vac I called Innovative Balancing again for a consult. This time I spoke with another person which I later learned was the owner. This resulted in a fairly lengthy conversation where, after I told them what I was experiencing, they said the beads alone wouldn’t work for me. Before I get into the details, I would like to express my dissatisfaction with the fact that I was not informed of the possible balancing inadequacies when I called to discuss my application the first time. They also were unwilling to refund even a portion of my purchase on a product I was unable to use.

So if you’re still with me, here is the skinny:
The balancing with beads “technology”, if you can call it that, was developed for over the road truck tires. These tires have a bunch of tread weight variance, but the sidewalls are pretty consistent and have little variance. This created an up/down imbalance as the tire rotates and the beads work very well at correcting this type of imbalance. Unfortunately, most off-road tires DO have a bunch of tread on the sidewall and therefore have sidewall weight imperfections. This not only creates an up/down imbalance but also a side-to-side imbalance that beads can never correct for as centrifugal force is pulling the beads away from where they would need to be.

My tires had a severe amount of lateral (side-to-side) imbalance and, if anything, the beads made the whole thing worse. According to Innovative Balancing there is a procedure to use traditional weights in combination with the beads, but this requires a balancer that can spin a tire very fast and for a long time. Unless you find a shop that is still using really old equipment very few balancers still do this. Besides, if I am going to rely on traditional weights what is the point in the beads?

I ended up sucking the beads out of the tires and doing a traditional balance. And after driving several hundred miles with them balanced this way I have NO noticeable vibration. I am quite pleased actually. I accept that this is something that I will have to keep an eye on and likely have to have redone.

The reason I posted this is I think it gives some insight to why some love and some hate beads. I still like the idea of beads. If I were to rip off a lug, or have tires full of crud, the beads (in theory) should adapt to this change. But in practice they didn’t work for me. I wish there was a cut-and-dry list of tires that they will or won’t work with but to the best of my knowledge there isn’t. It seems to be a hit-and-miss thing even amongst the same type tire. I know two guys that I wheel with that have had VERY good experiences with the same beads that failed me. All I can say is if you are going to try them, you should be prepared for the possibility of them not working.

As a side note, if you drive on a bunch of 25-45MPH roads the beads will likely disappoint you, even on an ideal application as the tires haven’t spun up fast enough to get the beads where they need to be. (An imbalanced 37 gets a pretty good bounce at 30MPH.)

Anyway, this is what I learned, hopefully it helps you. Happy Jeepin’, and I hope to see you on the trail.

 

[Jteakus]

I'll add that I have over 40K miles on my JT and 90K miles on my JL with the tires bead locked, never a problem.
Best of luck to you sir.

 

[WILDHOBO]

I'll add that I have over 40K miles on my JT and 90K miles on my JL with the tires bead locked, never a problem.
Best of luck to you sir.

Thanks. So you’re just traditionally balancing them? The slow speed thing makes sense that it wouldn’t work as well.

 

[Jteakus]

Yessir, balance like a normal setup.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Yessir, balance like a normal setup.

I’m glad I started this thread instead of just guessing. I’m excited to learn the beadlock stuff. I can’t wait to not need tire shops. Of course I guess I might still need them to balance. Crap.

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

I’m glad I started this thread instead of just guessing. I’m excited to learn the beadlock stuff. I can’t wait to not need tire shops. Of course I guess I might still need them to balance. Crap.

Helps my edumication as well so good thread to start. I’ll try the beads to start when I eventually get beadlocks. In the mean time I’ll drop in on a couple off-road shops and see who can or will balance them for me when the time comes.

Sponsored