• Welcome to The Truck Stop! We see you haven't REGISTERED yet.

    Your truck knowledge is missing!
    • Registration is FREE , all we need is your birthday and email. (We don't share ANY data with ANYONE)
    • We have tons of knowledge here for your diesel truck!
    • Post your own topics and reply to existing threads to help others out!
    • NO ADS! The site is fully functional and ad free!
    CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

    Problems registering? Click here to contact us!

    Already registered, but need a PASSWORD RESET? CLICK HERE TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD!

Balancing beads

SnowDrift

SnowDrift

Ultra Conservative. ULTRA!
Messages
3,228
Reaction score
4,213
Location
Central Ohio map dot
I use these in my truck tires, which has 285/75R16 tires on it.

Will these affect the TPMS sensors? One company I see claims theirs are the only ones that do not.

It looks like a 65 aspect ratio tire is the max. No 60s or lower.

Any experience with this? Will the beads destroy the sensors? I'm new to this sort of thing, but my wife's 2005 Suburban we just got has this to deal with. I love the beads for balancing, but I'm not sure I can use them in her tires.
 
https://www.balancemasters.com

Once tpms is in there, I don't run anything I the tire. I've done the water in the tire trick, ball bearings in the tire. You name it.

What size are your size tires -you should be able to just get a regular balance. If not then spend then money and get the ones above that work the best with no side effect. They stabalized jacked up 37-40" tires weighing over 150 lbs.
 
I wouldn't chance it myself if it was mine. Have you tried a road force balance yet? It brings an arm over to simulate the tire running on the road, and balances it with the load on it to also account for runout while balancing.
 
If you can get a good price on it, $50, I agree with Thefermanator.

But no way would I pay $100-$150 a set for it. Balancing your tires is good for 10,000 miles. As the rubber wears away, the tires will be out of balance again, and maybe worse because of the weights you added the last time.

Even If $100 every 10,000 miles- in 40,000 miles you would have paid for the balance masters. They last forever. Sell the truck, keep them and put them on the next truck.
(Mine are $400 for 4 from Cepek GT, but I've seen them as high as $575- I didn't check price on yours).

It's proven technology, do the research and your hooked on everything except the painful price. You never have to balance a tire again, and get more miles from the tires compared to mounted weight system. It's like a fluidamper for your tire. The only reason semi fleets are going to in tire beads instead of these is the marketing by the head companies. They don't mention that the big 4 trucking companies they advertise as using them in thousands of semis- they give it to them free for advertising rights.

The beads work on the same principle, but not quite as well. My hummer tires are 150+ lbs= 37 X 12.50x 16.5
It takes 5 lbs of beads for my tires. The balance masters weight is 1.8 lbs- and work better. They have the patent, there are a few knock offs. Nothing is better. You just have to look at cost of balancing tires over the years to figure of its worth it to you.
 
Her tires are 285/70R17

I've not heard of the road force balance, but that seems interesting, after I looked it up. I don't know of a shop around that does this, but there is probably one in the big city about an hour south of us.

I'm not sure the balancemasters are for me. I've only ever found it necessary to have one tire rebalanced through its life and that was a car tire that threw a weight. It was a 225/60R16 on our last Grand Prix. The price is what is going to keep me away from those.

The guy that mounted my tires for my truck just dumped a bag of beads in and was done. It's smooth as can be, so I don't have anything bad to say about them, so far.

I've seen a guy that put his pressure monitors in a little ABS air canister. I'm starting to warm up to this idea.

I've heard the batteries only last 5-6 years in the monitors, so that's another downside for me. We don't put that many miles on her truck, to begin with, so if I have to dismount the tires every few years, just to replace a sensor that I don't need anyhow, it just puts an even worse taste in my mouth.
 
I'm looking for a way to disable the TPMS on my truck too. So far it requires a scanner or a in at a dealer.
 
dealer, here, said they don't have the ability to do this at all. If you learn otherwise, let me know. Doing it digitally would be handier than carrying a pipe around all the time.
 
SnowDrift said:
dealer, here, said they don't have the ability to do this at all. If you learn otherwise, let me know. Doing it digitally would be handier than carrying a pipe around all the time.
Click to expand...

Not sure if GM has the same ability as Ford, but I know with my truck the dealer can reprogram the TPMS to trigger at any PSI. However it is a huge liability for the dealer to be messing with a "safety feature". That is why most wont do it, unless you have an in.

Not a fan of the pipe bomb method lol. My truck triggers the light at anything below 65 PSI, and I'm currently at 25-35 PSI due to oversize tires on scrawny rims.

Honestly surprised more companies haven't created a tuner/calibrator just for the TPMS system for buyers. I could see a large market for them if the price isn't ridiculous.

My truck has the band style sensors in the OEM 20's.
 
There is diagnostic tools to do it from Mac, Snap-on, Launch etc. The problem is the cost of making the scanner, and loading information on all the vehicles, and software to have bidirectional communication is not cheap. Since the same capabilities are in place in the top level scanners, that's where it's controlled from. You just need to drop 4-5k on it and your good, then update every year or two for a couple hundred bucks for the newest car logic. Most top end systems run 10 years, then sell it to a backyard mechanic for $200, and start over. I sold them to half of the big-o and fires tones shops here when I was the Mac guy when these came out. They have since almost all quit doing it because the lawsuits that came around. Now you juse pay the tire shop, the increased rate to correct it.
The key is bidirectional control, that has can bus capacity, the electronics is fairly elaborate and labor intensive programming. An "affordable one" is like asking for a gaming laptop being made affordable under $100 for kids. What diagnostic tool do you have now, you might be able to add it in?

Yes any dealership can, and they just won't. It's like asking them to dos able airbags or abs.

So it's pay the few shops that still make the expensive gamble that people will pay, Or, take them out and let the dash light remain on. Hence the "pipe". Most truck guys around wire tie it to the inside of the frame. If you use electrical pvc, the grey stuff, it is uv resistant and will last decades.

Funniest part is, the legislation that mandated them was done so for semi trucks to all run them. It was adopted into fed law, then the big rig companies fought it showing the cost was to inhibiting so semis and medium duty commercial weight vehicles were then exempted.

Yeah, balance masters aren't for everybody. As long as your ride is good and you get full life from your tire. It's funny to me though when people don't get good tire life and don't get why. I had guys make fun of me for adding ballast to my BFG's and high quality shocks. when they got 30,000 miles and I got over 50,000 and they don't get why.
 
Last edited:
LEGAL LIABILITY/LAWSUITS I swhy you will not see a system to disable the TPMS system. GM can change the pressure at which it alarms within a certain amount for people that change tires to say heavier tires, or different rims with low profiles that run at say lower pressure, but it is only a certain amount they can go. A piece of tape over the warning light is about your only option, but that won't stop the DIC message.
 
I guess I'm just that crazy nutjob type of guy that checks tire pressure and then I get even wilder and crazier when I add air when necessary. A rebel lawbreaker, I am, and against the grain I go.

...ssshhhh... don't tell anyone, but the daytime running lights are burned out on our Suburban and I'm not planning to replace them.

I'm wacked, I know, but it's great! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
 
THEFERMANATOR said:
LEGAL LIABILITY/LAWSUITS I swhy you will not see a system to disable the TPMS system. GM can change the pressure at which it alarms within a certain amount for people that change tires to say heavier tires, or different rims with low profiles that run at say lower pressure, but it is only a certain amount they can go. A piece of tape over the warning light is about your only option, but that won't stop the DIC message.
Click to expand...

Correct, but that's the problem is any company that changes the pressure setting is who takes final liability. That's why most dealerships will not do it, unless you're buying the rims and tires from them. Liability without profit is not their interest. Usually the ma and pa shops selling 28" rims are the only ones that do it now.

Safety Sally got elected somehow.
 
I use the Centramatic's and love them, when I drove otr I tried every snake oil trick out their and found the centramatic's well out did the others and never wear out... the beads will wear the inside of the tire and it won't be worth caping, but that doesn't apply here does it.. cost wasn't bad for a one time thing either @ 175$ per axle.
 
Centramatics are good also. There the best knockoff one there is. And more affordable. They use little bearings (some types use steel, others plastic) that run around the ring. The balance masters use two types of oil and Mercury in a puncture proof bladder.

The only 2 drawbacks to centramatics is they make some noise at slow speeds, and with a quite engine you here a swishing sound. Once in a while one will get a pinhole, and start to rust inside. The then the bearings hang up- but that's pretty rare.
 
I used balance beads in my last set of tires. I got over 80K on General Grabber HTS tires. The insides of the tires were like brand new. The beads do not do any damage at all. Use them with confidence.
I am not sure with the TPMS. I do not have any experience with them, as my truck does not have them.
 
RI Chevy Silveradoman said:
I used balance beads in my last set of tires. I got over 80K on General Grabber HTS tires. The insides of the tires were like brand new. The beads do not do any damage at all. Use them with confidence.
I am not sure with the TPMS. I do not have any experience with them, as my truck does not have them.
Click to expand...
Do you happen to remember which beads you used? Thinking about putting some beads in mine when I pull the tire to clean the rim(my PYO'S corroded on the bead, and leak since I put new tires on).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top