balancing 37" and 36" hummer tires.. not working out

[84cucv1ton]

im thinking about the powder or bbs... thanks i can get the bbs real cheap from a friend

 

[Katavic918]

I have never heard of the powder until this thread and after some research I'm very interested in trying it. Do I need to break the tire down to install it or can I unscrew the valve stem and add it that way? This is for hmmwv wheels with 37's. Thanks for any help.

 

[Truckoholic]

Some tire shops like Les Schwabb on the west side of the country have a device where they can feed it in through the valve stem. But if they are in the process of mounting a tire anyway, they will sometimes just open the bag and pour the contents into the tire before mounting it to the rim. Without that special pump though, it would be pretty difficult and take a lot of time to try to feed it in through the valve stem.

I have never heard of the powder until this thread and after some research I'm very interested in trying it. Do I need to break the tire down to install it or can I unscrew the valve stem and add it that way? This is for hmmwv wheels with 37's. Thanks for any help.

 

[Katavic918]

I wasn't thinking about feeding through the valve stem itself. On my wheel it looks like there are 2 parts. One is a fitting that goes through the wheel and is held in by a nut on the inside of the wheel. The other is a 1/2" threaded fitting which screws into that. I was thinking that by removing the 1/2" fitting it should allow me a slow but possible installation of the powder. However having no knowledge of the consistency of the powder I could be wrong.

 

[Truckoholic]

It is a very fine powder almost like powdered sugar if I recall correctly. So it flows pretty good, and with a little funnel, you should be able to do that fairly quickly.

 

[Katavic918]

Awesome. Thanks for the info.

 

[Chaski]

You can pour ceramic beads in the valve stem if you have some time on your hands. Still faster then breaking down the wheel. I have about 8oz a tire in mine. If you want to go into full blown production I'd get a hair dye squeeze bottle (like a miniature ketchup bottle) and a short length of tygon tube and a threaded nipple to connect to the valve stem fitting (once you unscrew the entire Schrader fitting). Never tried it but I am tempted to get a palm sander and hold it against the bottle and tube, it seems like the ceramic balls would flow better if they were getting some vibratory action. It is painfully slow without...

Other thing to think about is that the balance beads won't do much if it is out of round. I battled my ride getting beat to death right round highway speed. I tried more balance beads, using Centramatic balancers, swapping tires, swapping wheels, pulling hair... None of that worked, I tossed my cheap lift kit shocks in the trash and put on some Bilstein shocks. Problem solved. On a CUCV you have a large amount of unsprung weight, the front axle weighs about 550 pounds by itself, add heavy HMMWV tires and wheels and you may want to consider some Bilstein 5125 shocks of the right length for you.

 

[Sharecropper]

I am using CentroMatic balancers between each wheel and hub and my ride is smooth as silk. The advantage of the Centro's is you can swap them from vehicle-to-vehicle if necessary. I ran the ceramic beads in my 11.00/20's and experienced a rough ride getting up to speed and then coming back down to stop. Once at a constant highway speed they worked great, but getting up and coming down was no so smooth. Not having that issue with the CentroMatic's.

 

[86m1028]

buy centrematic tire balancers = done

Yeah I've got a set that are junk !!!
The beads "locked up" in them & they won't warranty them.
They were "just out" of warranty !!!
Over priced CRAP !

Go with the powder & just be sure to clean the inside of the tires & wheels real good 1st.

 

[Skinny]

I have Centramatic balancers and I like them even though they are $$$. Sorry to hear yours don't work anymore.

I'll always advocate that the surplus 37's are not what they are cracked up to be. Everyone is quick to say how great of a deal they are, wear resistant, and work well with the 4.56 gears. Yes...and they suck to balance, most are very old, and run square after being neglected over that time.

My money is going to a 315/75/16 and being done with those 16.5's. Hopefully my HMMWV sized Centramatics fit inside the smaller rim!

 

[Katavic918]

So after much tire swapping and researching balancing ideas I think I figured out what happened. When I first got my truck with 37" wrangler m/t's on it, I remember the ride being great. I started playing with tire pressures and started noticing balance issues. During this time I put a different pair of tires on and continued increasing pressures on the advice of others. At 40psi front and 35 rear the ride was horrible. I dropped back to 25psi all around and 90% of my issues went away. I suspect that my tires are probably flat spotted and by increasing pressures I was exacerbating the problem. I understand this has nothing to do with balancing tires I just wanted to share in case it might help someone.

Edit: by "the ride was horrible" I mean that it felt like a bad balance issue.

 

[DirtyDave]

I'm going to pull the run flats out of mine and dump in some airsoft pellets

 

[Special T]

Here are a few important points on the hummer tires. First off all the goo on the inside needs to be cleaned out. Best done with hot water. The goo closely resembles Tire mounting soap. I would use a product like Tire Life, or antifreeze. I have used antifreeze on my old 36" bias hummer tires that were weather cracked and leaking air. It swelled up the inner line and stopped the leak while balancing the tires. Equal powder only works well on a DRY tire. Additionally it works best in dry climates so if you live in the south and or don't use a air dryer on your compressor then it will start to clump and not be effective.
The tires balance out ok on standard drop center wheels once cleaned and if you use the run flats probably won't. If you use pvc inserts instead of the run flats on the bolt together wheels that will help some. They don't weigh as much and keep the weight closer to the base of the wheel. When balancing more weight is required at the rim than the tread face. That is why the powder is popular, also there aren't any wheel weights to fall off.