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New 15.5x20 Michelins Beating The Crap Out of Me!

tennmogger

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MilitaryRestoration, I'm interested in "why they do that". I run 14.5 x 20 Michelin XL's on my U1300 Unimog (14,000 lbs as in daily use) and run 45 psi. These tires were military surplus and were not very round. After trying from 20 oz to 34 oz of Dynabeads in them and partially solving the 'bounce', I trued them, had them balanced with real lead weights (max was only 10 oz per tire), and now they run pretty good up to 70 mph. I also regrooved them an additional 1/4" while I was at it.

Hint for adding the beads into tubeless tires with rubber stems: deflate then push in the stem with a homemade cable retainer attached to the cap. Pour in the beads then pull the stem back out into place. Lubricant and adding some air pressure behind the stem will greatly help popping them back into the wheel. I also did this with steel stems but success will depend on if the retaining nuts can be removed without spinning the stem. Hint, leave air pressure in the tire until the nuts are removed and the threads are cleaned up.

The tires don't have to come off the truck or be debeaded to add the Dynabeads!

Bottom line based on my experience, Dynabeads are great for an out of balance tire but the physics cannot work on out of round tires.

See [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq263AYgyYg[/media] to watch how the beads work.

Got my beads from Inovative Balancing and they were great people while working the tire issues!

BTW, my 14.5 x 20's are on 11 inch wheels and tend to wear in the centers if pressure is any higher. With 15.5's on 10" wheel you might even have to go much lower than 45. I personally would 'tune' the air pressure based on contact pressure/pattern on the flat ground. Rear pressures will undoubtedly need to be lower than the fronts unless you are heavily loaded.

Tennmogger
 
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unimoger

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I have those beads in my new tubeless tires and make a difference in the long run. I ran NATO tread tires(tubed) without the beads and wore uneven after putting milage on them.:|
 

Alex400

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airsoft pellets, golf balls, BB's (balancing on the cheap)
don't know about the golf balls :razz:

Some dirt bikers were putting old tennis balls in there tires for a while. of course that completely removed the air from the tires and relied on the tennis balls for support. little different but it was cheaper than buying tubes all the time.
 

vinny-socom1

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I ran 65psi in mine and it was rough around 35-45mph then smoothed out--I drop the psi to 50 in the frt and 35 in the rear...SMOOTH like a babys butt....

Vinny
 

MilitaryRestoration

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ok... so 1 out of every 3 or 4 tires i get out of the piles that are 15.5/80-20's have slight flat spots on the tread itself.... It is really hard to see and find but they are there and that is the reason they go to surplus. I could not figure it out for the life of me why I couldn't get my tires to balance and then i started finding the flat spots as my eye got more tuned to looking for it.. it is really hard to see i can't stress that but they do.. they get flat spots on one maybe two of the center pads... i dont know why maybe dry steering... i dunno but thats the secret
 

yorkgulch2

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Idaho Springs, CO
I put about 28 oz of Truegoo in each of my 395/85r20's. It seems to work pretty well and balances well at 60 mph. Am running 50lb of air. They have a kit to put it down the valve stem The rockcrawlers around here use it with good luck both for balancing and leak stop.
 

Beerslayer

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hey beerslayer.. by chance where did the tires come from and you can pm if you dont want to post pubically, but I may have a good explanation as to why your tires may be doing that... and it may not be fixable... :-/ let me know
The tires were new from GL, as in never mounted, new old stock with 2004 date code. They didn't have any flat spots but thanks for the heads up, I will watch for that. I guess when you buy used tires you have to accept the possibility that they are not perfect. They have not been balanced as of yet.

I just got back from a 500 mile round trip. For half the trip I had 50 lb TP and 4000 lbs payload. The truck seemed to bounce at 50 MPH or so but was a bit better at 60+ MPH. It depended a lot on road conditions. On concrete parts of I-5 it really shook the heck out of me. Other nice asphalt stretches, smooth as can be.

On the trip back, unloaded with 40 lb TP it still shook some at lower speeds [50 MPH] but it was not as bad. I have yet to try 35lb TP but that looks like an option.
 

Beerslayer

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ahh so you are the one who bought those expensive tires :) :-/ Wish knew, could've sold you some much much more cheaper.
Would they have flat spots? :razz:

I thought the price was pretty good for new tires.

Dang, there are a lot of those up for sale. I might just have to buy a lot and make some new centers myself.
Maybe you can use the centers out of your old Deuce wheels.
 

Beerslayer

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Tualatin, Oregon
Oh, just welded to the inner half, huh? I haven't seen the wheels, but wouldn't have guessed that would be strong enough. I guess they are 5-tons...

Are those yours? Where did you get them?
Eggzachary!

They are mine, figure those wheels are made for a lot heavier truck than a Deuce. I bought them from Clint, and his service and product was great. You can buy them through his ebay store or PM me for his contact info.
 
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