So I bought Justine's alloy wheels, which are nine pounds lighter per wheel as compared to my older 8" steel Rockcrawler wheels. This reduces my unsprung mass and rolling resistance. This translates into better acceleration, which I immediately felt. I had my Swamper Trxus MTs mounted and balanced and took out them out the highway. They were worse than on the steel wheels. These tires are great off-road, but are nortoriosly difficult to balance for highway use. It then doned on me that the heavier steel wheel was 'cancelling out' the out of roundness of the tire even with tire weights on.
I called a few tire bead suppliers and did some research and spoke to a guy in Windsor ON who was very knowledge. I ordered 5 - 8 oz bags of 2mm ceramic beads and installed a bag each in my front two tires last week. I drove up to Duncan and guess what - smooth riding up front. Some of the tire guys said I wasting my money. I have installed the other bags and I will report back after the Chilcotin trip as to the effect of doing all 4 wheels. I removed all the tire weights after putting in the beads.
I found out many motorcycles, ATVs and RVs are using beads, most reporting success at balancing 'hard to balance' tires. The larger 2 mm bead is recommended for off-road tires, some of which have internally ribbing, which interfere with the functioning of the bead. Finner beads are used for smaller tires. Another advantage is that as the tire picks up rocks on gravel roads the beads adjust and will keep the tire balanced. At rest they sit on the bottom, when you begin to move they are equally distributed arond the inside. When a heavy spot in the tire goes up, the beads resist this movement. As the oscilataions get smaller the beads settle in to a point of counterbalance, say cruising on pavement. This reduces tire vibration and the beads stay more or less fixed in position. Beads the spinning tire 'does not need' are equally distributed at 9:00 and 3:00 within the tire. Testimonials from truckers are reporting longer tire.
Will keep you posted.
I called a few tire bead suppliers and did some research and spoke to a guy in Windsor ON who was very knowledge. I ordered 5 - 8 oz bags of 2mm ceramic beads and installed a bag each in my front two tires last week. I drove up to Duncan and guess what - smooth riding up front. Some of the tire guys said I wasting my money. I have installed the other bags and I will report back after the Chilcotin trip as to the effect of doing all 4 wheels. I removed all the tire weights after putting in the beads.
I found out many motorcycles, ATVs and RVs are using beads, most reporting success at balancing 'hard to balance' tires. The larger 2 mm bead is recommended for off-road tires, some of which have internally ribbing, which interfere with the functioning of the bead. Finner beads are used for smaller tires. Another advantage is that as the tire picks up rocks on gravel roads the beads adjust and will keep the tire balanced. At rest they sit on the bottom, when you begin to move they are equally distributed arond the inside. When a heavy spot in the tire goes up, the beads resist this movement. As the oscilataions get smaller the beads settle in to a point of counterbalance, say cruising on pavement. This reduces tire vibration and the beads stay more or less fixed in position. Beads the spinning tire 'does not need' are equally distributed at 9:00 and 3:00 within the tire. Testimonials from truckers are reporting longer tire.
Will keep you posted.
