3 Golf Balls in Tire

[Diesel&Donuts]

Here's a recent topic in RV.net.



http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/18713998.cfm



It has to do with putting 3 golf balls in the tire for balancing, from our good neighbors in Canada.

Harold

 

[bmoeller]

Don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

[Nate]

They are on crack.



Golf Balls in tires doesn't work guys. It destroys the inside of the tire. Trust me, I worked in a tire shop and saw a few tires that someone had done this.



Shoot, I got one tire in that a lazy tire guy from before had left 2 or 3 small rocks in the tire. maybe 3/4" in size and that ate the inside of the tire even. The customer came to get their winter tires put on and I ended up throwing out that tire because it was worn into the cords on the inside.

 

[CumminsBu]

Like the little beads they put in tires. I think the beads are better then the golf balls.

www.innovativebalancing.com/

 

[cojhl2]

Those beads suck!!! I had to air a steer axle tire that had those beads in it and had one heck of a time to get the valve core to seal. Those pesky beads kept getting in the way. .

 

[Nate]

They sell special valve cores that have a "filter" on the end that stops that from happening.



I run the beads in the TSLs on my Jeep, and they really don't work that good. Might be ok on the "street" tire though. I had spun one of the tires up on the balancer before I got the beads and it needed ~20oz to balance it

 

[jelag]

When I used to work in the tire industry you'd often find some tires that would shed some soft rubber tubeless liner and turn it into balls inside the tire..... these would roll around from the size of a marble to a golf ball... . you could always tell there was a problem with these tires as you could never get them to balance on a balancer..... the same with water in a tire..... it would never settle and would make the tire out of balance... .



Think about this for a minute... . as you change speeds, what ever is in the tires is now going faster or slower for a short amount of time than the tire itself... this alone means it out of balance and will shake...



Like mentioned above, put nothing in the tire... .

 

[starkmr]

What moron came up with this idea in the first place???? I mean, yeah it works but the damage to the inside of the tire, not to mention the liability if you have a blow out and cause a wreck because of the flying golf balls. Have you ever been hit by one of those things???

 

[DGStrate]

At the risk of being in the minority here, I have used both CounterAct and Innovative balancing beads (CounterAct on BFG 315s and Innovative on Cooper STTs) and they have performed flawlessly... As the tires wear, they often change balancing characteristics (I had my old truck's 285 BFGs balanced 3 or 4 times in their lifespan). The beads, since they are not balanced in a fixed position, move to where they are required to balance out the tire.



After over 25k miles on the BFG 315s, the insides of the tires looked like new - I still have the tires, and will show them to anyone who doesn't believe it...



So - for about $5/tire and a lifetime balance, I am a firm believer in the beads.



NOTE: Neither CounterAct or Innovative have the requirement to use "dried" air as the Equal product (also beads) required. Maybe the newer Equal does not require "dried" air... ?



NOTE 2: I _did_ put in the filtered valve stems to avoid beads causing valve stem leaks - a great investment for less than a $1 each...

 

[R C Cola]

Golf Balls ?

Sounds like most have not actually tried this. I have put almost 200k on tires containing golf balls. Notice my sig I now run centramatics. I tried 3 and 4 and 5 balls per tire over a period of 2 years. 5 worked best due to a better spread potential and more total weight available. It does work fairly well and better than weights on the outside of tire. If left in too long the outside of the balls wear out and the balls become "not round anymore" and as you know from dice non round does not roll well, they bounce. Also every bump on the road makes them bounce up off the tire, and there are lots of bumps on US hiways. Any time the ball is not rolling on the tire and is in the air no balance is taking place for that ball. As a test I paid a shop to spin the tire while on the truck. We could tell easily low speed very poor balance, mid-speed pretty good, and high speed (about 70 mph) not as good. The tires were still showing some sign of wear so removed them and put on the centramatics. R C

 

[Dieselnerd]

I used balancing beads on my previous CTD and they worked well for me. Took out all the vibration.



On my '05 I now run Centramatics and they work great too.

 

[Todd T]

I've been doing it for years in OTR truck tires. We use three new golf balls for each steer tire.



They come out without their dimples but do balance the tire out real nice. Never seen the inside of the carcass damaged from them either.

 

[proflow]

5 lb box of nails works for me. --Proflow

 

[vegasredneck]

Just like toddt said. When we ran the OTR trucks we always threw three in the tires from the steer back &they worked fine never had a tire grenade but did loose a skin or two. I wouldn't put them in a street tire though. I think they would drive you nuts at slow speeds rattling around. On the OTR you never really heard them.

 

[Wade Ritch]

Don't see why it wouldn't work.

IT DOES. I RUN A PETERBILT 379 EXT HOOD PULLING A 53FT CATTLE TRAILER AND THE MAN I WORKED FOR HAD BEEN DOING THIS FOR 45YRS. THREE NEW GOLF BALLS IN EVERY STEER TIRE. I CANT WRAP MY SIMPLE MIND AROUND IT. BUT I CAN TELL YOU IVE DRIVEN MANY ROAD MILES ON A SEMI AND THAT WAS THE MOST PERFECTLY BALANCED STEER TIRES I'D EVER WITNESSED. THATS A FACT!

WADE

 

[AH64ID]

IT DOES. I RUN A PETERBILT 379 EXT HOOD PULLING A 53FT CATTLE TRAILER AND THE MAN I WORKED FOR HAD BEEN DOING THIS FOR 45YRS. THREE NEW GOLF BALLS IN EVERY STEER TIRE. I CANT WRAP MY SIMPLE MIND AROUND IT. BUT I CAN TELL YOU IVE DRIVEN MANY ROAD MILES ON A SEMI AND THAT WAS THE MOST PERFECTLY BALANCED STEER TIRES I'D EVER WITNESSED. THATS A FACT!

WADE

Wow this is an old thread!! No need to use all caps, unless you want it to look like you're yelling.

 

[Wade Ritch]

Wow this is an old thread!! No need to use all caps, unless you want it to look like you're yelling.

WHEN YOUR EYES ARE BAD AS MINE ALL CAPS IS MUCH EASIER TO READ. IF I WANTED TO YELL I'D CALL YA! ✌

 

[GroundSquirrel]

What moron came up with this idea in the first place???? I mean, yeah it works but the damage to the inside of the tire, not to mention the liability if you have a blow out and cause a wreck because of the flying golf balls. Have you ever been hit by one of those things???

I stopped reading when I read "Canada"

 

[Wade Ritch]

I stopped reading when I read "Canada"

 

[Wade Ritch]

NEVER BEEN TO CANADA. JUST TELLING YOU MY EXPERIENCE DRIVING TRUCKS WITH THREE GOLF BALLS IN THE STEERING TIRE. IF YOUVE NEVER TRIED IT.. THAT MAKES YOU IGNORANT TO IT. I DONT EXPECT YOU TO, NOR CARE IF YOU BELIEVE IT.
I CAN ONLY SHARE 45 YRS OF EXPERIENCE PASSED DOWN TO ME THAT I LIVE BY AND NEVER ONCE SEEN A TAKE OFF DESTROYED ON THE INSIDE.
SO TRUCK ON! SUPER TRUCKER!