Balancing Tires With Golf Balls

I use RV anti-freeze as it's a propylenegycol water mix, freeze protection to minus 40. Won't attack rubber componds.

Regular anit-freeze is elethylenegycol which will attack some rubber compounds.

I just mounted my new Cooper SRM on my F350 dually and used 8oz of the RV anti-freeze in each tire. Works just fine as a tire balance. I ran the truck upto 85mph for a couple minutes without any tire balance problem.

I've got about 3000 miles on this method and so far no problems.

The liquid balance works by centrifical force. The fluid will distribute it's self around the tire in the low points of the tire thus a complete balance is obtained.

I don't see a problem with the golf balls other than they might be noisy at slower speeds. I would also wonder if they act as a grinding compound until balance speed is reached? I don't know as I've never seen a tire that used golf balls.

T_Bone

Sorry, but I don't see what a pan of water spinning on a vertical axis has anything to do with a tire spinning on a horizontal axis while running in contact with a road surface. A better analogy would be a barrel half full of water rolling down a hill. Does the water spread itself aroung the perimeter of the barrel? No, it stays on the bottom because gravity makes it stay there. If your washing machine becomes unbalanced because all the clothes are on one side, does if balance itself back out? No, you have to stop it, spread the clothes back around and restart it.

I'm aware of the "balance rings" you can buy at any truck stop. J. C. Whitney used to sell them (probably still do), along with all sorts of wonderful products that would double your gas mileage, etc. I'm sure that many people claim they work or they wouldn't sell them. My guess is that they provide enough damping to noticeably reduce vibration, but they sure don't improve the actual balance of the tire.

Think about it: If these products actually work, why would any tire dealer spend thousands of dollars on spin balance equipment?

This should be a simple test for anyone with access to a spin balancer: Take a mounted tire and deliberately unbalance it. Then dismount it and throw in a golf ball. Check the balance again: Is it better, worse or the same? Anyone got a spin balance machine?

Ya gotta understand. These are very secretive soulutions for special problems.

Another little known "fix" is for a flat tire on the front of a loader tractor:

Just hook a chain from the loader bucket back to the front of the tractor. You can then just use the loader to lift the front of the tractor up and change the tire..... :>) :>) LOL!

Allan