I had some people asking questions about my tire balancing preference, so I thought I would make an informed post that does all the legwork for all you lazy fockers.
They have .12, .20, .25, .35, all the way up to .88 grams in 6mm and 8mm sizes. The 6mm 0.12 and 0.20 pellets are the most common and easy to find in most outdoor stores. I picked mine up at Gart Sports for around $20. GI Joes also had them locally.
To figure out how much you need, use the chart from Equal (hey, they do have something good).
Go Here for a PDF version.
Then get a conversion from ounce to gram or vice versa.
Here's a good conversion calculator.
Then just do some math for about how many you need. Here's an example:
I have 37 Boggers and the chart says I should use 6-8 ounces for a 37x12.50 mudder tire. Using the calculator tells me that 7 ounces is about 200 grams. I used the 0.20gram airsoft pellets. That works out to 200/0.20=1000 pellets per tire.
I like to err on the heavy side because not enough will net an unbalanced tire and too many will just distribute the extra pellets evenly around the tire. So I actually bought a 5000 pack along with a 1000 pack. Drink down that beer in the pint glass and get 3 more. Drink those down, then you'll be good and ready to continue. Now dump the pellets evenly across all 4 glasses. It's not rocket science, so just eyeball it.
I used Oasis Tyre Pliers and their Deluxe Irons to mount/dismount each tire. I was already doing a wheel change to match the new one ton axles, so I had to do much more labor than someone wanting to just balance their rubber. Even still the Tyre Pliers will make life so much easier to pop the bead loose. Then you'll be able to dump a glass of pellets into each tire.
I've already used the above mention Equal. Don't bother. I'm sure they've got some happy customers, but for the most part those are applications that don't air up and down often (which is what adds moisture and kills Equal). I then went with BB's. That worked alright but when I opened up the tire the copper had become dust and the lead BB's I'm sure were also not good for a person. Now I'm onto the Airsoft pellets and think this will be a good solution.
I hope this helps. Let the arguments ensue.
Travis
