These are called dynamic balancers, and DBs work as well as or better than static balancers (i.e. wheel weights).
There's lots of things you can use to dynamically balance tires and wheels. Other very common and very cheap dynamic balancers include but are not limited to:
- antifreeze
- golf balls (appear to popular with the OTR crowd)
- BB's (Walmart)
- Airsoft beads (ditto)
- ceramic, steel or SS ball bearings (McMaster--Carr, Grainger et al)
I used the Walmart BB's on my '98 Dodge Ram with it's 35" tires and the Eagle Alloy wheels that used to lose their wheel weights about once a month, paying $12 every time that happened got old fast. I put about 6 oz. of BB's in each tire and never balanced them again till I sold the truck two years later, they were perfect.
I use antifreeze in my Toyota 4runner rock crawler/expedition vehicle, ’92 Pathfinder DD and in my 10k lb. car hauler trailer tires. It works extremely well in my Toy: 70 miles an hour down the highway with 35-12.50 BFG Mud Terrain tires, filled with mud or not. Ditto with the Pathfinder.
I have the Centramatics on my PSD F-350 SRW. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't buy the $200 Centramatics for my F-350, I'd just use AF.
For brand new tires, always get your tires spin balanced first. That way, if they are not round or balanced, you know what the problem is and the tire people can't blame the balancing media.
One thing I don't recommend is anything that require special air schrader valves or dry air or otherwise the media will "clump" in humid air. With all the other cheap, valid and benign media available, there's no reason to spend extra money on something that's not robust and fails just due to humid air.
My favorite is antifreeze. Take your standard AF available from any store in America, a couple feet of 1/4" ID tubing and a small cup. Remove the schrader valve, and deflate the tire; use a floor jack so that the tire doesn't deflate all the way and perhaps damage the tire by sitting on the wheel. Insert the other end of the tubing in the cup with 4-6 oz of AF and lift the vehicle, causing the tire to suck the AF up. Takes about 10 minutes per tire and it's pretty much permanent.
Keep in mind that, just like static balancers (i.e. wheel weights), dynamic balancers won't fix an out of round or damaged tire or wheel. What they will do, when properly installed, is balance your tire/wheel assembly better than any wheel weight.
They also won’t work well, if you add too little (just like wheel weights) or too much (been there, done that). Follow the guidelines (there's several sites with weight per tire size charts) and it will work, if the tires and/or wheels aren't damaged.
Good luck.
Al
