Which side of the tire do you like?

[Chapap]

i have always wondered how well that kind of stuff works. do you get any wobble anytime with those beads in the tire or is it smooth all the time, just like wheel weights?

Wonder what happens at the bottom on the flat spot. Seems like all centrifugal (petal?) force would go to zero there.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I've always wondered how they worked. I wonder if mounting a camera inside would show movement. I think it would have to be mounted to the rim. Maybe 2 on opposite sides so it didn't affect the balance too much.

 

[Chapap]

I've always wondered how they worked. I wonder if mounting a camera inside would show movement. I think it would have to be mounted to the rim. Maybe 2 on opposite sides so it didn't affect the balance too much.

I found this. Very neat. There are inside the tire videos out there that are very interesting too. The tire flexes ALLOT.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

i have always wondered how well that kind of stuff works. do you get any wobble anytime with those beads in the tire or is it smooth all the time, just like wheel weights?

So, the F-150 has had the needle buried past 85 before. Smooth sailing as long as nothing else is a problem. Usually if I get a vibration, it’s a bad suspension component, bad steering component, or bad driveline component. I’ve experienced all of that. So basically no different than wheel weights other than it’s a constant rebalance. My 92 Ranger with wheel weights picked up a vibration that I couldn’t locate. Tires were in good shape and I ended up having a shop spin balance all 4 and all were out of spec. Wouldn’t have had that with the balance media I prefer using.

My now ex GF’s car I did the glass beads because it’s what was handy at the time. They worked fine for her car for the winter tires.

I did the glass beads in the 31” tires that went on my green Ranger because I was broke at the time and I was given the beads for free. I ended up with a vibration which I suspect is one of two possibilities. Either not enough media or it’s because the media isn’t round but rather glob-ish. I got more of the glass beads to try adding another ounce or two to each tire but haven’t been able to test that. Mind you, these are similar tires to what is on the F-150, same size and brand, but a newer tread design. So a pretty similar comparison. Ceramic beads worked fine (I used the larger “off-road” beads) but the glass beads not so much.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

To bring this back to the original question... I like the outside round part of the tire...

 

[Curious Hound]

To bring this back to the original question... I like the outside round part of the tire...

I agree. I dislike getting too much flat part on the bottom. A little bit is ok.

 

[John97]

I always put white-letter side out if tires are so equipped.

 

[Bill]

I mostly like the blackwall side out. However, the Goodrich Radial T/A tires look good with the raised white letters on the outside.

 

[JoshT]

It seems that a significant number of tires have two different sidewall designs. One has a texture and low profile letters, and the other is smooth with chunkier letters. Some tires (nitro dura grappler) go a step further and have a steel plate graphic molded on one side. Does anyone have a preference? Has anyone noticed?

I guess you have to order tires online to even notice that this is a thing… if the shop does the whole thing, you never seen the other side of the tire.

Haven't read everything, For those that still offer white lettering, they've been doing black letter and white letter thing for a long time. Can't say I've ever noticed different designs on opposite sides of the tire though. I suppose in a way it makes sense for a non directional tire for some variety.

As for black letter vs white letter, it really depends on the application. Modern vehicles, black lettering. Older vehicles, white lettering looks good on the right wheel. On my F-100 that currently has black steelies, it's black lettering, white would just stand out too much. When/if I make the move to some shiny aluminum wheels, it'll probably get white lettering.

I've got Wildpeak A/T3w on all three of my trucks IIRC. I know they're on the '99 Ranger and the F-100, not 100% sure about the F-250 because I didn't put them on and haven't had to think about anything other than air pressure. I'll admit that I have not noticed if they have different paterns on opposite sidewalls, or even if the sidewalls match between the three trucks. Two of them, F-250 & F-100, even have the same size and I haven't noticed. I might think about it next time I'm looking at them.

 

[DILLARD000]

Prefer black wall to the outside;
so not to be any more of a free rolling billboard for multi-billion dollar corporations than I must be.
If any tire company wants to pay me a monthly advertising fee, I'll consider swapping them around.