Tire balancing beads??

Another vote for the Centramatics.

I have been running Centramatics and good old genuine 7.50-16 Bias tires for years on my 1985 F-350.

The only time I would ever use another radial tire is if I got caught in a situation where that was all I could get.

Believe me or not, I have a set of four Power King Super Traction across the rear that are currently some over 100,000 miles and still have lots of life in them.

My truck rides and drives like an air-ride big truck.

Two things I will say about Centramatics.

1. Never mix any sort of internal gimmick wheel balancing trick with Centramatics as the two will act against each other.

2. Before you install the Centramatics on rear duals, have yourself a set of quality braided stainless air valve extensions on hand as you will never be able to access the inside wheels otherwise, no matter what kind of air chuck you try.(with duals, you should have these anyway; I recently had the devils own time airing the inside tires on one of my early Dodge/Cummins with bone stock wheels and I have a drawer full of various long air chucks)

As for any of the inside-the-tire balancing gimmicks, I have seen everything used from a pint of anti-freeze to a dozen golf balls and everything in between.

If you use the store-bought bags, whether sand or beads, just toss the un-opened bags inside as the bag will deteriorate and let the contents loose.

A word of warning about using sand or any of the so-called beads, they are all silica; and, unless you wish to die a coal miners death, or wish it upon your tire fixer guy, just don't use the stuff as it will turn to powder and blow out of there and straight into your lungs when you break loose the beads.

Nowadays, balancing tires/wheels is pretty much a marketing gimmick as they are so precise as to not need it at all; just run them; and, if you feel a vibration, get yourself a set of Centramatics and be done with it.

This is just an example; the amount of choices is overwhelming.

For a 1-ton steel-wheel DRW, 7-inch extenders are long enough but just barely; 12-inch are better.

Instead of using the useless clamp-on clips provided, I fabricated semi-permanent brackets that are secured by one of the axle-flange bolts; to do this, you will need some Schraeder nuts that fit the threads where the valve cap goes.

Also in that set I linked to, I use the more-than-90° elbows on the outside wheels; thus, I can air straight on instead of having to use the "pull against" side of the air chuck.

I just used the linked-to kit as example as it showed both the braided extenders and the little rigid extenders; you can find better deals by buying a pack of four 12-inch extenders and buying a pack of the little sharp elbows.

Although only two long extensions are necessary, I recommend getting four and putting the extras somewhere inside the truck where you can find them; maybe tape them to the jack handle; as, some day years from now one of them will begin leaking.

Before you install them, screw all them together and attach them to a pressurized tire and give them a thorough soapy-water test for leaks to be certain that none of them have any problems straight out of the box; sadly, in this buy-by-the-container-load world we live in, we, the consumers, have became the quality control and any manufacturing problems are ours to find after the fact.

Centramatic 

The Centramatics on my 1985 DRW F-350 have 16 holes as the later Fords have some weird Communist bolt-pattern slightly different from the good old fit-everything-8-lug 8-on-6-1/2 pattern; you orient them to fit your bolt pattern.

The rears for the duals are pretty much flat and fit between the wheels.

The fronts are shaped like the inside of the wheel.

One thing to keep in mind with any sort of tire/wheel add-ons, including your shiny new valve extenders and expensive Centramatics, if you are one of those take-it-to-the-tire-idiots-and-leave-it kind of people, being mostly idiots, they will lose your extenders and bend up your Centramatics and toss them aside and when you come pick up your truck you will leave without all your nice stuff --- better to never allow anyone but yourself to mess with your wheels --- ignore this bit of advice at your peril.

As I already said elsewhere, new tires/wheels themselves are so precision made as to not need any balancing --- tire/wheel balancing new stuff is just a marketing gimmick --- same goes for "rotating" tires/wheels --- bolt them on and leave them be; rotating just moves problems around and gives the tire shop guys opportunity to con you in to all sorts of extra expenses.

Look at it this way; if you have a certain wheel position that tends to wear the tires funny, by "rotating", pretty soon you are going to have all four of your tires looking funny.

Fifty-some years in the tire business and the best way to make a happy customer un-happy is to rotate his wheels; before any rotations, he is all "those tires roll as smooth as silk"; after rotation he is all "something is not right; I feel a lot of vibration" = best to leave them alone.

This is where Centramatics really shine = they will cure any tendency a vehicle may have to "cup" or "dip" the tread and will even smooth out already damaged tires.

If you have a tire that is scalloped and dipped, installing a Centramatic will begin evening out the dips and imperfections and true up that tire such that, while it will still have the unevenness in look, it will no longer buck like a mule.