Mom's VUE
Used 4oz of beads, as indicated for her tire size by a chart I found. Initially seemed to work great, much better than the $#!^ Harbor Freight balancer ever did. However, after a few days, it developed a bad shake over about 55 mph. We removed the beads and balanced it with the vintage Micro Precision bubble balancer Dad found, using the "four weight" method. This fixed it perfectly.
Dad's Truck
Used 4oz of beads, again according to the chart. Dad wasn't impressed with it and didn't think it was any better than it was before (done on the Harbor Freight balancer). He balanced it using the "four weight" method. He thought it was better, though I couldn't tell any difference. Could be that I just hate his truck.
My Bug
Used 3oz of beads. Worked FANTASTIC, all the way to 90mph, it was like driving on glass. However, just like Mom's VUE, it developed a shake after a while. Unlike Mom's VUE, the shake came and went at random. It seemed to be less on hot days, worse on cool days. We took the beads out and balanced using the four weight method. Nice and smooth.
My Saturd
Used 3oz of beads. AMAZING, even better than the Bug. The thing is like driving a nice, comfy couch. Unfortunately, it has also started to develop a shake -- but only at 65 mph. Any faster or slower, it's still silky smooth. Of course, 65 is the speed limit all the way from my house to work. I'll probably take the beads out and get the tires spin balanced somewhere, as the hole in the wheel is too small to fit over the cone of the Micro Precision balancer.
One thing I noticed was that the beads were very dirty when they came out, and the ones in the Bug were slightly moist. They had probably started to clump together from the dirt and moisture, which would account for the shake after a few days. The moisture probably came from the shop air at Dad's. He's got a dryer on it but it's old as hell and barely works but he's too cheap to get a new one. I think for bead balancing to work, the inside of your tire would have to be very clean and the air you use would need to be bone-dry. Getting some of the expensive ceramic beads would probably work a lot better than cheap-ass airsoft bbs, too.
The four weight method takes a while and requires patience but it seems to work great. The MP balancer is much better than the pitiful old HF one. I think our HF balancer has gotten damaged over the years because it seems like it used to work better.
Here's what the Micro Precision balancer looks like:
Compared to the Harbor Freight balancer we had before:
