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I had been wanting to try Goodyear Wrangler MT/Rs since they came out so it was the first tire I considered for Project Blue Oval YJ. Since it's arrival onto the wheelin' scene it has been the standard for a good handing road worthy radial that works amazingly well in the dry western conditions I have to contend with. It is not in its element in nasty mud, but in sand, rocks, dirt, etc it is 'da bomb.

There were other contenders that caught my eye. The new IROC by Interco Tire Co. is a really good tire and the newer Mickey Thompsons and the Toyo MTs would have been good choices as well.

I chose the 37-12.50x15 MT/R to get an edge on the fairly good sized rock gardens we have in the deserts and washes of So Cal. This about the biggest tire I can run safely with my axles and not be worried.

I mounted them on some steelies I had laying around but before I did that, I was intrigued by the new ways that folks were experimenting with dynamic balancing. The issue with the normal way of balancing a tire and wheel with stick-on or clamp on wheel weights is they can get scraped off on rocks and be out of balance as soon as the rig gets back to the highway.

Dynamic balancing uses a medium inside the tire that is free to roll around in there and will find it's own way into the areas it needs to balance by centrifugal force (I am no engineer, so bear with me here). There are commercial versions of this way of balancing like Dynabeads but guys have been trying golf balls, tennis balls, and mouse balls (like in the computer mice) but the latest thing is the Air-Soft BBs that kids shoot each other with (presumably).

I went shopping to the aisles of Walmart and picked up a big ol jar of the things...green things. It seems to be that the magic number for a 37" tire is around 9 oz of BBs. I used my wifes food scale to measure out 9 oz times four and placed them into ziplock bags. When I had the tires mounted I put each bag into the tire and poured the Air-Soft BBs in. Voila.

It will be awhile before I can try them out, but I will update and report back on the success. Oh, if you ever go to have the tires balanced by a tire shop, I understand you will need to remove the BBs first or it will throw the whole process off.