Our Oliver Elite 2 #1125 was one of the 25 or so units that had balance beads in the tires from the factory. My understanding is that the wheel/tire combos arrived at the mother ship already mounted and with the balance beads installed, a fact that was unknown to Oliver at the time. Once this fact became know to OTT, they mitigated the problem by sending out a set of 5 valves that have a sort of filter screen to prevent the balance beads from plugging up the valve mechanism which would result in the valve being held open and lead to loss of tire pressure. OTT also provided a visa debit card loaded with $25 to cover the cost of a tire servicer to replace the valves. We did the replacement last year and assumed all would be fine. The trailer has been sitting for about 2 months, a couple of weeks ago when I was prepping it for a voyage I discovered the TPMS was not functioning due to the batteries in the sending units having gone bad so I pulled out my trusty tire gauge and set out to check my tire pressures, only to find that when I removed the TPMS (caps) that the air was flowing freely out the valve stem, exactly as it had been doing before installing the "filter" valves meant to solve this problem. I immediately replaced the cap to prevent any further pressure loss, kicking the tires to determine if they seemed inflated enough for the 60 mile journey to the tire shop, which they were. Discount Tire in Montrose, Colorado was prompt to break down the tires, including the spare, thoroughly clean out the balance beads, replace all the valves, balance the tires the normal way (without balance beads) and remount the tires on the trailer, took about 60 minutes and they had 4 techs working on it at the same time. When I went to pay the bill the service manager smiled and said, 'Don't worry about it, just come to see us the next time you need tires." I told him that they had nothing to do with the balance beads installation, he acknowledged that fact but held his ground and refused payment. What a wonderful experience.
To any of you who have had to deal with the Balance Bead issue, the solution of the filter valves is inadequate, the tires need to be remove from the rims and the Balance Beads physically cleaned out...Be Aware!!