Beadlocks....school me

Ron

Ron

Dum Spiro Spero
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Joined
Apr 16, 2005
Location
Sharon, SC
My personal experience with beadlocks is limited to drag race applications.

And after a recent issue reseating a bead with an on board air compressor and a 5 gallon tank.....Im not interested in doing that ever again.

Here is where my ignorance shows up, in the style of bead locks I am familiar with, the bolts or screws actually go through the bead of the tire. But seems like most or all off road bead locks are a bead pinch design where the bad is captured between to pieces of metal which are bolted below the rubber line.

#1 is this accurate?
#2 If the metal "pincher" extends above the bead inside the tire cavity, I am having a hard time getting my mind around how you get the tire "around" or over this lip.
 
#1. Yes. You are correct. The drag racing style poor mans beadlocks (sheet metal screws) are there to keep the tire from spinning on the wheel. 4x4 beadlocks are there more or less to keep a rock or whatever from pushing the bead off of the wheel, thus causing a lost bead.

#2. The inside bead of the tire will stretch over the bead-lock area of the wheel. The best thing to do is to look at a DIY kit. The wheel is essentially a stock wheel with the inner ring welded to it. Once the inside bead is stretched over the lip of the wheel, the outside bead will rest on the beadlock part, not stretching over the wheel. The ID of the tire is smaller than the OD of the wheel. Thats why its so hard to mount some of these off road tires because the bead is hard to stretch over the wheel lip.
 
The inside part of the tire/wheel is no different with or without the beadlock ring as far as mounting it. I have done all of mine by hand. If the wheel is narrower, then it is a little more difficult. What you do it put it on kinda at an angle, allowing the first part of the tire to reach the narrower section of the wheel. This allows you to easier work it around the wheel and it's on. Then it's a matter of getting the tire centered on the wheel while you bolt the outer ring on and tighten it down. I sit the tire/wheel combo down on top of a 5 gallon bucket to install the outer ring.
 
even after installing beadlocks you can have a tire shop to mount the back half of the tire, however when i did mine the back half went on easy with a couple bars and some lube
 
SkyHiK5 said:
My personal experience with beadlocks is limited to drag race applications.
And after a recent issue reseating a bead with an on board air compressor and a 5 gallon tank.....Im not interested in doing that ever again.
Here is where my ignorance shows up, in the style of bead locks I am familiar with, the bolts or screws actually go through the bead of the tire. But seems like most or all off road bead locks are a bead pinch design where the bad is captured between to pieces of metal which are bolted below the rubber line.
#1 is this accurate?
#2 If the metal "pincher" extends above the bead inside the tire cavity, I am having a hard time getting my mind around how you get the tire "around" or over this lip.
Click to expand...
Did we talk about this and I'm glad you asked. My question is what about the back of tire and rim what keeps it on looks to me like the bead lock is only on the outside. Get to work!!!
 
Be careful if you get a rim with too much back spacing you will not be able to run bead locks. If you try to get the tire over the lip you will rip the tire.
 
ok the hummer style I understand, and the run flat makes it a bit different, or at least the way I understand it.

On a weld on set of beadlocks, If I am correct you stil have the inner bead and the outer bead plus a bead lock ring and an outer bolt ring correct?

Or in doing the weld ons do you grind the outer bead off all together.
It is my understanding that the H1s are really more of a 2 piece wheel design but there are some kits out there that maintain a 1 piece wheel and simply add a lock ring and welded backing ring is this correct?

Sorry If I am just being dense, but something isnt right in my head here.
if the rim is a 15" wheel the dbeads are what is actually 15" in diameter. If you ad a slightly taller rim, say .5" you now need to get a 15" tire over a 16"gap...or what am I missing?
 
jdarrow said:
Be careful if you get a rim with too much back spacing you will not be able to run bead locks. If you try to get the tire over the lip you will rip the tire.
Click to expand...


ok now I am lost...
what would the amount of backspacing have to do with ripping the bead?

And you cant get much more backspacing than stock h1s....
 
SkyHiK5 said:
ok now I am lost...
what would the amount of backspacing have to do with ripping the bead?
And you cant get much more backspacing than stock h1s....
Click to expand...

You dont have to worry about it with h1, cause they are a two peace design, so you just bolt the two together. Before I got my H1, I had rims with 2in backspacing and the tire would not go over the weld in ring , we tired tire tools, and a machine.
 
jdarrow said:
You dont have to worry about it with h1, cause they are a two peace design, so you just bolt the two together. Before I got my H1, I had rims with 2in backspacing and the tire would not go over the weld in ring , we tired tire tools, and a machine.
Click to expand...


thats prob. because most tires with less than about a 3" BS have reverse centers. You'd have to mount the tire from the inside versus they outside like most wheels are done.

Why they reverse the centers, I don't know. But that's prob. your issue.
 
SkyHiK5 said:
On a weld on set of beadlocks, If I am correct you stil have the inner bead and the outer bead plus a bead lock ring and an outer bolt ring correct?
Click to expand...

Correct. On a set of DIY beadlocks, the wheel is virtually unchanged other than the inner bead lock ring is made to fit inside the lip of the wheel. So, the only modifications necessary are acually welding the inner bead lock ring to the wheel. The inside bead of the tire will mount over the wheel as normal. Just when mounting the outside bead of the tire, you just center it on the DIY inner beadlock ring and then sandwich it between the outer bead lock ring.

SkyHiK5 said:
Or in doing the weld ons do you grind the outer bead off all together.

but there are some kits out there that maintain a 1 piece wheel and simply add a lock ring and welded backing ring is this correct?
Click to expand...

Most of the DIY beadlocks do not require grinding off the outer bead. Most DIY kits are like this and MRW, Eaton, etc. are all like this. They maintain the 1 piece wheel design, very similar to the DIY kits. Stazworks, USA6x6, Stockton, etc. make two piece beadlock wheels very similar to the design of the H1 wheels.

SkyHiK5 said:
Sorry If I am just being dense, but something isnt right in my head here.
if the rim is a 15" wheel the dbeads are what is actually 15" in diameter. If you ad a slightly taller rim, say .5" you now need to get a 15" tire over a 16"gap...or what am I missing?
Click to expand...

The tire has a smaller diameter bead than the OD of the wheel. 15" is more of a nominal number as neither the wheel nor the bead of the tire is actually 15"
 
Thanks guys...after all the reading I finally realized what I have been missing.

Essentially with all the DIY beadlocks the outer bead now bolts to what was the outside of the rim....I thought the ring somehow went on the rim between the inner and outer bead.

I'm not sure I like the design as much as I thought.....Stauns are pricey, but I think thats where Im heading.... or H1s but not crazy about a 2 piece rim....
 
2 piece rim is where its at. Stauns are cool too, but seem like more trouble initially. I am also of the opinion that the DIY beadlocks are a bit sketchy. Plus, thats 128 more bolts that you have to keep an eye on.
 
rockcity said:
thats prob. because most tires with less than about a 3" BS have reverse centers. You'd have to mount the tire from the inside versus they outside like most wheels are done.
Why they reverse the centers, I don't know. But that's prob. your issue.
Click to expand...


Thats what it was, I just couldnt put it into words.
 
i have never seen a diy beadlock fail .... if u really wanna go all out you can weld a beadlock ring to both the front and back.
 
I have been running H1 wheelse for several years and haven't had a single problem with them.

IMO, the only real issue with running an H1 wheel is the 16.5" rim size, which eliminates Maxxis and BFG tires if that is your thing. However, there are still several good tire options in this rim size.
 
91oneton said:
i have never seen a diy beadlock fail .... if u really wanna go all out you can weld a beadlock ring to both the front and back.
Click to expand...


x2. I've never seen one fail although I'm sure it happens just like anything else. I would think it would be more from a lack of maintenance versus the product failing.
 
ive had some sort of beadlock on my rig for the past 4 years. Never had a problem. Ill never wheel without them either.
 
I'm running H1s I reentered myself. They were a good bit of work and the results were good. BUT if I had to do it again, I'd probably run the internal style. The stauns look nice, the new off brand. 'innerairlock' (I think) look promising.
 
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