beadlock bolts

Kejtar · Jul 27, 2005

for those of you who are running beadlocks: how long are your bolts? I will have 1/4" inner and outer rings and now it's time to buy bolts. Both of the rings are drilled for "pass through" and I will be using nylock nuts underneath.
Also should I be using washers on both ends? one end? Another thing I thought of was to have 4 bolts that are longer to help bring the bead in. If so how long of a bolts are you guys using for that?
Oh and the holes are cut out for 3/8" bolts.

Mike L · Jul 27, 2005

Are these weld on beadlock rings or did you buy some used rims?

-Mike

Big Red · Jul 27, 2005

I have grade 8 5/16" x 1" in my 18 bolt beadlocks. There is maybe a 1/4" of bolt that is past the retaining nut. I broke a few and was able to get 9 out of 10 out with some pliers, the last 1 is a problem and probably needs drilled out. How's it coming with those beadlocks? Any pics?

Good idea on the "pass through" nuts. Mine came with welded on round nuts which are o.k., but removing a broken bolt can be a pain if you cannot grab enough of the bolt with a pair of pliers.
Troy

Kejtar · Jul 27, 2005

Big Red said:
I have grade 8 5/16" x 1" in my 18 bolt beadlocks. There is maybe a 1/4" of bolt that is past the retaining nut.

When mounting, did you run into any trouble reaching the nut with the first few bolts?

Well, I have all of them cut out, now I just need to clean them up, get new rims, weld them on and mount the tires.

Kejtar · Jul 27, 2005

Mike L said:
Are these weld on beadlock rings or did you buy some used rims?

Weld on beadlocks.

Big Red · Jul 27, 2005

Kejtar said:
When mounting, did you run into any trouble reaching the nut with the first few bolts?

Well, I have all of them cut out, now I just need to clean them up, get new rims, weld them on and mount the tires.

The 1st few might not engage the nut that well, but go around and hand torque them with just the socket and extension and then go around again and torque them down with your wrench. Don't over torque them though, I don't know the lbs etc, but I tightened them down, but not as hard as I could. I'll have to see how the beadlocks work and hope not to keep breaking bolts, I think I just aired them up too much and tightened them down too hard initially.

Troy

Kejtar · Jul 27, 2005

Big Red said:
The 1st few might not engage the nut that well, but go around and hand torque them with just the socket and extension and then go around again and torque them down with your wrench. Don't over torque them though, I don't know the lbs etc, but I tightened them down, but not as hard as I could. I'll have to see how the beadlocks work and hope not to keep breaking bolts, I think I just aired them up too much and tightened them down too hard initially.

Troy

pressure isn't an issue!! The torque is the key: IIRC the torque spec is about 10ftlbs and they are supposed to be torqued down like a wheel: kind of a star pattern.

Starboard M · Jul 27, 2005

Kejtar, it almost sounds like you made your own beadlock. Did you, or were you talking about doing the actual welding?

Semi off topic: Some sets of beadlocks only have 10 bolts, while others may have 50. What is the difference, besides the more bolts? Is one better for more hard core, other for semi on road (I know bead locks are not DOT legal)?

Kejtar · Jul 27, 2005

Starboard M said:
Kejtar, it almost sounds like you made your own beadlock. Did you, or were you talking about doing the actual welding?

I took a welding class at a community college and through that I had an access to a CNC machine. So with a buddy we split a cost of a 4x10 sheet which is just enough to make 2 sets of beadlocks (each set covers 5 wheels).

Semi off topic: Some sets of beadlocks only have 10 bolts, while others may have 50. What is the difference, besides the more bolts? Is one better for more hard core, other for semi on road (I know bead locks are not DOT legal)?

I think it has to do with how well it holds and spreads the load. I don't know how you could fit 50 bolts on the beadlock rim: I have 32 and that's about as many as I would want to place without structuraly weakening the rings.
Legality... hmmm my rings are going to go on dot legal rims, so if I get that powdercoated

Mike L · Jul 27, 2005

Sounds very interesting. Did you machine out the area where the bead of the tire clamps to the inner ring? ARe you gonna weld the ring to the wheel with a stick? :wierd:

-Mike

Kejtar · Jul 27, 2005

Mike L said:
Sounds very interesting. Did you machine out the area where the bead of the tire clamps to the inner ring? ARe you gonna weld the ring to the wheel with a stick? :wierd:

-Mike

nope no stick welding.

korda · Jul 27, 2005

I used 1 3/4" Grade 5 bolts. They start fine and only have a little over 1/4" sticking below the nylock nuts when tightened down. I torqued them to 15 ft/lbs and the work great.

The guy who cut them for me recommended 10-15 lbs. He also recommended a grade 5 bolt because each bolt is seeing such a small torque and that in the future if they got screwed up somehow they'd be easier to drill/cut.

Running Super Swamper SSRs on them, 36 bolts each.

I did a little write-up on them here .

DPC · Jul 28, 2005

Please post us some pics when you are done if you can. thanks

beadlock bolts

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