Best DIY beadlock kit available?

Hello,


The more I read into the specifics of DIY beadlocks the more I realize I have no idea what I'm doing, haha. Can someone please point me in the direction of the kit that you believe is the best? If you could explain why you think this that would be even better.



I would really like to make them myself. I have access to a plasma table and I really want an excuse to use CAD. I just do not know what a "good kit" would have in it. I know there is the front and back rings, but some also put some pieces in the middle. I'd like to really really build up each wheel. Some put another ring on the edge of the outer ring and some don't.



Any good vendor who has high-quality beadlock kits, or any write-ups that you find good on DIY beadlocks, or really any information you think would be useful to me please put in the comments below. I really appreciate it.

http://www.trailworthyfab.com/12-Bolt-DIY-Wheel-Kit.html

No need to reinvent the wheel(pun intended). Hummer beadlocks are on government vehicles for a reason. Downside you're limited on rubbers.

If you want to understand beadlocks and see what it looks like to DIY them do a youtube search for "Matt's Offroad Recovery" and look at two of his videos on the subject from October 4 of this year. The two videos are titled "About time we listened to you..." and "Custom Beadlocks on the Yellow Banana JEEP"

I would post links but the toy computer I am using doesn't play nicely with youtube links.

On the first video the last 2/3 of the video isn't particularly relevant, but the first third is. The second video is the work involved in building them.

I've been thinking about doing some to but there doesn't seem to be one that locates the bead. You kinda just locate the best you can then tighten bolts



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Look into adding a spacer to provide a compression stop when tightening the bolts. Otherwise the outer ring will concave or "dish".

Use grade 8 bolts with nylock nuts and price out the hardware beforehand to ease sticker shock. There's a crap load of bolts/nuts/washers required and it ain't cheap.

When it comes time to weld them up, get your hands on a weld turn table...you'll thank me later. Unless you weld for a living, getting an airtight weld is harder than you think. And the only way to find out is to mount up the tire, assemble the crap load of bolts, air it up, and use a dunk tank or soapy water and check for leaks. *When* you find one (or more) you then get the pleasure of unbolting the crap load of bolts, demounting the tire, and re-welding over the leak area. Rinse, lather, repeat.

And use beads to balance.

Evan03 said:

I've been thinking about doing some to but there doesn't seem to be one that locates the bead. You kinda just locate the best you can then tighten bolts



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Click to expand...

Look at what Matt does and the tabs he bends up. I believe those take care of the bead locating issue.

The coming rings. I wonderd if they would. Would they need adjusted to bead thickness

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I suspect you could adjust them with an angle grinder.


That big lathe that Paul has (Fab Rats) would be the cat's meow.

Hmmmm. Shop i work in has a mill and lathe

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https://www.totalmetalinnovations.com/thin-ring-beadlock-p/thin-ring-bl.htm

I think these are the beadlocks that Matt used. They have the built in tabs that you bend up.

I got a set made by Firefab, who are a sponsor. My buddy welded up my beadlocks, we just shimmed them by eye and burned them in with the mig. The taper of the wheel helps center the inner ring.just gotta watch for porosity in your weld, I just ground down the weld with an flap wheel and then put some silicone on the inside of the outer bead right before bolting it all together. Balanced fine with balance beads even at highway speeds. This was on 15X8 wheels with 35" MT/Rs that had some chunking already

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