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bead locks

xjjunkie

NAXJA Forum User
Location
york, pa
i'm ready to buy rims for my rig. need some input though. should i buy steel rims (american racing, mrt, ect) or aluminum. either way i will weld beadlocks to them. plan on 35's should i get 8 or 10 inch wide. will the aluminum be beadlock be strong enough. plus i'm concerned about weight. for some reason i'm conserned about rotating weight. i read in smokey yunicks bio that for every 1-lb of rotating weight you loose it's worth
10-lbs of standing weight. (yes 10 to 1 ratio, and it was confirmed by numerous chassic experts)

scot
 
I'd go for the aluminum if money doesn't matter. Especially the forged ones, as they are MUCH lighter and stronger.
Any beadlock wheel is pretty darn strong, as they all have big reinforcing ring welded to them.
As far as weight goes, the 10 to 1 thing, accurate or not, is only for acceleration/deceleration. Not such a big deal while crawling.
Tire weight also matters a lot more than wheel weight because they are farther from the centerline of the axle. To demonstrate, imagine 2 sledgehammers connected end to end. Which would be easier to start or stop spinning; with the heads connected together or with the handles connected together? Both combinations weigh the same, but certainly they spin easier with the bulk of the weight distributed closer to the center of the rotation. Same with wheels/tires.
 
There are plenty of companies now who make beadlock wheels, I wouldn't bother trying to make them yourself. Whether you go with steel or aluminum is strictly a matter of personal preference and weight. I can tell you that just from throwing my wheels/tires around while loading, my aluminum beadlocks are lighter than my old steel non-beadlock wheels. I thought about spending the extra money on forged aluminum wheels, but decided that the beadlock rings add enough strength that the price of the forged wheels wasn't justified. Also, if you're leaning towards light weight, the difference in price between the steel and aluminum beadlocks isn't that much.
 
I don't know if you are planning on driving on the road or not, but beadlocks are not legal, except for these ones. Just a thought, hope it helps.
 
Mich88XJ said:
I don't know if you are planning on driving on the road or not, but beadlocks are not legal, except for these ones. Just a thought, hope it helps.

This topic is covered about once a month on Pirate4x4 , so I won't bother repeating it here. The main gist of it is that a lot of people mention legality when it comes to beadlocks, but no one can produce a written law anywhere that says they're not legal. For what it's worth, there are quite a few people here in Colorado (including myself) running around on beadlocks and I've yet to hear of anyone getting in trouble for them.
 
Champion Beadlocked wheels, or Weld I think they have a real beadlock now.

Forged are the way to go if you want to weld to them. I belive Cast is much more difficult to weld and has some special handling techniques. Even forged wheels should have some heat treating done after being welded to relive the weld area.

Beezil, I talked to someone today that had dealt with the owner (Daniel?) of USA 6x6 and he was saying the guy was just a jerk to him on the phone.
 
Mich88XJ said:
I don't know if you are planning on driving on the road or not, but beadlocks are not legal, except for these ones. Just a thought, hope it helps.

This is getting old. Does anyone know where this urban myth actually came from? Who can show the law that says that beadlocks are illegal? Anyone?

My Champion beadlocks are cast wheels, not forged. Unless you send him you're own wheels, the ones Champion sells are all cast wheels. No way to make a beadlock wheel without welding to the wheel, so I guess you can weld to cast wheels. :rolleyes:

Weld does not make a beadlock wheel, only a fake beadlock look wheel.
 
LOL, how many Police actually know what a beadlock is, and If he/she actually knows what they are, he/she probably wheels and would be drooling over your rig anyway.
 
Fellas its not that are illegal per se, its that they are not DOT approved. The cost of testing is prohibitively expensive for the small companies that manufacture beadlocks.

XJguy
 
I have several cops for friends, and I have gone over this subject with them. They all know what beadlocks are, and they all know that 99% of them are not DOT approved, however, they said that they wouldn't ever pull somone over for just that, unless they used it to get the guy pulled over to check him for something else like we all know cops do and they will admit it. You know, the "your taillight was out 10 minutes ago" thing. Anyway, so they basicly said they've never given a fixit ticket for beadlocks, nor pulled someone over for them specificly. I would, and am getting some for my rig which will be my only set of rims.

Hell, the vast majority of offroad lights, bumpers, rock rails etc are not DOT approved anyway, whats one more thing.
 
Goatman said:
This is getting old. Does anyone know where this urban myth actually came from? Who can show the law that says that beadlocks are illegal? Anyone?

Petersen's $wheel and offroard were perpetuating the myth the other month in their beadlock layout. They plain out said they were not legal for the road. Don't know where it started but the mags keep it going.

Xjjunkie: why do you think you need beadlocks? have you rolled one off the rim? i'm running 36's on 8" rims and haven't even really come all that close to rolling one off the bead. the beads are very tight on the rims. just curious. with a 35" tire i would definitely recommend starting with an 8" rim

It seems that beadlocks are the latest bolt on fad that's all. yes they work and yes they're usefull, but my money would be that 80%+ of the people that have beadlocks don't actually need them or don't wheel in spots that would roll beads off the rims.
 
Beadlocks are a necessity to me. The past few times I've been out they would've made a couple of the obstacles I've been trying. I can't drop that couple more pounds I need in order to get my tires to work to their optimum without popping them off the bead. Yes, I've rolled them off on several occasions, and not at the pressures that I'm wanting. If you haven't rolled one off the rim and you're crawlin', most likely you haven't played enough with tire pressures to get it 100% correct.

The acceleration/deceleration issue is a big deal. When you are stuck between a rock and a hard place (pun intended) and you need to romp on the gas to get some momentum to pop over something, that extra little bit will help. I can't wait to get a lighter set of tires and some alloy rims. My junk just can't accelerate out of a hole like it did with my last set of tires/rims.

Walker Evan's Racing has their new beadlocks out that don't have a welded on ring, it's machined in. Ultra expensive and only come in 17's for now though :(

I have spoked with Daniel on the phone, solicited a bunch of free advice from him. He seems like a stand up guy to me.

Sean
 
but those 6x6 ones are steel aren't they?

i totally agree with you on light-weight. I'm glad to be wearing aluminum rims now, I think its made a difference.

I'm just glad we don't hear anymore of that "steel bends, aluminum cracks" bullshit.......which is almost as bad as people saying a grade 5 is stronger than a grade 8 because it stretches.....where do people cme up with this shit? anyway.....

I haven't found the "perfect" beadlock in my searches yet.....

what i want is too expensive!!!!!!
 
As for the dot approved thing, this is a quote from Scott Ellinger of Rockstomper:

"DOT is not an approval agency either... there are no DOT approved anythings. I don't care what somebody says about it. DOT writes the laws--manufacturers stamp their product DOT to signify that it complies with DOT regulations, not to signify that DOT has inspected and/or approved it. Stamping it DOT makes the manufacturer criminally liable for it if it's not compliant with the regs, but doesn't make something DOT approved."

Wheels are designed to fail in an overload situation by cracking and releasing air slowly. Welding on a wheel for repairs is illegal, adding a part to a wheel with the welder is not. Most centers are welded anyhow last I looked.

His weld on kits are good, but if you're starting from scratch I like Allied aka High-Impact locks, ran 'em last year with no troubles. No leaks which I can't say about Trailready, bolts don't loosen, seriously beefy ring. Unfortunately they must know this by now cuz they aren't real cheap.

.02
 
Beezil said:
but those 6x6 ones are steel aren't they?

I'm just glad we don't hear anymore of that "steel bends, aluminum cracks" bullshit.......which is almost as bad as people saying a grade 5 is stronger than a grade 8 because it stretches.....where do people cme up with this shit? anyway.....


Um, Beezil, don't think so. I'd have to agree that steel bends and aluminum cracks, at the tire shop I've seen it many, many times.

As for the grade 5 vs 8 argument- why do people have success removing grade 8 engine mount bracket bolts on 4.0's, replacing with grade 5, and no more snappy snappy.

Hmmm???
 
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xj4rocks said:
It seems that beadlocks are the latest bolt on fad that's all. yes they work and yes they're usefull, but my money would be that 80%+ of the people that have beadlocks don't actually need them or don't wheel in spots that would roll beads off the rims.

I agree that a lot of people don't need them, but if you wheel on rocks at all, I think it's a necessity. I've seen many many applications where a bead lock would have been a savior, and several times where they were.

Grinder_027.jpg


Grinder_032.jpg


He was real glad he didn't blow a bead right there.
 
I just ordered a set of Champion beadlocks on AM Baja wheels yesterday. Within a couple of weeks I should be able to tell you wether or not the OR State Police considers them legal or not. They all seem interested in talking with me these days.
 
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