About beadlocks

Beadlock wheels lock the out side of the tire to the rim with grade 8 bolts instead of the air pressure and a lip that holds tires to conventional rims. Beadlock rims are basically a two piece rim (the wheel and the lock ring) that sandwich the tire between the two pieces of rim. This allows you to run very low air pressure to increase traction (1-7 PSI) with out risk of de-beading or popping the tire off the rim. Most beadlock companies lock the outside edge because with the way force is applied to the tire during rock crawling the outside bead is 90% more likely to come off the wheel then the inside bead, but most companies will lock the other side if you so wish it.

There are more and more companies now that sell beadlock wheels I will try and go over a few of them that I know.

• Champion Wheel -Aluminum wheels uses 24 5/16's bolts, they can also turn your current aluminum wheels into beadlocks.
• Trail Ready - Aluminum wheels very high quality 18 5/16 recessed bolts.
• High impact/ Allied - 32 5/16 bolts on steel wheels.
• MRT - 18 or 36 bolts on Steel wheels.

There are more out there like Bart wheels, Eaton beadlocks and a few more, but those just could not stand the test of times with to thin of rings and not enough bolts on the lock ring so I will not be talking about those.

The Next is Factory Hummer beadlocks, These are very strong, but they do come in 16.5 inch tire sizes and with 6-7 inches of back spacing so they do require a lot of custom work to be able to run them, but from what I have seen it was worth all of the time involved. These are very beefy items, as they should be hold up on an 10k hummer. These also work very well with smaller rigs that run full width axles under them to help make them not so wide with out re-tubeing the axles housing

Then is a sad sad trend, called Street locks. Just about every manufacture makes them and you can buy them everywhere. They have that beadlock look but not all the hassle or performance of a beadlock. These wheels belong on Hondas and in the trash can If you wish to have the look, just cut off the heads to bolts and glue them on your rims, or just go here and resister.

I chose the High Impact/Allied wheels for few main reasons. One was that they had 32 bolts with means the possibly of me braking bolts from some street use (hey sometime you have to drive to the trail) would not be very high. They are one of a few places that have a self centering rim to help you center the tire/wheel combo when mounting up the tire. Cost, Greg from High Impact is willing to deal you with and get you a great product as soon as he can for a great price.

There is some talk going around about beadlock wheels not being DOT approved for street use. While this is true that they are not DOT (department of transportation) approved there is not law saying that your wheels have to be DOT approved to run on the street. Me and many of my friends on Pirate of the Rubicon bulletin board have looked into the books and spoke with fellow wheelers who were also cops and could not find a law regarding it. I have spoke to people who said they got a ticket for it (either a fix it ticket or a fine) and only people have been able to show me a fix it ticket, I have yet to see a fine issued with running beadlock wheels on the street. If you have one of know of please e-mail me and let me see it as well.