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Gorilla57

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What’s funny/strange is the fact TrailReady specifically says to “never re-torque bolts after initial installation”. There’s people that post all the time about re-torquing their beadlock bolts. Do other companies really suggest this?
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I have the Mopar bead lockable wheels and WAS bead locked for the first 5,000 miles. They were mounted by the dealership. I've only aired down once. I went back to normal mounted tires after seeing some slippage due to hard braking on the freeway. The bolts were torqued to the 20 foot lbs more than once. The Mopar build sheet plainly states beadlock tires are not for Hyw use. Because of HOW and where I drive my jeep, I just prefer not to have to worry about a failure where insurance would not cover damages. I have peace of mind now. Bead lock Wheels have their place for what they are designed for . It's a personal choice.



Jeep Wrangler JL So you think you want beadlock wheels... sample of cost, time, efforts required IMG_20210502_165740
 

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I have been running bead lock wheels for the past 53,000 miles. This post is a run down of the time and cost to swap new tires on my bead lock wheels. Note, this is with me and a bud doing the lion share of the work.

I just installed new tires on my bead lock wheels. So It took me two days. first day, put the Jeep on jack stands, pulled all five tires off the Jeep. Then took all the bead lock rings off. They have been on for 53,000 miles. I did have a broken bolt prior to the removal of the rings. In the process of removing the rings, seven more bolts broke. I thought fuck this is going to be a pain in the ass. Nope, I was able to thread them out through the back of the wheel by hand. Luck was on my side. Take the wheels and tires to a local tire shop as they will break the inside bead, remove the tire and put the wheel back into the new tire for $5 a tire. I ended up waiting 2 1/2 hours for this to happen.

Get back home and get two tires mounted and the bead lock ring installed and torqued down correctly. The next day, started a little tough. I finish mounting a tire and torquing the first bead lock ring down and fuck, I forgot to throw the bag of balancing beads inside the tire. Obviously I needed more coffee before I started the day. Remove the bead lock ring pull the tire off the outside bead and toss a bag of balancing beads in the tire. Re-mount the tire and re-install the bead lock ring. Then repeat on the two remains wheels.

So for those wanting bead lock wheels, here is a little break down of the cost and time when doing a bead lock wheel and tire dismount and mounting new tires back to the beak lock wheels.

Will cover cost first.

You should alway replace the bolts with new bolts for the bead lock ring when mounting new tires again. The bolts get fatigued over time and take one heck of a beating.

Cost of 120 new Stainless Steel bots. $86.97.
Sure I could have bought them a little cheaper on line, but wanted to ensure that I got American made bolts, not some cheap low quality china bolts. The bead lock bolts are not something to skimp on.

$25 to break the tires down. I will gladly spend that money every time. I can and have manually broke down 37 in tires. It is a pain in the ass and I would gladly spend $10 a tire to get it done so that I don't have to do it.

$50 for the bags of balancing beads.

kind a Total cost $161.87 for me to mount them myself and do it right.
I did not include fuel to chase supplies down, the cost of shop rags, a can of PB blaster, anti seize and buying my bud's breakfast on the second day....... I am assuming if you plan to do this you already have the couple hundred dollars worth of tools to get the job done... or $7 worth of tools from harbor Freight..... lol.

Time.

1 1/2 hours to go get the new bolts,
1 hour to jack the Jeep up and put it on Jack stands and remove all five tires.
1 hour to remove the rings and get the broken bolts out of the wheels
3 /12 hours to take the tires to the tire shop and get them broke down and get back home.
6 hours to mount and install the bead lock rings on the wheels and air the tires back up to 28 psi this time also includes cleaning the bead lock ring mating surface where the tire contacts the bead lock ring. That was a shitty nasty dirty dusty job.
1 hour to put all the tires back on the Jeep and take the Jeep of the jack stands.
1 hour to put all the tools and stuff away.

Total approximate time. 15 hours. With two of us working on the project.

VS a non bead lock 5 tire change up.

Spend an hour at the tire shop or so and $50 to get the tires dismounted, mounted and balanced and installed.

I love bead lock wheels, I use them and full understand the commitment to having them. Just know the cost of the wheel is just the beginning.

This is what my bead lock rings look like all five of them are similar in condition. I think I would have destroyed a normal wheel. My ATX slabs have been down right tough.

This is what the mating surface of the bead lock ring looked like that contact with the tire. I wire brushed these back to a clean surface.
Jeep Wrangler JL So you think you want beadlock wheels... sample of cost, time, efforts required IMG_20210502_165740


The rings are just tough. Mind you not all bead lock rings are created equal. If you buy some of the cheaper wheels and wheel hard, you may have to replace the ring also.
Jeep Wrangler JL So you think you want beadlock wheels... sample of cost, time, efforts required IMG_20210502_165740


Jeep Wrangler JL So you think you want beadlock wheels... sample of cost, time, efforts required IMG_20210502_165740


All five rings look similar. The Rubicon Trail, Moab, Windrock and Rausch Creek were hard on the rings.

With that said, just know that the tires have been through hell also. These rings got like this with Cooper STT PRO tires mounted on them. That mean that the tire withstood the rocks that caused the gouges in the rings before getting to the bead lock ring. In 53,000 miles with many miles off road, the Cooper tires have performed awesome. Zero flats, zero punctures, zero air loss, zero balancing issues and the tires did not cup or wear in any odd way. I think I could have gotten another 10,000 miles out of the tires, but I am running out of time to get things done before up coming trips. So they were pulled off. I will put the tire up for sale on FB and think I can sell them pretty easy and there is still plenty of tread, but I do not what to go through all the work to change out tires while out traveling.

Most shops will not mount bead lock wheels. The ones that do, charge appropriately for the work. We have a local off road shop and they charge $125 an hour to mount bead lock wheels. I would hate to image what it would have cost if I had to have the 7 broken bolts extracted from the wheels. Granted they would have been a little faster than me as they have a lift and tire machines, but still expect to spend at least $500 or so to get them done right.


On my Jeep:

Jeep Wrangler JL So you think you want beadlock wheels... sample of cost, time, efforts required IMG_20210502_165740



Jeep Wrangler JL So you think you want beadlock wheels... sample of cost, time, efforts required IMG_20210502_165740
Nice write up. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
 

OBJLU

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I want beadlocks because the lip on my method 701’s are tore up but that said I ran the entire rubicon at 9 psi and never lost a bead on those
 

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Ted
I am running bead locks also, how often do you check the bolts on torque?
My wheels say every 250 miles, what a pain in the butt. I think I am behind like 500 miles now.
Jeep Wrangler JL So you think you want beadlock wheels... sample of cost, time, efforts required IMG_20210502_165740
I check mine when I rotate the tires. It is very rare that anything changes.
 

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I have a set of 4 mopar beadlock rings never installed them. Sprayed them black. If anyone is interested 300.00 plus shipping
 

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I will be doing a write up on the tires soon. I rotated the tires every six to seven thousand miles. A five tire rotation. I usually run 26 to 27 psi in the tires for normal driving and will air the back tires up to 30 psi when pulling my camper. On the trail, I usually air down to 8 psi.
I have these exact same tires. They are awesome. I run them at 28 on the road and 8 on the trail. People are always commenting on how they never slip. We do alot of rock crawling out here.

As for the beadlocks it took me by myself about 7 hrs to do all 5. I used a rachet stap and floor jack to debead the tires and an impact on the rings. I already had 2 bags of extra bolts that I carried on the trail with me. The ones I have are the same price as yours. I reused my old bolts and only replaced the ones I broke which was 4 of them. Like you I had no issues getting the broken end out and yes I also had to pull one ring because I forgot to throw the bead bag in😅 I had 10 oz bags and put an extra 3 ozs in each tire.

Seems like alot of people without beadlocks are saying they would never get them because the amount of work they take. If you don't enjoy wrenching on your jeep then beadlocks are not for you. If you wheel hard and require that extra grip by going down to 6-8 psi then beadlocks are needed.
 

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What’s funny/strange is the fact TrailReady specifically says to “never re-torque bolts after initial installation”. There’s people that post all the time about re-torquing their beadlock bolts. Do other companies really suggest this?
I've never heard of a company that doesn't suggest it. I've gone to tighten bolts on the ring and found that a few books are so loose I can hand tighten them a half run before putting the wrench on it. I'll have to check out trailready's reasoning on that. Maybe they are using some type of locking bolt?🤷
 

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@Mandalorian & @wibornz (and anyone else):

for you guys that are using balancing beads:

1- which do you use? (which have you tried that you would not use again?)
2- are you still running with the TPMS sensors? (if so, do you have any problems with them not working?)
 

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@Mandalorian & @wibornz (and anyone else):

for you guys that are using balancing beads:

1- which do you use? (which have you tried that you would not use again?)
2- are you still running with the TPMS sensors? (if so, do you have any problems with them not working?)
I do not remember the brand that I used, I got them from a local tire shop. The beads came in a bag that you put in the wheel. The bag also contained a new valve stem core. I still run TPMS sensors. I think the valve stem core were slightly different so that you could use the TPMS sensors so they would not get plugged.
 

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@Mandalorian & @wibornz (and anyone else):

for you guys that are using balancing beads:

1- which do you use? (which have you tried that you would not use again?)
2- are you still running with the TPMS sensors? (if so, do you have any problems with them not working?)
I used counteract. I say used because I developed a wobble that got worse and worse. I ended up removing the beads and going back to wheel weights.

I still use my stock tpms sensors. They worked fine with the beads. With tpms sensors you cannot add the beads thru the valve stem.
 

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I bought some off ebay then tried dynabeads. They made no difference on my cooper SST pros that had 30K miles and uneven wear. Finally gave up and bought new tires, 38 ridge grapplers in load range C went with traditional stick on weights as I didnt feel like breaking apart another set of beadlock wheels to experiment lol
 

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What type of antiseize are you using on the beadlock ring bolts? I got a couple bottles of general purpose antiseize laying around, not sure if I should pick up a different grade or not?
 
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Jeep Wrangler JL So you think you want beadlock wheels... sample of cost, time, efforts required 1639397583656


This kind.
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