Valve stem recommendations?

[72Blazer]

What’s everyone using? Reliable, budget, and strong enough for hard wheeling. I’m also thinking with TPMS capability.

Dirty Life beadlocks. DirtyLife wasn’t much help and the wheel vendor offered me Apex valve stems and TPMS sensors with a $330 price tag.

Sponsored

 

[mgroeger]

What’s everyone using? Reliable, budget, and strong enough for hard wheeling. I’m also thinking with TPMS capability.

Dirty Life beadlocks. DirtyLife wasn’t much help and the wheel vendor offered me Apex valve stems and TPMS sensors with a $330 price tag.

Running DirtyLife Enigma beadlocks and Apex stems and couldn't be happier. My buddy is an Apex rep and should be able to get you like 10% off. As far as TPMS goes you can pull them from your original wheels or you can find them cheap on ebay. I think I paid $50 for four and they work fine. I'll see if I can find the order.

 

[mgroeger]

$30
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224967145441

 

[72Blazer]

Running DirtyLife Enigma beadlocks and Apex stems and couldn't be happier. My buddy is an Apex rep and should be able to get you like 10% off. As far as TPMS goes you can pull them from your original wheels or you can find them cheap on ebay. I think I paid $50 for four and they work fine. I'll see if I can find the order.

Why Apex? I wheel 2 maybe 3 times a year. I just don’t see the investment appeal. But I’d like your input.

 

[Bleda2002]

Why not just pull the stems with the tpms and reuse them? If you don't need quick deflator then any plain rubber stem will work fine.

 

[72Blazer]

Why not just pull the stems with the tpms and reuse them? If you don't need quick deflator then any plain rubber stem will work fine.

didn’t have plans to break down my current wheels and tires (37s and stock wheels and going to 38s and beadlocks)

when I do wheel, I do wheel pretty hard as noted by the rough shape of my stock wheels. Headed to run the Rubicon in July. Losing a valve stem seems to be a common occurrence from what I’ve heard.

 

[Bleda2002]

I'd just buy the tpms and it comes with new stems. Carry some extra stems to replace as you will probably rip them out if you don't have beadlocks. I'd also not use apex rpv valves with out beadlock rings to protect the stem as they are rigid and will easily get destroyed by a rock.

 

[mgroeger]

Why Apex? I wheel 2 maybe 3 times a year. I just don’t see the investment appeal. But I’d like your input.

Build wise they are a great design and rock solid, Paul is also a great guy and one of the designers of Falcon shocks. He sold his share out to Teraflex and struck out on his own. I wheel waaaaay more than 3 times a year so it was a no brainer to buy something where you can air down in 5 seconds per tire. I mean no offense but you really don't' need them if you are only airing down 2 to 3 times a year. Just go old school with a stick on the needle lol.

 

[mgroeger]

I'd just buy the tpms and it comes with new stems. Carry some extra stems to replace as you will probably rip them out if you don't have beadlocks. I'd also not use apex rpv valves with out beadlock rings to protect the stem as they are rigid and will easily get destroyed by a rock.

I disagree about ripping valve stems out without beadlocks. I wheeled for a couple of years on stock Rubi wheels aired down to 12 psi and never once damaged my stems. And that was on East Coast jagged rocks and loose rock as well as out west.
I've also have beadlocks where there are marks in the wheel from where rocks have fallen or rubbed in and could have easily damaged a stem. In the pics below you can see my beadlock ring does nothing to protect the stem. The best advice is a short rubber stem or a short rock solid stem like Apex or Powertank.

Honestly I have never met someone who has damaged a stem and everyone I know does a ton of crawling.

 

[TEAMSLO]

I don't believe there are better valve stems to protect from rocks. I have run apex quick deflators on 3 rigs with no issues but they were on beadlocks and completely protected. I don't doubt with certain wheels where the apex is exposed, that someone will snap one off rubbing along a rock, there is no flex and will break if unprotected.

For rubber valvestems, there is a bit more flex but in my group, still have seen one get torn off on the trail. This was on a stock wheel.

Its all in the design of the wheel whether its exposed or not, even certain wheels will have the valve stems at an angle which can help protect it.

 

[72Blazer]

I used the factory sets. The DirtyLife beadlocks do a great job of protecting them from what I’ve seen. I pinch one off then I’ll come back to the drawing board after that.

 

[lashlee]

Another vote for the Apex stems, even though they are expensive. In your case, I would get the cheap ones from the tire store with TPMS that works with your JL.

 

[roaniecowpony]

I've had horror stories with cheap chinese valve stems. On one truck I had the tires replaced on, the valve stems they put in started literally falling apart after a year. All of them started falling off, one after another within a couple months of each other. After that experience, I never let a tire store install their stems. I always brought my own to the tire shop. They were always OEM or Schrader. .

I recently installed Apex Rapid Deflators. Damn, they are fast. Well recessed in the Icon Rebound Pro wheels.

 

[72Blazer]

I've had horror stories with cheap chinese valve stems. On one truck I had the tires replaced on, the valve stems they put in started literally falling apart after a year. All of them started falling off, one after another within a couple months of each other. After that experience, I never let a tire store install their stems. I always brought my own to the tire shop. They were always OEM or Schrader. .

I recently installed Apex Rapid Deflators. Damn, they are fast. Well recessed in the Icon Rebound Pro wheels.

I ended up using my factory stems and getting them rebuilt. I’ll chug 8 beers if I have a valve stem failure.

 

[SLTX_Rubi]

I've had horror stories with cheap chinese valve stems. On one truck I had the tires replaced on, the valve stems they put in started literally falling apart after a year. All of them started falling off, one after another within a couple months of each other. After that experience, I never let a tire store install their stems. I always brought my own to the tire shop. They were always OEM or Schrader. .

I recently installed Apex Rapid Deflators. Damn, they are fast. Well recessed in the Icon Rebound Pro wheels.

I am getting the Icon Rebounds installed next and was looking at the Apex Rapid Deflators. Did you install the standard size?

Sponsored