I plan on building my own beadlock wheels for a jeep. Here is a link to what steps needs to be done
You can grind the chrome plating off just as if you were removing paint.
-Tom
Whoa! I gather beadlock wheels are designed to keep the tires from popping off when going over lumpy boulders. How does it work?
Ciao, David Todtman
Rather than run tires at 32 psi, you drop the pressure down to 3-10 psi so they can "float" better, and form around objects giving them better traction. The problem is that at low pressure the beads come off much easier. So the answer is to "beadlock" the rim so that basically the rubber is sandwiched between two plates and held in place by using bolts. It is rare to see doublebead locks where both inside and outside are bolted on, they find that a single bead lock on the outside holds well enough. Also it keeps the rim from spinning while the tire is gripping the ground. There are some drawbacks such as they are not street legal any longer (a few are comming out now that are legal and DOT approved), and many of them leak all the time. Plus they can be expensive. I am hoping to make my own using some rims I have laying around and welding on my own kit.
It's a fine point and perhaps incorrect, but I think the idea is not to keep the tires from popping off. Rather, the idea is to keep 'em from spinning on the rim thus breaking the bead-to-rim seal and losing all the air.
If that's not right I'm sure we'll here about it.
My 16 year old son just pulled our old baja bug outta the weeds. Maybe that'll be our next project.
Vernon
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