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Fitting tyres to beadlock wheels


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Hi all,

Now my beadlock wheels are finally complete and painted up I am just waiting for my tyres to arrive from California. However, when the time comes to fit my tyres, I need a little info on how to go about it. I have a few basic instructions but need a little more indepth answers from you guys and any pointers if any. :huh:

Now, I have access to a tyre fitting machine but so it seems you don't need one as you can use tyre levers for this and I don't think a 34" tyre will fit on this particular machine :rolleyes: Another thing that I noticed is that the ss ltb's are 8ply rated so will this make fitting them a bit harder? Or very hard :unsure:

Oh, and then I have the joy of putting in 160 bolts and torqued to 5ft lbs each, :( great :rolleyes::lol:

Any way here's a little piccy of one of the wheels;

post-6427-1206650991_thumb.jpg

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I assume your tyres are intended to run tubeless, if so they will have a ribbed texture around the inside of the bead. You will need to remove the ribs on the bead which is sandwiched between the locking ring and the rim, otherwise you will have trouble sealing them.

Another point is the button head cap screws you have fitted look great, mine did too, the problem is that once you have rubbed them up against a couple of rocks you won't get the key in to undo them. I can assure you that drilling the heads off 30+ stainless screws just to get the tyre off is no fun! :angry:

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Will get more pics soon. Backspacing, don't know. All I know is that they are 25mm each more off set than standard disco steels.

The beadlocks are from bt fabrications, and are single beadlocks. Great items.

The wheels are 16x7 and then with the beadlocks 8.5" wide.

Got a friend to weld the beadlocks on, but the wheels were just normal modulars for around £30 each.

The tyres going on will be super swamper ltb 34/10.5 r16

I will also being running 30mm wheel spacers so I can return some of my steering lock.

As for the sealing, I am not quite sure what you mean??

And the bolts should not become a problem rubbing up against rocks as I don't drive where there are any, but normal ruts may become a problem in the long run.

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And finally...........

As you can see I have been lazy and only painted the side that you can see well with some mixed up hammerite. Its not going to last along with the orange ring that I sprayed :rolleyes: Eventually they will be powder coated.

And as for cost.......... 5 wheels and beadlocks welded/fitted and painted (by me)................£455

I don't think thats too bad, considering if you were to buy mach 5 beadlock and obviously there is much more strength, asthetics and quality but they will set you back £915 plus painting.

post-6427-1206657401_thumb.jpg

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RV - How did you remove the ribs from the inside of the tyres? This may explain why some of mine seal well and others do not

YBR - Remove the outer ring, lie the wheel on the floor bolt side up, place tyre on top, use prybars/levers/brute force/soap to force tyre bead over bolt ring, centralise tyre on bolt ring, place removable ring on top, insert bolts, torque, inflate tyre until bead seats, reduce/increase pressure as required

There is a thread on the forum with some advice for tyre fitting, it remains conspicuous by its absense from the tech archive. Here

£455 sounds expensive for your wheels, mine where £100 for five brand new rims, £100 for the laser cut rings, £80 for the powdercoaing (which was a rip off and a P*ss poor effort) :P

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Hi all,

Now my beadlock wheels are finally complete and painted up I am just waiting for my tyres to arrive from California. However, when the time comes to fit my tyres, I need a little info on how to go about it. I have a few basic instructions but need a little more indepth answers from you guys and any pointers if any. :huh:

Now, I have access to a tyre fitting machine but so it seems you don't need one as you can use tyre levers for this and I don't think a 34" tyre will fit on this particular machine :rolleyes: Another thing that I noticed is that the ss ltb's are 8ply rated so will this make fitting them a bit harder? Or very hard :unsure:

Oh, and then I have the joy of putting in 160 bolts and torqued to 5ft lbs each, :( great :rolleyes::lol:

Any way here's a little piccy of one of the wheels;

YBR, for the bolts get yourself an air powered ratchet and run it at low air. That should give you the 5-10 lb/ft you need. You also want a few longer bolts to squeeze the ring down a bit first.

You're bolt ring also looks like quite a small diameter. Ideally you want the daimeter to be the same as the bead (or as close to as is possible) so you self centre the tyre. If this isn't the case the tyre tends to move out of balance.

Spacers are the devil's work - I hate them. Is it maybe worth thinking about moving the centres on the rims you've got??? It takes a while but is a fairly straight forward job on new rims.

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RV - How did you remove the ribs from the inside of the tyres? This may explain why some of mine seal well and others do not

YBR - Remove the outer ring, lie the wheel on the floor bolt side up, place tyre on top, use prybars/levers/brute force/soap to force tyre bead over bolt ring, centralise tyre on bolt ring, place removable ring on top, insert bolts, torque, inflate tyre until bead seats, reduce/increase pressure as required

There is a thread on the forum with some advice for tyre fitting, it remains conspicuous by its absense from the tech archive. Here

£455 sounds expensive for your wheels, mine where £100 for five brand new rims, £100 for the laser cut rings, £80 for the powdercoaing (which was a rip off and a P*ss poor effort) :P

Ok Thanks for that info there ;) The wheels were £170 for 5 and the rings £225 for 10 32 bolt hole rings 160 bolts, 160 washers, 106 spring washers, 160 bolts, 160 nuts and instructions, 5 fibre belts etc. and then paint and cost of having them welded etc.

It is recommended from bt fab that I run tubes. Should I or shouldn't I? Because tubes only cover one problem, and then create alot more. If air can get through the unsealed bead then water will proberly as well and in an extreme case grit or dirt in the water and then fiction inside causes punctures.

And to top it all off, the tyres that I have coming are bias ply or known to us as cross ply. So the car will need to be raised off the floor or the wheels removed every time that I am not using it for a while as the tyres will turn into something along the lines of what Fred Flintstone has and I don't realy want flat spots on my tyres for the next 5miles or so until they re-shape :unsure:

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YBR, for the bolts get yourself an air powered ratchet and run it at low air. That should give you the 5-10 lb/ft you need. You also want a few longer bolts to squeeze the ring down a bit first.

You're bolt ring also looks like quite a small diameter. Ideally you want the daimeter to be the same as the bead (or as close to as is possible) so you self centre the tyre. If this isn't the case the tyre tends to move out of balance.

Spacers are the devil's work - I hate them. Is it maybe worth thinking about moving the centres on the rims you've got??? It takes a while but is a fairly straight forward job on new rims.

omg what have I done :o Should have stuck with normal rims :lol: I can get hold of an air ratchet from a friend so that will be ok ;)

I do have the four longer bolts to squeeze it down :P

The ring looks smaller as the weld hangs around it. It has been ground to a radius so no sharp edges.

Moving the centre back :o The wheel will go way out of balance then won't it??? I haven't got the money to be spending on that atm. Also sounds like alot of work. And for me I have bigger problems than that atm. Like my standard drivetrain ticking until it goes pop, as these tyres are agressive and then producing even more grip aired down with beadlocks :unsure: Props are at a stretch with the gwyn lewis kit so they are coming up for order, along with the winning lotery ticket :rolleyes::lol:

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Lewis's desciption on how to fit tyres to single beadlocks seems pretty much on the money, its the way I did it any way.

Fitting a LTB tyre onto a Allied Rock-A-Thon beadlock was quite easy as the bead below the locking ring is smaller diameter than normal so a bit of leavering and the tyre fitted ok. If you have welded on rings and the rim has been left full diameter as is normally the case then getting the bead fitted using a tyre machine will make your life a LOT easier, the tyres should fit in a standard tyre fitter as the SS LTB's say they are 34 10.5 16 but when you measure them up they are actually only 33" diameter, I measured mine after they arrived.

The tyres are good with very good tread although like you say you will get flat spots if the vehicle sit still for any lenght of time. I fitted dynabeads in mine to aid the balancing and it reduced the shake for the first few miles a lot, still bounced abit but they soon go round again once you start driving. The side walls are very stiff, I found I was running about 17 to 18 psi on the road to get a decent ride then dropping it to 7 or 8 off road

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You have too much money!! :lol:

If you are going to run tubes go to a tractor place, a lot of tractors run 900x16 tyres and the tubes to fit these are much thicker meaning they will resist punctures much more.

Copperslip is a must on anything that moves IMHO :rolleyes:

Will.

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omg what have I done :o Should have stuck with normal rims :lol: I can get hold of an air ratchet from a friend so that will be ok ;)

I do have the four longer bolts to squeeze it down :P

The ring looks smaller as the weld hangs around it. It has been ground to a radius so no sharp edges.

Moving the centre back :o The wheel will go way out of balance then won't it??? I haven't got the money to be spending on that atm. Also sounds like alot of work. And for me I have bigger problems than that atm. Like my standard drivetrain ticking until it goes pop, as these tyres are agressive and then producing even more grip aired down with beadlocks :unsure: Props are at a stretch with the gwyn lewis kit so they are coming up for order, along with the winning lotery ticket :rolleyes::lol:

Moving the centres means you don't need to buy spacers :P Seriously, though, its not too bad when you get the hang of it. Grind out welds, remove centre mit LARGE hammer and wooden block, clean up the shell and the centre, fit roughly into correct position, build a stub axle and hub on the bench and check run out with a dial gauge, use smaller hammer to adjust, tack weld and give to your mate to finish the job.

Alternativly just live without spacers. True you loose a little lock but you can drive round it. IMHO if your budget's tight don't spend the money on them.

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Moving the centres means you don't need to buy spacers :P Seriously, though, its not too bad when you get the hang of it. Grind out welds, remove centre mit LARGE hammer and wooden block, clean up the shell and the centre, fit roughly into correct position, build a stub axle and hub on the bench and check run out with a dial gauge, use smaller hammer to adjust, tack weld and give to your mate to finish the job.

Alternativly just live without spacers. True you loose a little lock but you can drive round it. IMHO if your budget's tight don't spend the money on them.

Ok, cheers for that ;) In the near future I will consider this and for now they will be run without spacers and I will just have to see how I get on :P

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  • 2 weeks later...
Moving the centres means you don't need to buy spacers :P Seriously, though, its not too bad when you get the hang of it. Grind out welds, remove centre mit LARGE hammer and wooden block, clean up the shell and the centre, fit roughly into correct position, build a stub axle and hub on the bench and check run out with a dial gauge, use smaller hammer to adjust, tack weld and give to your mate to finish the job.

Alternativly just live without spacers. True you loose a little lock but you can drive round it. IMHO if your budget's tight don't spend the money on them.

How far did you move the wheel centre in from original position, & did this eliminate the knocking to radius arm or just reduce it.

Thanks Adrian

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