Are beadlocks designed for a specific type of 4 wheeling? I know that they give more support to the tire but are they overkill for street use and intermediate trail riding every now and then? Or are they meant to be used on some hardcore rock crawler? They look freakin badass, but is the extra cost for the looks really worth it if I'm not going to be doing hardcore wheeling. Although, I have seen some rims that are made to look like beadlocks but they don't offer the same support and are much less expensive. Your thoughts/advice would be much appreciated! :ninja:
4WD4life
Bead locks are to keep you from losing the bead contact between tire and wheel when you have SERIOUSLY deflatted your tires. This is acomplished by sadwiching the bead of the tire to the wheel through the use of a ring and bolts. I have never owned any as most are not legal to use on highway in Utah. I have never broke a bead loose (damn I just Jinxed myself) in many years off roading. There are alot of wheel makers that have simulated beadlocks that lock like the real thing but are street legal and use traditional tire seating principles.
Most run beadlocks for rock crawling or for high speed baja style running. This allows you to run extremely low tire pressures, single digits, without loosing a bead.
Are they overkill for street use and moderate trail use, most definitely. I'd be bold enough to say, that for MOST of the type of stuff and medium built FJ can do, trailwise, beadlocks are not necessary at all. Now if you have a highly modified FJ, than beadlocks might be closer to a necessity.
If you just want it for looks, get "beadlock style" or street lock style, both of these are faux beadlocks that look sort of like the real thing. Most tend to have a LOT less bolts going around the rim though.
Most good beadlock rims will run you a minimum of 250 per wheel and up.
OMF makes some adapters to use with aluminum wheels i believe.
Are they overkill for street use and moderate trail use, most definitely. I'd be bold enough to say, that for MOST of the type of stuff and medium built FJ can do, trailwise, beadlocks are not necessary at all. Now if you have a highly modified FJ, than beadlocks might be closer to a necessity.
If you just want it for looks, get "beadlock style" or street lock style, both of these are faux beadlocks that look sort of like the real thing. Most tend to have a LOT less bolts going around the rim though.
Most good beadlock rims will run you a minimum of 250 per wheel and up.
OMF makes some adapters to use with aluminum wheels i believe.
Here is my rig w/ the new Walker Evens beadlock wheels and my rig is used for all sorts of trails, beaches, bombing down dirt roads... and getting me to work everyday... if you don't mind the maintenance they are great.
FJC pictures
But layonnn said it well... and if your not airing down low or counting on having to limp out on a torn up tire you may not need them... but chicks dig them LOL maybe not...
FJC pictures
But layonnn said it well... and if your not airing down low or counting on having to limp out on a torn up tire you may not need them... but chicks dig them LOL maybe not...
haha.
I was watching a baja500 documentary other night, and saw that they were running the same walker evans beadlocks on the over 100K dollar trophy trucks. SCHwEEEET
There are a lot of myths about the legality of beadlocks. There are no specific prohibitions for the use of beadlock rims in any statute search that I've done or that anyone else has posted in a thread that I've read, from any of the 50 states.
My belief is that there are no specific laws in any of these states that would get a patrol officer to pull a vehicle over and cite the driver regarding beadlocks. There are numerous other common violations that 4x4's get away with constantly, anyhow... such as the requirement (in at least several states) for mudflaps on SUV's/4x4's with altered ride height or on "trucks" at any ride height. Had there been specific laws prohibiting beadlocks, the forum boards would be rich with outrage, and they're not.
There are several gradations of beadlock wheel. The simplest is a kit that includes laser cut rings of plate steel which can be welded intto steel rims. They have bolt holes and get bolted together, sandwiching the outer bead of the tire. Alternately, commercially constructed rims with a similar design can be purchased in steel, or even aluminum (like the W.E.'s). At least a couple of companies have devised methods to retrofit aluminum rims as beadlocks, as well.
All of the above mentioned designs sandwich the outer bead between sealing surfaces and leave the inner bead to snap into the rim and be supported by air pressure in the usual fashion.
This is used so that the air pressure can be run very low, allowing for the tire to deform and make a large contact patch with the ground, increasing traction. The consequence of this without a beadlock would be that the friction fit that transfers torque from the wheel to the tire is at a minimum and the wheel can actually spin inside the tire. Alternately, with very little additional deformation, the tire can be pressed in away from the edge of a non-beadlock rim at low pressures, leading to a catastrophic instant tire deflation in which the tire comes completely away from the rim. Because this sort of deflation typically starts with the outer part of the tire rubbing against something, the use of an outer-edge only beadlock is typically all that's needed to insure that the tire stays on.
However, there are occassional inner bead failures where the tire is pushed from it's inner surface outward and the unlocked bead un-seats.
There are a number of commercial products which are "dual beadlocks". The simplest of these merely have two bolting rings, one on the outer and one on the inner bead of each tire. However, there are several vendors that sell a variation on the Hummer beadlock which works completely differently than the standard bolted ring design.
The Hummer beadlock works by bolting two half-rims together like a clamshell around the tire. Inside the tire, at the same time, there's a ring which supports the inside. By bolting together the two halves with the tire-plus-ring in the middle, the tire is securely clamped in place along both the inner and outer beads. The tire can be inflated to any pressure, including zero, and it will not come undone.
Other than buying Hummer beadlocks (which are an annoying 16.5" diameter that excludes many tire designs that don't include a size which fits them) there are Huntington beadlocks which are cast aluminum, using the same design strategy, and there are Stazworks, which are steel.
I have Stazworks.
An additional type of beadlocking mechanism is the Staun beadlock. The Staun product is actually a tough synthetic fabric ring that houses a tiny inner tube. This is fit into the rim as the tire is mounted. When the inner tube is inflated, it clamps both the inner and outer bead against the rim with a lot of force. The remaining space inside the tire can be run at any pressure down to basically zero.
The problem with running beadlocks and deflating the tire pressure severly on the FJ Cruiser is that ground clearance is already at a premium. Low pressure tires let the vehicle sag and further ride height is lost. The FJ Cruiser is already a very heavy vehicle, so the weight on the wheels already causes pretty good contact engagement on the ground. Running the tire pressure down a bit certainly helps even more, but it's at the cost of ground clearance which is also a precious commodity.
Although I've seen FJ Cruisers unseat beads before, running pressures in the tire low enough to necessitate beadlocks is probably ill advised.
Beadlocks require periodic torque checks on all the bolts. They can work loose. They are more difficult to balance and in many cases, people end up settling for the best balance that they can get.
In general I'd counsel against going for beadlock rims unless the functionality that they bring is something that you're noticing is sorely lacking on your rig.
My belief is that there are no specific laws in any of these states that would get a patrol officer to pull a vehicle over and cite the driver regarding beadlocks. There are numerous other common violations that 4x4's get away with constantly, anyhow... such as the requirement (in at least several states) for mudflaps on SUV's/4x4's with altered ride height or on "trucks" at any ride height. Had there been specific laws prohibiting beadlocks, the forum boards would be rich with outrage, and they're not.
There are several gradations of beadlock wheel. The simplest is a kit that includes laser cut rings of plate steel which can be welded intto steel rims. They have bolt holes and get bolted together, sandwiching the outer bead of the tire. Alternately, commercially constructed rims with a similar design can be purchased in steel, or even aluminum (like the W.E.'s). At least a couple of companies have devised methods to retrofit aluminum rims as beadlocks, as well.
All of the above mentioned designs sandwich the outer bead between sealing surfaces and leave the inner bead to snap into the rim and be supported by air pressure in the usual fashion.
This is used so that the air pressure can be run very low, allowing for the tire to deform and make a large contact patch with the ground, increasing traction. The consequence of this without a beadlock would be that the friction fit that transfers torque from the wheel to the tire is at a minimum and the wheel can actually spin inside the tire. Alternately, with very little additional deformation, the tire can be pressed in away from the edge of a non-beadlock rim at low pressures, leading to a catastrophic instant tire deflation in which the tire comes completely away from the rim. Because this sort of deflation typically starts with the outer part of the tire rubbing against something, the use of an outer-edge only beadlock is typically all that's needed to insure that the tire stays on.
However, there are occassional inner bead failures where the tire is pushed from it's inner surface outward and the unlocked bead un-seats.
There are a number of commercial products which are "dual beadlocks". The simplest of these merely have two bolting rings, one on the outer and one on the inner bead of each tire. However, there are several vendors that sell a variation on the Hummer beadlock which works completely differently than the standard bolted ring design.
The Hummer beadlock works by bolting two half-rims together like a clamshell around the tire. Inside the tire, at the same time, there's a ring which supports the inside. By bolting together the two halves with the tire-plus-ring in the middle, the tire is securely clamped in place along both the inner and outer beads. The tire can be inflated to any pressure, including zero, and it will not come undone.
Other than buying Hummer beadlocks (which are an annoying 16.5" diameter that excludes many tire designs that don't include a size which fits them) there are Huntington beadlocks which are cast aluminum, using the same design strategy, and there are Stazworks, which are steel.
I have Stazworks.
An additional type of beadlocking mechanism is the Staun beadlock. The Staun product is actually a tough synthetic fabric ring that houses a tiny inner tube. This is fit into the rim as the tire is mounted. When the inner tube is inflated, it clamps both the inner and outer bead against the rim with a lot of force. The remaining space inside the tire can be run at any pressure down to basically zero.
The problem with running beadlocks and deflating the tire pressure severly on the FJ Cruiser is that ground clearance is already at a premium. Low pressure tires let the vehicle sag and further ride height is lost. The FJ Cruiser is already a very heavy vehicle, so the weight on the wheels already causes pretty good contact engagement on the ground. Running the tire pressure down a bit certainly helps even more, but it's at the cost of ground clearance which is also a precious commodity.
Although I've seen FJ Cruisers unseat beads before, running pressures in the tire low enough to necessitate beadlocks is probably ill advised.
Beadlocks require periodic torque checks on all the bolts. They can work loose. They are more difficult to balance and in many cases, people end up settling for the best balance that they can get.
In general I'd counsel against going for beadlock rims unless the functionality that they bring is something that you're noticing is sorely lacking on your rig.
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