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Old 04-19-2019, 09:24 AM
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snivilous snivilous is offline
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snivilous snivilous is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: SW UT
Posts: 2,305
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I didn't see any pictures of people running beadlocks or much real world experience. I ran Trail Ready beadlocks on my daily driven 4Runner for a year, then swapped them to my daily driven FJ40 for like two years where they're still mounted, and have a little experience with other sets of beadlocks outside of streetable trucks.



Few notes:
-Beadlocks should be easy to balance, they are small compared to the tire and machined so should be very evenly distributed weight at a small diameter. Your tire causes 100x more balance issues. My 35s on my beadlocks needed 2oz of weight to balance (using stick on weighs on the inside).

-DOT stuff, lots of people say how illegal they are and stuff. I have yet to see an actual law saying they are illegal. Some company even had a cash challenge for awhile to show them a law where beadlocks are illegal. I have driven my 4runner and FJ around Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, California, etc. and no one even glanced twice at the beadlocks. And mine stand out with fat rock rings, not the slim type that most poser locks have. There are also a few brands that are explicitly "DOT Approved" or whatever, but as I understand it that does not mean that "non-approved" ones are illegal.

-Some tire shops are *****y (ie Discount Tire) about balancing them. I went to Big O and they have no issue touching them. Idk if they would install them, but it's easy to install your own tires.

-Bolt maintenance isn't a big issue, I just anti seize the bolts and check them occasionally. When I daily drove on beadlocks for a few years I initially was more anal and would check them a lot, now I almost never check them. I've never had a bolt get loose or back out, over thousands of street miles and a couple hundred race miles.

-I got beadlocks because it was cheaper than getting a locker and regearing etc. etc. and I did a lot of snow wheeling at the time. With beadlocks alone and no other modifications I could go further in snow than my buddy's with dual locked solid axle tacomas. If you think going to 10psi or high single digits in snow is fine, then you probably don't need them. I blew a couple beads at 8psi before in the snow, and like I said still didn't get the traction I wanted. With beadlocks I don't even bother airing down now unless I'm dropping to 4psi or lower, and it's common to go <1psi. The rim crushing the tire is ultimately the limiting factor in airing down (which I can speak from experience trying to jump a rock ledge at 4psi and bending a wheel).

Are they an expensive "mod"? Yea. Are the worth it? Unless you plan to rip around the dunes or sand at low single digit pressures probably not... With that said I think the beadlock "look" is really cool, but personally I'll never buy the poser fake ones. I've had 10x Trail Ready's now, both in 15s and 17s and no issues at all and really liked them. Debating what my next pair will be for my new buggy, though Trail Ready is hard to pass up, plus are 100% cast to machined in the USA.

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