Budget Beadlock Install

Offroad Overstock is marketing a new weld on beadlock kit. The kits include 4 ea. 24 hole 1/4" thick weld in rings, 4 ea. 24 hole 1/4" outer rings.

Use a flap wheel and remove the paint around the outer perimeter of the wheel.

Then drop in the ring and use several lock washers to space the ring evenly.

Place several tack welds 180* from each other.

Weld the entire ring in using a setting for 1/4" material.

Then flap wheel the spatter off of the ring and clean up the welds as necessary. Prime and paint.

Next your stock valve stem has to be replaced with a 90* valve stem and the outer ring can be installed. In this case 2" 3/8" bolts and nylock nuts were used. The thickness of your tires bead will determine bolt length. Bolts are then torqued to 20 ft. lbs. which required several retorques to obtain. Coning of outer rings seems to be a debated topic. Here's my opinion: Minimal coning of the outer ring to the point it matches the angle of the tire bead is a GOOD thing. This insures a good seal between the complete tire bead and ring. In this case the coning was roughly 1/4" at the inner diameter of the ring.

Keep in mind that if you have a rim that has a LOT of backspacing. It is common for them to actually flip the rim around and use the inner bead as the outer...if this is the case you will not be able to get the tire over that outer bead...these beadlocks will not work for you...infact no DIY beadlock will.

We have found that manufactures of 16.5 inch rims differ in there measurements of a 16.5 inch rim. Our inner ring measures 16-15/16, it needs to drop down just inside the lip as shown above.