Do you need bead lock wheels for overlanding?

[Jose]

Gm fellas, sorry for the newbie question. But I'm starting to get my Jeep ready for overlanding and seen some videos and have seen some or some don't run any bead locks on their rigs. I've seen them go over some boulders and rocks but those are usually short videos and really don't know the outcome if they have popped off or not.

Is it necessary, or do you have to have bead locks on your overland rig just incase or will regular wheels be sufficient when airing down if needed to tackle some rocks an boulders when hitting trails that do have rocks and boulders to get to your destination?

Thanks Jose

 

[Daniel Etter]

I don't have bead locks on my vehicle and never had an issue when I air down. I never take the tires below 20 psi since they already have a large surface area (35x12.5 tires). I've rock crawled and have tackled various terrains without problems, knock on wood. They are useful if you want to take the tire pressure down very low, such as 12psi or lower and running them at that level for an extended period of time. I would like to get them in the future for peace of mind, but they are not really necessary in my opinion.

 

[Masheen365]

Short answer, I would say no. There are a lot of things that can be done with non bead lockers. But, like already said, don't air down too far.

I'll add a piggyback question if it's alright, are there any drawbacks to bead locks? (Besides price)

 

[Jose]

Short answer, I would say no. There are a lot of things that can be done with non bead lockers. But, like already said, don't air down too far.

I'll add a piggyback question if it's alright, are there any drawbacks to bead locks? (Besides price)

That's a good question that I forgot to mentioned. And thanks for the info Masheen.

 

[Jose]

I don't have bead locks on my vehicle and never had an issue when I air down. I never take the tires below 20 psi since they already have a large surface area (35x12.5 tires). I've rock crawled and have tackled various terrains without problems, knock on wood. They are useful if you want to take the tire pressure down very low, such as 12psi or lower and running them at that level for an extended period of time. I would like to get them in the future for peace of mind, but they are not really necessary in my opinion.

That's was my concern on to how low do you need to air down or will be able to air down before you have any issues crossing rock trails and having a bead pop off the rim. I'm probably going to being doing some low or intermediate rock trails when and if you need to cross them to get to where you going. I just want to be prepared since I will be exploring with the wife and two boys. Thanks for the info and advice.

 

[Daniel Etter]

@Masheen365 I've heard that the bolts can become corroded, in certain states they are illegal for road use, if you take the ring off the tire needs rebalanced, and they require a little more maintenance (checking bolt torque regularly). This is all hearsay though.

 

[Jose]

@Masheen365 I've heard that the bolts can become corroded, in certain states they are illegal for road use, if you take the ring off the tire needs rebalanced, and they require a little more maintenance (checking bolt torque regularly). This is all hearsay though.

I've heard the same from the techs at the 4Wheels parts store here in Orlando, that the bolts need to have anti seize on them cause of the metal to aluminum contact and for street legal the wheels can't have less than 30 bolts on the face of them. That was told to me by the tech. Don't know if they would have other drawbacks though than that.

 

[sfsmedic]

I ran tires without bead locks on my old long travel truck running into the 10-12 psi range. 35" tires on 15" rims. The sideways force doesn't get much harder than that and never lost a bead. I run my tires at 15psi now in the Tacoma on 33s with 16" tires and again never lost a bead (knock on wood) nor do I have fear of it. Are they NEEDED, definitely not.

With that said we did run the staun internal bead locks on our race trucks because well while it never happened we'd be damned if we were going to lose a race because of it.

The old LT truck and yes I was hard on this truck as I am all my trucks.

The current overland rig that has a habit of crawling.

 

[sfsmedic]

An interesting thing: 10 years ago or so 4Wheel and Offroad magazine did an article showing most de beads actually happen on the inner side of the rim and once the bead breaks the seal its the outer bead of the tire that pops off. So think about that for a minute. Granted that's when they were discussing the Staun Bead locks. Btw if they still make those they are awesome. They work in any rim and have no bolts. Just an extra hole for the second valve stem which inflates the internal bead.

 

[Jose]

Sweet thanks for all your advice and info guys very much appreciated. On that note I'll be getting some regular aluminum rim and using the extra money I would have spent on bead locks towards more overland gear. [emoji106][emoji106]

 

[MarkW]

Are they necessary? As other has said absolutely not but there definitely advantages to having them. You can safely run at 15 PSI or even a little lower on a standard wheel but there is always a chance of losing a bead. I run at 10 psi or lower and enjoy the extra traction let alone the knowledge I don't have to worry about a bead but it's by no means necessary. I have been running dual bead locks on my truck for the past 7 1/2 years with zero issues and really no additional maintenance. As far a being street legal or not mine have a DOT stamp on them stating they are legal and I forget who it was but a bead lock manufacturer has been offering a fairly large reward for years for anybody that can find a law specifically stating they are not legal. Have never heard the 30 bolt requirement but mine are street legal with 16. I wouldn't put a lot of faith in what they tell you at 4 Wheel Parts Orlando at least when it comes to bead locks. I bought my last set of tires from them and they would not mount them on the wheels if they were on the truck because they were bead locks and not street legal. I showed the manager the DOT stamps but he just said it was policy and nothing he could do. So I took two off and drove them down there, told them when done with those two I would bring two more down to do. I got a call hours later that he was able to get the old tire off one but after hours of trying still had not been able to get the new tire started on the rim let alone on and that they could not mount them. Told him not to touch the other one and went to pick them up. In 5-6 hours they could only get one tire off and couldn't even mount the new one yet I did all 4 in my garage in about 3 hours. About a year later they started posting on Pirate about how they were now selling Hutchinson bead locks and a friend pointed out they may want to train their guys on how to mount them first.

 

[Jose]

That's good to know! I guess they just wanted me to stay away from getting them back then cause they probably didn't want to work or no it them. Lol. I've also been looking at Northridge 4x4, and Quadratec to buy stuff cause I've noticed that 4wheel parts say they have stuff but then when you order it's all on back order.

 

[MarkW]

I rarely even consider looking at 4 wheel parts when shopping for items. It's not that they are bad but I can usually find things cheaper and since I don't have a Jeep they don't have a lot for me anyway.

 

[Jose]

Lol!!! That's right I keep forgetting until I click on your avatar and see your rig. Cause by looking at it quickly it looks like a jeep.

 

[MarkW]

Lol!!! That's right I keep forgetting until I click on your avatar and see your rig. Cause by looking at it quickly it looks like a jeep.

Yeah, at at quick glance the H3 and the JKU can look pretty similar.

 

[Michael]

It depends on the overland journey but in general I would say no. I've been on pretty nasty stuff, and never blown a bead.

 

[Jose]

It depends on the overland journey but in general I would say no. I've been on pretty nasty stuff, and never blown a bead.

I'm pretty sure your rig is a bit heavier than my jeep or at least I think it is and correct me if I'm wrong, but how low of air on your tires have you gone if you do not mind me asking. Also does it depend on tire size on how much you can air down? Thanks

 

[MarkW]

I'm pretty sure your rig is a bit heavier than my jeep or at least I think it is and correct me if I'm wrong, but how low of air on your tires have you gone if you do not mind me asking. Also does it depend on tire size on how much you can air down? Thanks

Tire and rim size combination is going to be a factor. The lower profile tire the less you can air down before your risk of damaging your rim increases. For example I can air down my 35s more on my 16" rims than somebody could with 18" rims.

 

[Jose]

Tire and rim size combination is going to be a factor. The lower profile tire the less you can air down before your risk of damaging your rim increases. For example I can air down my 35s more on my 16" rims than somebody could with 18" rims.

Cool! That's good info as I'm going to be running either 33" or 35" tires with 17.9" rims. Hopefully I won't need to air down that much but maybe between 15-20 if needed. Again thanks Mark.

 

[MarkW]

Happy to help whenever I can. I think you should be fine and you will notice a big difference just dropping to 20 psi. Unfortunately you have to run a lift to run 35s don't you?