When
was the last time you were driving your pride and joy [I am talking about your
Land Rover here nothing else] along some ruts or pushing it hard into a corner
and had the frustrating experience of rolling a tire bead off the rim? Well I
have not done it for quite some time but it is not fun. I think the last time I
did it was in
I
have tried various options to counter this problem from running tubes to the
Second Air System. I’ve never really liked traditional Bead Locks as they only
protect the outside bead and not the inside. I once had a friend who put self
tapping screws through the rim into the tire bead inside and out on all his
tires to hold the bead. A bit drastic but effective! I have been looking for a
better solution for quite some time and think I have found it.
These
double Beadlock Rims are produced by
Whilst I was only interested in them for the Discovery Short Ass project,
OK they look good but how strong are they? These rims are rotary machine
welded by a certified welder for a claimed perfect weld every time. When I
inspected them they looked solid, strong and well put together. One complaint I
would have here though was that many of the holes stamped through for bolting
the two rim sides together were not great. Some holes retained the “donut
hole” section and had to be punched out whilst others were drilled extremely
close to the edge making it quite hard to get the nuts on the rear to bed down
easily. This was not a big issue but you need to be aware of it if you ever get
some of these rims.
The double beadlock rims have a pressed punch
center and a cold roll 3/8 laser cut ring with a machined
O-ring groove to provide an easy seal and unseal for trail disassembly. Now
it took us on average 1 hour per tire and rim assembly with air tools so trail
repair may be mechanically easy but it will not be time and wrist easy. I think
you would also have to take the longer all threads [see installation
instructions below] with you to help seating the rims back together.
If you want some of these rims for your Land Rover make sure you are NOT
in a hurry. Their production run is currently only 2 sets per day therefore the
typical delivery time is about 4 weeks. Keith Kreutzer [my co-driver and owner
of Rovertracks] worked with
USA
6x6 for
some time to get precisely what we wanted. Future
If you want some of these Rims
for your Land Rover they can be ordered through Keith Kreutzer at Rovertracks by
emailing him at keith@rovertracks.com
, tell him I sent you.
Also look out for the write up in LRM magazine
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The following comes from our experience putting them together and some
reading online. They are not the official installation instructions mainly
because the rims did not come with an instruction sheet, something they need to
consider providing.
Putting the Rims together was not overly difficult but was time consuming.
Everything you need except soapy water, grease and a drill & bit were
supplied with the kit. Interestingly they do not drill the valve stem holes
leaving that to the purchaser. It is not hard being a simple ½ inch hole so you
can place it virtually wherever you want in the dropwell section of the outside
rim section. Make sure you check internal clearances with the PVC insert before
drilling to make sure you get a good spot. By the time I had drilled two of
these my cordless drill was out of puff and the old standby plug in drill was
forced into action. Make sure you install the valve stem at this stage as you
cannot do it once the Rim is together.
Next we
installed the PVC insert into the tires. By we, I mean Keith Kreutzer and
another club member Ralph Brandt. This was not easy as our Simex Tires have
extremely hard beads and do not have much flex. In the end we needed soapy water
for lubrication, 2 pry bars, knees and copious amounts of pushing and shoving to
get the PVC inners through and into the tires.
Placing the
back half of the rims on some 4” x 2” boards on top of a flat cardboard
surface we could then position the tire into place. Given that the Simex tires
are directional we also had to ensure that they were pointing in the right
direction. Some soapy water was applied to the bead to help them slip easier.
The first
“O” ring we tried to install was destroyed. The next few instructions are
based on what we found worked.
To
help the “O” ring slide into place we applied lots of grease to the back
portion of the rim in and around where the “O” ring would sit. The “O”
rings supplied were a little small to just sit in place however stretched into
place when the rims were tightened down. This may have been because it was about
0 degrees Fahrenheit when we were doing this, far to cold for putting tires on
rims.
When putting the tire onto the back half of the rim we made sure that the
internal PVC section was centered to slide over with ease[ I say with ease
slightly tongue in cheek because it is a tight fit]. Once
the beadlock and rim was seated squarely we put more soapy water on the outside
bead to allow the outside of the rim to be positioned.
At this point we placed the “O-ring in the groove section on top of the
grease that we had previously applied to ensure it slide into place.
At this stage it would have been helpful for the kit to have supplied some
longer all threads to help position the two rim sides together. We actually
bought some and cut 4 pieces to 6 inches long with appropriate nuts. These were
then placed around the rim to help align top and bottom and to start the process
of bringing the two halves together. We then tightened these down in turn until
there was about a 1 inch between the two rim pieces. At this stage we inserted
all of the remaining bolts. When inserting them we had to ensure that they all
went through on the outside of the “O” ring to give it a stop guide when
continuing the tightening. If you do not check this then you will destroy the
“O” ring and the rims will not seal.
From there we tightened down all of the remaining bolts by circling them
over many rounds. We made sure we did not go too far in any particular spot so
as to get an even torque around and protect the “O” ring This process was
made much easier with one of us holding a spanner [read wrench] on the nut
whilst the other tightened down the bolt. As stated above some of the holes
needed to be punched clear as some metal had been left over in the cutting
process.
This whole job was done with the rims laying down. This was to allow the
“O” ring to seat properly which may not have happened if the rims were
standing up. Whilst more of a pain this way at least we were assured of a clean
join.
Other than pumping the tires up and putting them on the Discovery that was
about it. I’ll let you know how they perform after the event.
 |