X1994J

First lay out your rings, make sure everything looks right. You want about an 1/8" gap between the inner beadlock ring and the lip of the wheel. You can see here a small gap all the way around. You will be filling this with weld as you weld them on.


Next put on your safety glasses and necessary PPE. Take a grinder / sander, whatever you have at your disposal and remove the paint and/or coating from the lip of the wheel.


A couple things for the next step as you get your rings ready to weld to the wheel. Make sure you turn the inner ring to where the valve stem is between two bolt holes. If the valve stem is directly in line with one of the bolts your valve stem will be in contact with the bolt once they are mounted up and it makes airing up/down a pain.

Find some washers, in this case I used two pennies for each side, just something that once slid in between the wheel and ring centers the ring in the wheel. You can see in this picture I have them placed across from each other both ways to keep the ring centered before welding.


Next get out your welding PPE and go to town. I place one 4 to 6 inch weld on the rim, then another opposite the first one. I do this to each wheel, then come back to the first one and do it again, working in a cycle to keep the rims from getting too hot and warping. Continue until you've completely welded the rings to the wheels. Here is what it should look like as you go...


I then take a flapper disc and clean up any slag or high spots on the welds real quick. I don't take much off here, just a quick once over to clean them up before painting.


Shove a towel or some paper into the wheel if you're worried about over spray on the wheel. If not, just go to town. Then a little primer and paint.



Once they're done you can start mounting them up. I've always heard 20 to 25 ft. lb's on each bolt. Just start with two bolts across from each other and keep going around, and around until they're all evenly tight. PIece of cake.

tntchitwood

Please excuse my ignorance on the subject, but how does this lock the bead to the rim? With the ring on the inside lip of the rim, the bolts won't even touch the lip of the tire? sorry guys, I am stupid and stumped, I thought the bolts went through the lip/bead of the tire. Are these just for looks?
Tom

X1994J

Let me try to explain... this is just the inner ring. When you mount your tire up, the outer bead of the tire will sit ON TOP of this inner ring. You will then put the outer ring on top of the tire, and clamp the outer ring down, sandwiching the outer bead of the tire between the two rings. Hence "bead lock".

mtparker97

great write up. are the rings a DIY or did you buy them made?

X1994J

I give the designs to my buddy and he cuts them out on his water jet at work.

When we mount a set of tires on this new set i'll get more pics of the process....

Here is the last set I did on my rig.

mtparker97

nice didnt think about that. got a buddy with a cnc machine. what size material did you make them out of? never really looked into them so i dunno figured best time and place to ask right?

wildspear

do you have some pics with the bead locks mounted on the jeep?

wildspear

sorry, just saw the pics you posted. disregard my other post

X1994J

Just 1/4" plate.

jeep bandit

whats the hole in the wheel well for?

X1994J

Just for looks, you dont like it?

Desert Rat

Wow, I was way off. I guessed it was for cargo cooling.

X1994J

I guess it could work for that too.

mwdouglas

i know this will sound really retarded but i have never used bead locks so do you mount the tire on the rim like normal like i said i have never used or mounted them so im a little confused i assumed it would be like drag rims were you run your bolt through the rim into the bead of the tire i did see you posted that the pics are of the inner ring so does the outer bed not get mounted onto the rim but gets sandwiched between the ring welded on and the ring bolted to the other ring with the outer bead in between rings

greenzj

hey man i have a quick ? for you i want to do this to my wagon wheels.. it looks like ur rims are 15 inch could you get me the measurements of the rings?