ecoli
03-04-2008, 09:57 AM
I recently purchased some MSD beadlocks after reading numerous good reviews on them. There's a lot of tech and time that has gone into these wheels, and so far I've been extremely happy with them. However, the one thing I found a huge pain was mounting tires. The wheels are quite narrow in profile, so I found I kept having a small portion of the bead that didn't get locked down when I put on the beadlock ring. However, after much aggravation, I figured out a very simple procedure to get the bead locked into place.
First, get all your stuff together. I'm mounting Rock Claws with Ace's donuts memory foams. MSD beadlock bolt heads are 2mm in size.
http://i27.tinypic.com/343n7lg.jpg
Next, place your tire with foam over the wheel. For what I did, you need to mount the front first. Just line up the bead of your tire with the groove in the wheel and mount up the beadlock ring.
http://i31.tinypic.com/ojf4ph.jpg
Next, what I did was take a chunk of round steel rod, and covered with paper towel. The diameter of the rod was just under the diameter of the inside of the wheel
http://i32.tinypic.com/2lkz05u.jpg
I could then place the wheel on top of the covered rod and push the tire down and physically seat it on the beadlock groove, rather than start screwing from "above" and hope that everything lined up.
http://i31.tinypic.com/vzf1qr.jpg
I generally started with two screws opposite of each other, then added in another two screws and screwed all four down almost tight. I would then adjust the tire to ensure that only the bead was under the beadlock ring. Once this was done, I would screw in the additional four screws and make sure everything was tight.
Once done, the bead of the tire is held in tight. It's not going anywhere until I either remove the ring, or rip the whole bead right off the tire!
http://i31.tinypic.com/34i1vlx.jpg
Note that the memory foam is definitely easier to work with than the stock foams, so you may not have to do what I did when I originally mounted my rock claws with stock foams. However, if you are working with stock foams, this simple tip may help you with those harder to mount tires!
First, get all your stuff together. I'm mounting Rock Claws with Ace's donuts memory foams. MSD beadlock bolt heads are 2mm in size.
http://i27.tinypic.com/343n7lg.jpg
Next, place your tire with foam over the wheel. For what I did, you need to mount the front first. Just line up the bead of your tire with the groove in the wheel and mount up the beadlock ring.
http://i31.tinypic.com/ojf4ph.jpg
Next, what I did was take a chunk of round steel rod, and covered with paper towel. The diameter of the rod was just under the diameter of the inside of the wheel
http://i32.tinypic.com/2lkz05u.jpg
I could then place the wheel on top of the covered rod and push the tire down and physically seat it on the beadlock groove, rather than start screwing from "above" and hope that everything lined up.
http://i31.tinypic.com/vzf1qr.jpg
I generally started with two screws opposite of each other, then added in another two screws and screwed all four down almost tight. I would then adjust the tire to ensure that only the bead was under the beadlock ring. Once this was done, I would screw in the additional four screws and make sure everything was tight.
Once done, the bead of the tire is held in tight. It's not going anywhere until I either remove the ring, or rip the whole bead right off the tire!
http://i31.tinypic.com/34i1vlx.jpg
Note that the memory foam is definitely easier to work with than the stock foams, so you may not have to do what I did when I originally mounted my rock claws with stock foams. However, if you are working with stock foams, this simple tip may help you with those harder to mount tires!