beadlocks?

[builtFORDtough]

anybody ever weld on their own beadlock rings? i was thinking of doing it, i found a set of 4 for 210$ on ebay!

[05MoabTJ]

I've never seen anyone weld them on, I have simulated bolt on beads, cause the real beads are illegal on the street  ~innocent, I love mine, they protect the expensive wheel from damage and actually provide traction like a sidewall on the tire does when I'm crawling rocks and layed all the way over and draging the wheels along the rocks.  Good find.

 ~punk

[Mikegyver1]

I bought my rings from OffroadOverstock.com for $229.oo  They were slow on the shipping, took about 3 weeks. ~2guns
It took quite awhile to get them right.  ~hammer I didn't short cut on the welding by running a bead of RTV around the outside edge (to seal any air leaks) I ground out the weld and rewelded sometimes three or four times. None of them leak air. Scale of 1-10 its was a 6. Had them balance at a local tire shop no problem.
Would I do it again. Think I would buy them ready to go.



I'm glad I have them. ~punk

[HURLEYGO3]

i have done 2 sets and as long as you can or know someone that can weld their not to bad to do.

[Jerry Bransford]

I've never seen anyone weld them on, I have simulated bolt on beads, cause the real beads are illegal on the street 

That's really just an old wive's tale here in California, they are absolutely 100% legal in California.  Not even the DOT in Washington DC has anything against them, I have a copy of a letter from a DOT representative saying that. This is a rumor that is darned hard to kill, that is for sure.  :)

[builtFORDtough]

id like to see that, where and who did you get that from? that seems like a good thing to carry around in the truck with myself, mikegyver1, ect.... thanks

[HURLEYGO3]

I've never seen anyone weld them on, I have simulated bolt on beads, cause the real beads are illegal on the street 

That's really just an old wive's tale here in California, they are absolutely 100% legal in California.  Not even the DOT in Washington DC has anything against them, I have a copy of a letter from a DOT representative saying that. This is a rumor that is darned hard to kill, that is for sure.  :)

The deal with beadlocks is not being DOT approved. There are only 2 that I know of that have been approved, Staun is one of them. You would be better off with a set of DOT wheels with the rings welded on. There is no law that says they are not legal, but if the wheel is not DOT than they are not legal. So if there is no DOT stamp they are not legal.

[Jerry Bransford]

I've never seen anyone weld them on, I have simulated bolt on beads, cause the real beads are illegal on the street 

That's really just an old wive's tale here in California, they are absolutely 100% legal in California.  Not even the DOT in Washington DC has anything against them, I have a copy of a letter from a DOT representative saying that. This is a rumor that is darned hard to kill, that is for sure.  :)

The deal with beadlocks is not being DOT approved. There are only 2 that I know of that have been approved, Staun is one of them. You would be better off with a set of DOT wheels with the rings welded on. There is no law that says they are not legal, but if the wheel is not DOT than they are not legal. So if there is no DOT stamp they are not legal.

I'll post up the letter from DOT tonight, they really don't care. :)

[05MoabTJ]

That's really good to know Jerry.  If an officer wanted to write a ticket he could easily find other things like no flares (splash guards), no side markers or turn signals or license plate light that i see all the time on Jeeps.  When the doors come off most guys don't relocate their mirror and go without like me   ~oops . 

[Jerry Bransford]

That's really good to know Jerry.  If an officer wanted to write a ticket he could easily find other things like no flares (splash guards), no side markers or turn signals or license plate light that i see all the time on Jeeps.  When the doors come off most guys don't relocate their mirror and go without like me   ~oops . 

Yep I agree.  One more thing, I work with cops and have a couple cop friends who are also Jeepers and they have verified there is no California vehicle code law they can use to cite anyone for driving with bead locks.  Unless there's a specific California Vehicle Code they can use to cite against, they cannot issue a citation. 

Edit:  I found a copy of the federal DOT letter I mentioned above that clearly states the feds have zero issue with beadlocked wheels on our daily driver Jeeps. 

"Dear Mr. C,

I received this message from NHTSA this morning:

There are no performance or design requirements for rims covered under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 120. However, there are rim marking requirements in S5.2 and rim selection requirements in S5.3.2. Note that in S5.2, a reference is made to rims of multi-piece construction, and this implies that these multi-piece rims are allowed. The bead lock rim appears to be a multi-piece rim and there is nothing that I?m aware of that would prohibit them from being used for on-road vehicles. I have attached a copy of the standard. It may be that some State DOTs are regulating them.

Hope this helps some

Sincerely,
Reference Services
National Transportation Library
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Research and Innovative Technology Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation"

The bottom line is that at least here in California, there are no legal issues against running beadlocked wheels.  Other states may not be so fortunate since an individual state DOT would have the legal right to make them illegal if they wanted to.  :)

[jchappy]

The only issue i see if if the rims are not DOT approved and are For off road use ONLY
Maybe alot of the older beadlocks were not DOT approved ,anyone know if the newer beadlocks are?

[Jerry Bransford]

The only issue i see if if the rims are not DOT approved and are For off road use ONLY

Again, there is no California or federal law that says non-DOT approved bead lock wheels are for offroad use only here in California.  Those manufacturers of beadlock wheels saying theirs are for off-road use only just doing a CYA because they can't be sure of each individual state's laws so they're just doing a CYA.

Once again, there is NO California, DOT, federal or any other law that says bead lock wheels are for offroad use only here in California.  And so far, no one in similar threads has ever been able to come up with a state law that says that either, with a few eastern states probably being the most likely to possibly have such a law. :)

[HURLEYGO3]

DOT is a federal standard that is put in place for any builder of auto parts to meet.  it is up to the builder to put the stamp on the product. the stamp means that it is up to the standards of DOT. there are no laws that say a beadlock is not legal. but if you are involved in an accident because a non DOT part failed that is where the laws come into place. so drive on any wheel or an part for that matter that is not DOT approved and it is in your hands when someone sues you. i have had many sets of beadlocks and the only one that was DOT was the Stauns. DOT stamp or not its not going to stop me from driving them on the road.

[Jerry Bransford]

but if you are involved in an accident because a non DOT part failed that is where the laws come into place.

How many of your add-ons you have installed have a DOT approval and exactly what law (afterall, there are no laws that make them illegal to run on the street in Calif.) comes into play if you have an accident running a non-DOT approved wheel? 

I'm not here trying to create an argument but it took me years to finally get my arms around this beadlock wheel thing.  There are so many rumors floating around that I just hate to see the old rumors perpetually repeated that non-DOT approved beadlock tires are illegal for use on the street here in California.  They're not illegal here in California and there are no laws that can be used against you if you have an accident while running non-DOT approved wheels.   :)

[HURLEYGO3]

i don't know if you read what i said? i did not say there was a law agaist them. but if a DOT part fails and for some reason you are involved in an accident. you are the one that is going to pay. not your insurance. i work in the auto business. i can tell you that i now of 2 people that have been sued from the people that rear ended them. both people had aftermarket tail lights that where not DOT approved and they got rear ended. both claims where dropped from the insurance companies and they where sued by the people that rear ended them. so like i said before it is in your hands to drive on the wheels. i have beadlocks on my DD.

[Jerry Bransford]

i don't know if you read what i said? i did not say there was a law agaist them. but if a DOT part fails and for some reason you are involved in an accident. you are the one that is going to pay. not your insurance.

You certainly DID say non-DOT approved wheels were illegal to use so if they are not legal, you are saying there is a law against their use.  If there is no law against their use as you are also saying, then they are legal.

And RE-READ the letter from the DOT.  That letter CLEARLY STATES THE DOT HAS NO ISSUE WITH BEADLOCK WHEELS AND THEREFORE THE DOT HAS NO PROBLEM WITH BEADLOCK WHEELS.

I also assume you meant if a non-DOT part fails you will pay... but how can they make you pay if there is no federal or state law mandating we run DOT wheels?  They can't.  Once again, there is no federal or California law requiring DOT approved wheels here in California so they are 100% legal to run here in California... and the insurance industry cannot say anything about running a wheel with no law against it. 

With this, I am done in this thread.  Some of this thread has gotten pretty silly so I will just say that it is completely legal to believe what you want to believe. ;)

[Big boy]

The End ~clap

[dezertcrawlin]

Man all this DOT talk.  And we drive lifted vehicles ~clown

Heres a link to a guy doing them on another forum im apart of
http://www.thewebwheeler.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33834#post33834

[Jerry Bransford]

Man all this DOT talk.  And we drive lifted vehicles ~clown

Heres a link to a guy doing them on another forum im apart of
http://www.thewebwheeler.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33834#post33834

Nice link, that's very cool when someone has the welding skills to do their own beadlock conversions.  I'd try it if my wheels were steel but they're aluminum so they're going to be converted by Champion up in Corona.

[spiderjp]

the law is for 2 piece wheel actually from semis it was called split rims in Cali they out lawed them cause mamed too many people so technically beadlocks fall in this catagory but I have personally run beadlocks for 5 years now and never had a problem thats why american racing wont sell them or advertise them