Thread: Inflatable Bead Lockers

A few guys at my 4wd club had them and went back to mechanical bead locks. The reason was the internal bead locks still allowed mud and crap to get between the rim and bead, which caused a few issues which I have no further detail of.
I think that the internal bead locks are allowed on the road where the mechanical bead locks are illeagal for road use.
I have been told that bead locks are only neccessary if you are running 15psi or less in the tyres.

Have a search on outerlimits. I think RUFF was one of the guys who had them, and gave some detailed posts.

Bottom line was - huge PITA to fit, and he wouldn't buy them 2nd time around.

I ran them on Lara

Were absolutely brilliant... Only sold them to fund something else as my 4wdriving style had changed...

Going to get them again soon for the D2...

Yes, they are a bit hard to fit initially, but you learn to do it easy....

Just keep pressures up... I ran lots of mud and sand and never got anything in the bead...

They are also a great safety device actually - a blow out wont drop the vehicle to the rim or force it off the rim.

Thanks for the replies so far.
Will they help keep tubeless tyres on the 130s non safety rims?

I along with a couple of mates(yeah I have one or two) are in the never buy them again camp.I'm happy to be shown where I was doing it wrong,but there is no way I can think of insuring and knowing positively that the tube cover has successfully centred itself against the bead seat of the rim upon inflation. In many instances the cover ends up eccentric with the rim and a portion of the tube ends up getting pinched between the beaded edge of the tube cover and the tyre, leading to tube failure.

Also I believe that strictly speaking they are not legal either, because you have to drill an additional hole in the rim to inflate the tube.

It may have been mentioned before on other threads, but it's worth pointing out again that mechanical beadlocks won't work on LandRovers that have reversed rims such as 110s Defenders etc. The distance from the well to the outer bead seat is too wide to allow the tyre to be levered over the rim flange. The wide outer bead seat however is less likely to let a low pressure tyre to pop its bead anyway.
Wagoo.

Had a set for several years now, never had any issues, can highly recommend. I had mine fitted by a tyre fitter with experience with these things.

Never had dirt in bead issues, I can only think those that do aren't running the right pressures. Or, perhaps, it's because I don't go below 10psi in the tyre unlike some OL forumites.

I also understand it's illegal to modify a wheel, but it's ok to commission wheels suitably drilled.

Regards
Max P

If the wheel is drilled by a wheel shop (like Eastern Wheel Works) then it's legal....

Never had eccentricity issues with mine and they balanced up well with minimal weights (not much different to pre-fit weight)

When fitting, talc is the key to allow them to set in the tyre correctly.

Originally Posted by wagoo

I along with a couple of mates(yeah I have one or two) are in the never buy them again camp.I'm happy to be shown where I was doing it wrong,but there is no way I can think of insuring and knowing positively that the tube cover has successfully centred itself against the bead seat of the rim upon inflation. In many instances the cover ends up eccentric with the rim and a portion of the tube ends up getting pinched between the beaded edge of the tube cover and the tyre, leading to tube failure.

Also I believe that strictly speaking they are not legal either, because you have to drill an additional hole in the rim to inflate the tube.

It may have been mentioned before on other threads, but it's worth pointing out again that mechanical beadlocks won't work on LandRovers that have reversed rims such as 110s Defenders etc. The distance from the well to the outer bead seat is too wide to allow the tyre to be levered over the rim flange. The wide outer bead seat however is less likely to let a low pressure tyre to pop its bead anyway.
Wagoo.

Yeah, but there's no bead seat in a standard 130 rim designed for a tubed tyre.