Lock em up Dano – Beadlocks What?

| October 6, 2009 | 0 Comments

There is nothing worse than a flat tire on the trail.  Avoid those situations with these options and learn about beadlocks in the process.

By Shannon Bushman   www.xxxoffroad.com

What the Internals of a BeadLock System looks like.

What the Internals of a BeadLock System looks like.

Before God created the UTV he gave me ATVs.  Several of them.  In all my ATV riding I never managed to unseat a tire bead.   When the Angels delivered my Polaris RZR I had a hard time really understanding the whole “Bead Lock” issue.  I had similar difficulty understanding why some UTV riders carried a spare tire. In fact, for a while I thought it was just a bling thing.  The “I want to look Jeepish” effect.  I know why the big boys run bead locks.  They run their tires at really low pressures in the rocks and without
beadlocks the tire will peal right off the rim.  But I had run low pressure on my ATVs for years and never had that problem.

I soon found out that beadlocks and spares are both pretty good ideas for a UTV and some of you might still be wondering why you need them.

Well the answer is generally the same for both.  Weight.  No I didn’t gain 300lbs when I bought my RZR but I did start carrying more stuff with me, a passenger,  etc etc.  That extra weight added up quickly.  Fully loaded my RZR weighs three times what my ATV weighs.

I still haven’t managed to completely unseat a bead myself but when I got the RZR jammed cross ways in the Escalator Obstacle on Hells Revenge in Moab and the air

Single Beadlock

Single Beadlock

started pissing out of the bead it became clear.  It’s just not that hard, even for the casual rider, to unseat a bead.

Several Types of Beadlocks Identified
So I’ve been on a quest to sort out this whole beadlock thing and here is what I’ve found. There are several types of “Bead Locks” from quite a few manufacturers.

Type 1:  Single Side.  This is a clamp style beadlock that simply pinches the tire bead on one side of the tire, holding it firm.  This is generally what we see on the big rigs.  The main problem on a full size 4×4 is that when the tire is running low pressure it can have so much grip that the rim actually turns inside the tire and quick unseats the bead.  The Single side bead lock is usually facing the outside and only locks the bead on one side of the tire.

Double BeadLock

Double BeadLock

Type 2: Double Beadlocks.  This type clamps the tire on both sides of the rim.  From what I have seen UTVs generally don’t suffer so much from the rim spinning inside the tire because of too much traction.  Generally the bead becomes unseated do to direct pressure on the tire like jamming it against rocks or being on a side hill.  This can happen on either side of the tire and having a beadlock on both sides helps a great deal.

Type 3: Internal Beadlocks.  This type of beadlock secures the bead from the inside of the tire.  Imagine an inner tube that only fills the tire cavity to a few inches above the point where the rim and tire bead meet.  This inner tube is inflated to a fairly high pressure which keep the tire wall from moving inwards when pressure is applied to the outside thus preventing the bead from unseating.  An added benefit is that this inner tube also helps prevent pinched side walls.   One version of this type uses a bunch of inflated rubber balls placed into the tire cavity.

One Style of Internal Beadlocks

One Style of Internal Beadlocks

Don’t confuse rim re-enforcing rings with beadlocks.  Some manufacturers offer rim re-enforcing rings that stiffen the outer edge of your rims.  A few weeks ago when a fellow rider whacked a big rock at high speed he not only split the side wall on the tire but caved in the edge of a forged aluminum rim.  Re-enforcing rings likely would have prevented the bent rim but not the spilt sidewall.
My Plan
At this point I am leaning toward the internal beadlocks.  The double benefit of having both sides of the tire bead locked and some prevention of pinched sidewalls seems worth the extra dollars to me.  The problem is that nobody knows you have them.  They are invisible so if you need that Jeepish look the Type 1 or Type 2 beadlocks are for you.

Rim Reinforcing Rings

Rim Reinforcing Rings

That Spare Tire

Remember that bit at the start of my ramblings about the spare tire?  Well its related to this whole bead lock thing, really it is.  Virtually every flat tire I have seen on a UTV has been a pinched sidewall.  This is usually the result of hitting a rock or ledge at sufficient speed to compress the tire between the rim and the obstacle enough to pinch a slice in the side wall.  Usually this is a significant gash that cannot be repaired with your typical plug patch. Some have been big enough to slip 4 fingers inside the tire.  Hence the need for a spare tire.

If you like to go fast like I do, climb the nasty rocks like I do, haul ass in the dunes the way I do, then both beadlocks and rim re-enforcing rings might be a good idea.  Hmm, now I just need to test some to see which ones are the best.

By Shannon Bushman.  Shannon is the author of the “Paiute ATV Trial Guide”. He can found anywhere from Colorado to California driving recklessly and shooting video or broadcasting LIVE from the trail for XXXoffroad.   Check out XXXoffroadTV on the front page of XXXoffroad.com.

beadlocks

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