Screamin Seeman Beadlock Installby Korda of Korda's XJ
Since I plan on installing a Ford front axle I needed to get a new set of rims with a 5 on 5.5” bolt pattern. I planned on buying a set of black steel wheels but thought I’d try my luck in the wanted section before heading out and buying brand new rims. I found a matching set for sale and the price was right. I picked up the wheels and took them to get the rust and powdercoat sandblasted off.
I hadn't originally planned on installing beadlocks but decided it would be foolish not to since I got such a good deal on the rims, they were already sandblasted clean and I was already swapping tires. My project also coincided with meeting Paul Seeman, owner/operator of Screamin’ Seamen Off Road in Faribault, MN. He has been laser cutting off road parts for a while now and mentioned he’d be interested in making some weld on beadlocks for most rim sizes. We talked about it and I paid for set of 8 rings, enough to beadlock 4 rims
The inner rings are designed so that they sit inside the little lip on the very outside of the rim. This makes welding and centering easy. It will also allow the lip of the rim to have some small dents in it and not effect installation of the ring.
On some rims there will be a small gap between the lip and the outside of the inner ring. The size of the gap will vary depending on your wheel manufacturer. Based on a half dozen sets I measured the gap should vary between 0” – 1/8”. My rims had the largest diameter I found so the gap was at the larger end of the scale.
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I decided to have Paul weld the inner rings to my wheels. He built a powered rotating fixture that he mounts the rims to for welding. He can adjust the speed infinitely and it provides the perfect base for welding on the rings.
As you can see, he gets a really good, uniform bead around the ring. You can also easily weld in the rings at home, I know many people who have done this themselves without any issues.
These rings use 36 bolts. You’ll need to get your own hardware; Paul recommends grade 5 bolts with nylock nuts. The bolts should only be tightened down to about 15 ft/lbs. With 36 of them a large amount of torque is not required.
I got the rims all painted up. Mounted the back bead on the rim and tried to center the tire the best I could.
Then begin the process of torqueing down the bolts. I tried a couple different methods and simply going around in a circle seemed to work best.
All done. They hold air perfect without any silicone on the welds. I have a feeling I'm going to need to re-center them and figure out a way to balance them. I've got some death-wobble at 35 mph but it might also be something on my new axle. |
