All experienced 4wheelers know that running lower air pressure off-highway increases traction and improves the ride immensely. For those that have chosen to run bias ply tires, (which generally have stiffer sidewalls than their radial brethren) that may mean lowering air pressure into the single digits. If you run these ultra low air pressures it's just a matter of time and terrain until one of these bad boy meats crawls off it's proper place on your wheel... and usually in a spot that is next to impossible to get the bead reseated without some major McGuyvering.

On two occasions, this single digit phenomenon reared it's ugly head on the Rockn'FJ in spots that required entirely too much of the aforementioned McGuyvering. I was just plain tired (pun intended) of attempting to jack, remove and remount my Swampers while standing in a five foot deep rut... especially one that's loaded with ultra-sticky slime. I needed beadlocks.

With perfect timing, our friends at the Four X Doctor called to let us know about a new beadlock wheel to hit the market from Allied Racing Wheels. The Doc himself, Mike Duncan, was in the process of ordering up a set for his own rig and asked if I was ready to step up to the plate. I was more than ready!

Mike ordered my 32 bolt, Rock-a-Thons in a 15"x10" with a star center and 3.25" offset. When the wheels arrived, the first thing we noticed was the unusual locking rings. The rolled edge of the ring provides a surface that won't cut the sidewall of the tire, and provides a self-centering affect when the tire is mounted.

The beads on my Swampers required a bit of dressing up with a drill motor and wire wheel before attempting to mount them on the new wheels. A tubeless valve-mounting tool from Napa (part #90-370) made installing the new rubber valve stems easy as pie. Try to remember to install the valve stems BEFORE mounting the tires! Dummy is as dummy does.

Spray the backside bead with water or window cleaner and drop the tire onto the wheel. This will help to seat the bead when airing up the tire. Visually center the tire on the wheel and spray the outside bead (not shown in the pics) to help the locking ring to find 'real-center' on the tire.

We had to use longer bolts to cinch down the ring enough to get the provided Grade 8 bolts started since Swampers tend to have really thick beads. It's also pretty easy to lose your place while attempting to tighten 32 bolts in a star pattern, so we marked the tire in eight spots and installed bolts at our chalk marks torqued to five pounds before threading in the remaining bolts. To save our backs and make things a bit easier, we stood the tire and wheel combo upright and then torqued all of the bolts down evenly to fifteen pounds three times per directions.

To reinflate, turn the tire beadlock side down, stand in the center of the wheel and do your best to pull the tire close to the inside bead area. Now stand back, look at the cool stuff you just created and imagine how envious all your buds are gonna be.

Back in the real world we've been running our SX's at five psi and wouldn't trade our Allied Rock-a-Thon wheels for anything! Gone is that ever-present worry of yet another debeading incident, and that leaves us more time to tend to important matters like making certain that the Rockn'FJ contains a large enough quantity of peanuts and juice boxes to keep the kidlins (and momma) smiling for the entire trail ride.