Beadlock Ring Not Sealing

jesse3638

jesse3638

Hooked
I'm in the middle of swapping tires Cooper STT Pros to Toyo Open Country R/T Tail, both 37x12.50 17 on Raceline Monster bead locks (steel rings). Cooper's are know for their thick bead these Toyos are much thinner. Just finished up the second one and heard what I though was air escaping. I sprayed soapy water and sure enough it's leaking air between the rim and ring. Have not had this issue on the last two sets of tires I had on there. I torqued then to 20'lbs initially. Unbolted the ring to check that I had the bead seated correctly reinstalled it and torqued them to 30'lbs. Still leaking. Any idea what the problem could be or a solution? I'm wondering if the thick beads on the Coopers deformed the rings causing them not to seat properly now with the thinner bead and i need to replace the rings? Would driving around with weight on it deform/flex the bead to seal it up? Any help is much appreciated. I don't want to have to fill my tires daily.
 
Is it safe to assume you are 100% sure that the bead of the tire is tucked into the lip of the wheel. If so, I too would guess that the rings are deformed. This was/is a big problem back in the day with early beadlocks and it's a big part of why I prefer to run KMCs today, being that they have really thick rings and use much bigger bolts. If it were me, I would get new rings and I would bet that fixes your problem. There is another ghetto fix you can try and it's to place a thin rope around your bead and ring and this will provide more pressure on the bead. The only problem with this is that IF it doesn't work, the rope can cause a permanent imprint/deformation to the bead and that can make a future legit fix not work.
 
wayoflife said:
Is it safe to assume you are 100% sure that the bead of the tire is tucked into the lip of the wheel. If so, I too would guess that the rings are deformed. This was/is a big problem back in the day with early beadlocks and it's a big part of why I prefer to run KMCs today, being that they have really thick rings and use much bigger bolts. If it were me, I would get new rings and I would bet that fixes your problem. There is another ghetto fix you can try and it's to place a thin rope around your bead and ring and this will provide more pressure on the bead. The only problem with this is that IF it doesn't work, the rope can cause a permanent imprint/deformation to the bead and that can make a future legit fix not work.
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Thats why I pulled the ring off to ensure the bead was seated properly. The cooper's took beating them into place these just dropped on. After looking at it it's the wheel that I got hit on a few years ago. There is an obvious deformity in the ring from the impact. Hopefully it's just the one and if so it's safe to say thats the reason. If not Raceline makes a thick aluminum ring now which they didn't have when I bought these wheels. I'll buy a set of those and hopefully that'll solve my issue. I was thinking some silicone or slime in the tire could also be a ghetto fix but I don't want to go that route. Hopefully it's just the one and I can run it as the spare until I get new rings.
 
jesse3638 said:
Thats why I pulled the ring off to ensure the bead was seated properly. The cooper's took beating them into place these just dropped on. After looking at it it's the wheel that I got hit on a few years ago. There is an obvious deformity in the ring from the impact. Hopefully it's just the one and if so it's safe to say thats the reason. If not Raceline makes a thick aluminum ring now which they didn't have when I bought these wheels. I'll buy a set of those and hopefully that'll solve my issue. I was thinking some silicone or slime in the tire could also be a ghetto fix but I don't want to go that route. Hopefully it's just the one and I can run it as the spare until I get new rings.
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would sticking them in the oven at 400* relax the warp out of it?
 
jeeeep said:
would sticking them in the oven at 400* relax the warp out of it?
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Not sure. The other 4 seem to be ok which leads me to believe it's from when I got hit. It may actually be oval and not circle. We'll see in the morning if all my tires still have air...haha
 
Well after they sat over night it looks like all my wheels are leaking. Fortunately 4 leak relatively slow (5-8psi overnight) so I can still drive the jeep. Looks like I'll be ordering a new set of rings. I'm going to call Raceline tomorrow before I do that.
 
I would highly doubt all five rings just randomly warped and now they all leak when they didn’t before. I’m guessing they aren’t seated all the way which is why they are leaking. You may have one that is bad from the accident but I doubt all five just all of a sudden don’t work.
 
jesse3638 said:
Well after they sat over night it looks like all my wheels are leaking. Fortunately 4 leak relatively slow (5-8psi overnight) so I can still drive the jeep. Looks like I'll be ordering a new set of rings. I'm going to call Raceline tomorrow before I do that.
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are all the threaded inserts seated properly and still glued in place?
The backside of the rings have any old tire remnants completely cleaned off?
wild to think the rings would warp that much, if you torqued to 30"lbs, makes me think the inserts are loose and spinning with the bolts so not torquing properly.
 
Nope everything is clean, beads are seated, inserts all good. When I installed the coopers I had to use C-clamps to compress the rings on the bead so the bolts could catch. There was a large gap and they took forever to torque down. I seem to remember the rings bending inward towards the center. These toyos had a very small gap and only took 2 times around before they were all tight. I went a 3rd for good measure. The cooper's took 5 or 6 times around. I also discovered a few bent bolts. Everyone knows I don't wheel so I didn't hit them on anything...haha. Like I said I'm going to call Raceline tomorrow and see what they say. Oh I also found an email where I asked them about spacers and they said to use one on the aluminum rings but no need to with the steel rings with the coopers.
 
This one has my interest. Hope you get it sorted out. Any pics of the tire mounted on the wheel before the ring is on or any pics of the profile of the ring?

It is pretty wild to think that the ring is hard up against the wheel and the bead is not clamped enough to hold air…I have never run all terrains, maybe the bead is just that thin…
 
Cousin Clyde said:
This one has my interest. Hope you get it sorted out. Any pics of the tire mounted on the wheel before the ring is on or any pics of the profile of the ring?

It is pretty wild to think that the ring is hard up against the wheel and the bead is not clamped enough to hold air…I have never run all terrains, maybe the bead is just that thin…
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I can take some tomorrow. My old KM2's had a similar bead thickness and didn't have any issues. Here's a diagram with instructions from Raceline. Pretty sure my old tires were the bad picture...haha. I do have the email from them telling me that no spacers were needed with steel rings.1000004668.jpg
 
In the DIY beadlocks they have anti coming rings to mitigate warping of the locking ring. I believe that is what you are experiencing here. Not sure an email from race line will get you anything but I hope I’m wrong and they take care of you.
 
jesse3638 said:
I can take some tomorrow. My old KM2's had a similar bead thickness and didn't have any issues. Here's a diagram with instructions from Raceline. Pretty sure my old tires were the bad picture...haha. I do have the email from them telling me that no spacers were needed with steel rings.View attachment 415417
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These are well written instructions. Did you actually follow all of the instructions? I see that they require using all new bolts with the fresh tires.
 
Ok I just got off of the phone with Rsceline's beadlock tech. He suggested that the steel rings are bent inward thus not sealing the thinner bead. His first solution is to pull the ring off to check and see if there is any conical inward bend. If there is he said to use a mallet to bend it back and check it against a straight edge. If it gets bent too far not to worry that when it gets tightened back on the wheel it'll pull it back. If that doesn't fix it the next solution would be to buy the aluminum rings as they would close the gap. A third fix which I'm not going to do would be to sand the lip on the wheel to close the gap. To do that right I'd want to bench lap it and that doesn't sound fun. Ill keep you posted as to what I find. If they aren't bent looks like I'll be buying new rings.
 
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