Looking at the Walker Evan's Beadlocks.... how many people actually have the beadlocks, and drive their jeeps on the road. What do you do to ensure you don't lose bolts, etc... I know they are not DOT approved for the road... but do people really get hassled for running beadlocks on the road?

I know they make the "street Locks" but seems like a TON of money for a "fake Beadlock" wheel..... that won't be much if any better than a much less expensive aftermarket wheel from a respectable company?

your thoughts?
thanks,
livin

 

I been running the aev beadlocks for about a year. never got pulled over but they are dot. approved. check the torque about 5 times seem to hold pretty good at 15 lbs no problems

 

bump it up ttt

 

hmm thats pretty interesting i never knew that. i mean i know laws are different from state to state but i can't see someone busting chops. i think most LEO don't know the difference. but then again you never know i would run them though. but too much $$ for me

 

I had the exact same questions. I asked a lot of people and did a lot of research. The conclusion I came to is that DOT does not make laws, only recommendations. I haven't been able to find anybody that has actually been ticketed. I found several posts on various forums where people had "heard of people getting ticketed" but nobody that had been themselves. I think some states do have laws saying wheels have to be DOT approved so I'd check your states laws. I checked the laws in Colorado and there is nothing requiring it. I think the bigger concern would be liability if a beadlock failure were to cause an accident. That being said, I have a set of Walker Evans Beadlocks that I'm going to be running in the next week.

 

I ran the Walker Evans BL for two years and I did not get hassled for running them. My wife was even in an accident where she was hit from behind and all they hit was the tire and the cops never said anything about the wheels. I did go to get my safety test and I had to pay cash in order to get them passed. The other issue I ran into was that most tire shops dont want to handle them either. I put the tires and wheels on myself but if you go to take the wheel of of the tire that is a completely different issue. The Bead Lock wheels require a lot of maintenance, so be prepared, check a few post s around, and if you have specific questions shoot me a PM I would be happy to help.

 

How often do they need re-torquing pls ?

 

How often do they need re-torquing pls ?

It depends on your area, but here in Utah with our winters and salt, I would back them out and maybe even spin the rings so that you have new bolts in new holes at the end of fall and end of winter. That would be a minimum, with so much invested in wheels, I would back the bolts out once a month in the Winter. This is just my experiance with the WE wheels as I broke 4 bolts this winter and I only made sure I kept the wheels at the proper torque setting.

 

The instructions that came with my Walker Evans Beadlocks says "Torque bolts every other week for (6) months, then check occasionally. Mine isn't a daily driver, so I plan to check the torque every time I take it out for the first 6 months or so. I think a lot of people do it every 3 thousand miles. I also read somewhere that you should replace all the bolts once per year, so I'll be doing that as well.

 

Love my AEV's, I check mine once a month, rarely do I find they need any tweaking.