TMI Weld on beadlocks

My last project was to weld up some beadlock rings to my Toyota steel wheels.
I wanted a skinny beadlock, but most come in 9" wide. So, I went with making my own from 7.5" wide wheels.
Beadlock kit is from Total Metal Innovations. Very nice and helpful, also they have a sick buggy powered by a H22 Prelude motor.
https://www.totalmetalinnovations.com/

Their beadlock has anti coning tabs built in and also has drain holes cut so that water won't sit inside the wheel. Very thoughtful design.
I used a Lincoln 140C, and my Powertank CO2 as shielding gas.


After prepping the wheel by removing the paint in the lip, I started by centering the ring inside the wheel. I ended up using popsicle sticks as spacers around the ring to center it. Then clamped it down and made a couple tacks to hold it all in place.





Then I worked my way around, overlapping start and stops until it was all welded up.



Bent up the anti coning tabs and welded a bead to secure them.




Since I chose to lay the ring within the lip of the wheel, I ended up filling the groove with the weld. The wheel's lip still protruded farther than the 3/16" inner ring, so I had to make it flush. Ended up using a cut off wheel to get the protruding lip off, then a flap disc to smooth it all out.
After that was done, I just gave it a light sand and some spray paint. I did a horrible job spray painting the outer rings. It had runs everywhere. Long story short, the outer rings were sent to my friend who was dying to try out his new sandblast cabinet. He prepped the rings, powder coated and baked them in his garage.

Here are the wheels painted.




Ordered some tires that I had been wanting for awhile. I've ran a few sets of tires on the truck: Mickey Thompson MTZ, BFG AT, GY Duratrac, Nitto Trailgrappler, Toyo MT.
I just wanted something more aggressive that was still street-able.
Got the Interco Irok non-directional. 35x12.5




Mounted the tires by myself. Lubed the bead, wrestled the tire over the outer lip of the wheel.
Put some silicone to ensure a good seal, got all the bolts in, and everything centered up. The most time consuming part of the tire installation is the torquing of all the bolts. Since you are torquing on rubber, it compresses. So when you tighten one bolt down, the ones on either side of it now become loose. So you have to make multiple passes in a criss-cross pattern to get them all torqued down. I ended up at around 4-5 rotations.




At least they aren't Chinese




I used 90 degree valve stems, I should have gone with 45s



Had them spin balanced at a tire shop. Lowest weigh was 1 oz, and the highest was 15 oz. Not bad when you consider the whole setup is over 100lbs.

Finished product, had to try them out.





Drove well on the highway, super quiet. Just a low hum. I definitely was not expecting that. In the dirt, the tires were great. Tires did not seem to leak any air since installation. Cant wait to try them in the mud.

Here are the drain holes at work when I was cleaning up.

 

Great work brotha!

 

So bad ass^^^ Good work

 

wow, was linked from the steel wheel thread, these are badasss.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/show-off-your-steel-wheels.467479/page-23