A few months ago, ZUK mentioned that he'd used polyurethane roof flashing sealant from Home Depot on the inner bead of his beadlocks to keep them from leaking air, and suggested someone try it on both beads as a poor man's beadlock. I was so intrigued by the idea, I decided to do just that. I can't claim any credit for the idea, but this is how I did mine:

1) Remove tire and unseat both beads. I remove the valve stem, then use a hi-lift with the base on the tire and the arm pushing up against my rock sliders to accomplish this. If you use beads, BB's or anything else inside the tire to balance it, be sure to move the tire around carefully after the beads are loose to avoid spillage. Don't ask me how I found this out. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

2) Once the beads are loose, clean the tire bead. I used brake cleaner on a paper towel. Also, rough up the bead surface on the wheel with 50-60 grit sandpaper, like this:


3) Next, apply about a 1/8" bead of sealant onto the tire bead surface:


Follow that with a bead on the wheel, as far inside on the mounting surface as possible, like this:


ZUK used a his finger in a rubber glove to smear the sealant over the bead surface, but I didn't do that. (Because I forgot - I'd do it if I were doing this job over again.)

4) Air the tire up. I used my Powertank set to about 110psi to seat the beads, then put the valve stem back in.



5) Scrape the excess sealant off with a putty knife, then clean up the tire and wheel with mineral spirits. Finish airing up, remount the wheel and move on to the next one.

Each one took me about forty-five minutes to do, and I don't work particularly quickly. As ZUK mentions below, try not to get the sealant on your skin. See the black marks on my legs in the photos? It's now five days later, and they still look the same.

I've not had a chance to test these yet. I like to run about 5psi in these Pitbull Rockers, and I did lose a bead last year by doing that in a cold creek. I'll report back in this thead once I have some trail time on them. If this works, we're talking about double beadlocks for 6$, with no screws. That's the best deal around.

Mark

Very impressive! I might even be able to balance my tires if it works. Guess we'll see how it does in Moab then.

Uh... you first. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/butwiggle.gif" alt="" />

nice! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cyclops.gif" alt="" />
I used a rubber glove and smeared it all around on the steel lip.....then a light smear on the associated rubber. Do not get that sealant on your fingers....it takes almost 2 weeks to go away.
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
ZUK <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Great idea! Any chance that stuff will stick so good you can't get the tire off later when you want to? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

It would be critically important to make sure that you use the right product and not something like roofing tar that also comes in caulking tubes. I notice that this stuff is a polyurethane product. Cleaning the surfaces will be real important too because tires are coated with mould releasing agents when they are manufactured and tire shops often use a vegetable soap compund for mounting tires, both of which will make good adhesion of the polyurethane less likely.

If the job is done right It will be interesting to see how hard (or not) it will be to take the tire off the rim later. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" /> -- Matt

I asked ZUK about that, and he'd successfully removed his at least once. My suspicion is that the bead won't come loose all at once, but the hi-lift will need to be moved all the way around the tire to get it loose.

If it's too much a problem, there's a two word solution: TIRE SHOP. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Mark

It was the tire shop I was worried about. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Tire shops sometimes use a bead sealant - tar-type stuff, don't know exactly what it is though, almost like rubber cement.
When you break the bead loose with the machine later, it seperated easily enough. You get a bit the sealant strings between the wheel and tire, but nothing gets damaged.

Ya....I had to re-position the hi-lift twice and then the bead popped off(36x12.50 TSL). I used starting fluid to thoroughly clean the tire bead....it was sticky/tacky clean when I was done. then I smeared on sealant with the rubber glove.....smeared some more on the rim. done.

easier way to pop the bead, run a hose to your manifold vacuum and let it suck the tire down then just jump on it a bit.