Beadlocks | Loosing Air
Initially when I made my beadlocks I did not have any issue with them holding air for long periods of time. Then I used for what i intended, running low air pressure and wheeling in the middle of nowhere. Since them I have been plagued with one or more tire loosing air at varying rates. Today I have done a test to see what help the most.
Since my beadlocks have 32 bolts around the edge of the wheel I found that it takes a lot of time to remove them all. So I spent a little time finding a new tool to help with this. I didn’t want to use an impact because it is a little heavy and the hose hangs up on everything in the driveway. So I found an adapter to hold a 3/8 socket in my drill. Since I didn’t have any and have been looking for a new tool to try I make the excuse to justify the purchase. Not hard to do when the wife is out of town.
On the first tire I took all of the bolts out and set them aside. Then preceded to get the back of the tire off of the bead of the rim. Not easy at all, especially without a tire machine. I had build a device a couple of years ago and it worked but the handle was a bit short and the base was a bit, how shall I say… unstable. Since the last upgrade to the plasma machine I had a couple of short pieces of 3 x 2 tube sitting around just big enough to help the bead breaker sit on its own. The only other issue is the lack of leverage with the length of the handle I made before. Again the 3 x 2 tube came in handy, this time it was 5 feet long instead of just 2 feet. I know have enough leverage to easily remove the bead from the rim.
With the tire loose on the rim and the beadlock off I proceeded to clean the dirt from the rim. Man was it hard and dry. Then I added a dose of Bead sealer to the tire and rim. 
Making sure to cover all the areas that touch the rim. With this done it was time to reinstall all of those bolts again. Why was it I did this? Oh ya, because I like to have traction off-road and to do so you need lower air pressure. What a pain this can be. Being the lazy person that I am I decided to do a test. I sealed both the beadlock side and the other side on the first tire. Then the second tire I only unseated the bead and cleaned the rim. i am under the impression that the beadlock side was sealing because of the lack of mud on that side of the rim. The other was really dirty and most likely was the cause of the leak anyway. Not to mention I took off the beadlock a year ago and cleaned them with no help in retaining air.
I will revisit this in the next few days to see which tire is holding air or if both of them are still at full pressure. Till then I am off to find the electrical issue that is causing the battery to drain in just a few days….
