Radial Tires on 8 bolt beadlocks

[86M10086.2L]

I've had my 8 bolt beadlocks for a few months now and I've had two sets of the 36's Goodyear bias plys, and as great as they are offroad, I'm getting tired of their on road manners. Even balanced properly they leave a little to be desired. the flat spots isn;t the issue. It's the bounce they get on the highway at @55-60mph. I know that to "properly" run radials you need the 12 bolt rims because the 8 bolts can only handle 30 psi. However I have seen and heard several people running radials on the 8 bolts. My question to those people is what tires have you been running? Are the commercially available bias ply any better? I have also heard horror stories of guys buying new tires and the bead was too thick so they couldn't seal the rim because the gap around the o-ring couldn't be closed up. I don't mind running the radials at the lower air pressure and loosing some life out of them. I'm looking for some type of middle ground between offradability and highway ride quality.

 

[juspar]

Well i would run down to the off road store and try to find a radial tire that has a lower psi rating. and take a caliper gauge and messure the bead and see how close you can get to bias plys. If that does not work i know a guy that sells the 12 bolt wheels with the 37 radial tires for 800 for tha set with 90% tread. Shipping runs about 100. Still a good price for wheels and tires. And i am sure you can find someone to buy the old set, might only be out of pocket 4 to 5 hundred.
I am in the same boat as you wish i would have got the 12 bolt instead.

 

[Croatan_Kid]

If the bead thickness worries or bothers you, get some aftermarket beadlock inserts. They allow for the thicker bead of offroad tires available to the public.

They make PVC and metal cage stlye inserts.

 

[86M10086.2L]

the size of the bead doesn't bother me, I just don;t wanna spend 500+ and find out the tires wont work. Then, have to run out and buy new inserts that cost extra. Beadlocks by me are like finding hens teeth. Thats why I jumped on the 8 bolts when I found them. Plus the magnesium run flats are super easy to install/dis-assemble. I did my first wheel never having done one before in about 30 minutes. That being said I still would have went for the 12 bolts if I could have found them. I guess when my buddy opens up his 4x4 shop I'll have to research and maybe order some TSL radials or one of the other tires I've already seen mounted.

 

[Croatan_Kid]

I had 10ply, Load Range E Swamper SXs on mine for a while and the 37" radial Goodyears as well. Neither tire leaked or gave me any trouble with sealing on the rims with the mag runflats.

 

[12vctd]

I have ran many types of radials with the 8 bolt bead locks but did very little street driving with them. But I was able to seal Goodyear MTR's, BFG Mud terrains and some others. But a cheaper alternative I have found that works wonders in super swamper TSL's and boogers for street driven trucks is balancing powder(used to use golf balls with great results) The powder works so much better with the tire and hits the right spots where a tire is normally balanced on a machine. for the 36's if i remember correctly it comes to about 3/4 a bag per tire(last tires i added powder to was 54's boggers) and it works great tires had no vibration at 65 mph other than cold flat spots when first driving.

 

[86M10086.2L]

I'm already using heavy airsoft pellets as balancing material. The problem is that even properly balanced, the 36" Goodyears still tend to be out of round and you can't fix that. All myfriends are running 38-44inch radials on their trucks and they ride great. Around town or on the trail the Goodyears are fine. But back and forth to work the bounce gets alittle anoying, and dont get me started on the trip back from the Haspin rally.

 

[Croatan_Kid]

I also use/used Airsoft BBs. I could get a 10,000 count container of the .12 gram bbs at WalMart for 14 bucks and it would be enough to do 4 tires with 10oz in each tire.

 

[86M10086.2L]

I have the .25 gram BB's. with 10oz in each.