Need some advice

[the chief]

My setup is similar to yours.

I run beadlocks I welded onto my 10 inch wheels. I also have 35 x 13.5 tires. Mine are a bias ply with thick sidewalls. I don't do the snow anymore, but I wheel in rocks, and run 5psi all day long.

Makes for one heck of a smooth ride!

Great info, what brand bead locks and do you bend rims much in the rocks at 5 lb.s?

 

[jeepy]

No, nothing really suffers any abuse running that low. The tire just looks low, not flat. The biggest difference you may notice is that it will get harder to steer since you have so much traction.

Different tires require different pressures. Where I have to go down to about 5 psi because of my stiff sidewalls, a radial tire may only have to go down to 10 or 12. Everybody seems to run different pressures. Some people get nervous running real low pressures even with beadocks.

The beadlocks I purchased were from a company called Diamond. They give you both rings and all the bolts (about 30 per wheel). You just have to weld the inner ring on. Your welds have to be air-tight.

I am not sure that I would go that route again. (the kind with the outer ring) If I had the money, I would have installed the kind that goes inside the tire, keeping both sides of the tire from collapsing in.

But without a doubt. Some kind of beadlock is great to have. About the only other thing to do is to run a narrow wheel with a wide tire (perhaps a 4 inch difference). That works just about as well. Very difficult to break a bead with that set-up.

 

[the chief]

No, nothing really suffers any abuse running that low. The tire just looks low, not flat. The biggest difference you may notice is that it will get harder to steer since you have so much traction.

Different tires require different pressures. Where I have to go down to about 5 psi because of my stiff sidewalls, a radial tire may only have to go down to 10 or 12. Everybody seems to run different pressures. Some people get nervous running real low pressures even with beadocks.

The beadlocks I purchased were from a company called Diamond. They give you both rings and all the bolts (about 30 per wheel). You just have to weld the inner ring on. Your welds have to be air-tight.

I am not sure that I would go that route again. (the kind with the outer ring) If I had the money, I would have installed the kind that goes inside the tire, keeping both sides of the tire from collapsing in.

But without a doubt. Some kind of beadlock is great to have. About the only other thing to do is to run a narrow wheel with a wide tire (perhaps a 4 inch difference). That works just about as well. Very difficult to break a bead with that set-up.

Thanks for the info Jeepy, I haven't dared run less than 8 lb.s but 6 seems to be the point of really flattening with the tires I have now. I think it would be a huge advantage to run at 4 or 5 lb.s in snow. I'll look into the inside rings, seems like a good idea.