DIY Beadlocks

I was asked to do some wheel modifications to a set 16.5x14 Bart Wheels that will carry some 46x19.5 Baja Claws on Jeremiah's Scout II. Four wheels, four 1/4" 32 hole inner rings and four 1/4" outer rings showed up. I am unsure the company that the beadlock kit was ordered, but the rings had a nice fit, leaving an 1/8" gap which provides a nice root opening for welding. Before tacking I remove powder coating in the weld areas. Square the ring to the wheel mount surface, line up the holes, and center ring inside wheel lip. Then tack in star pattern, similar to how you tighten lugnuts.

After the ring is tacked every few inches begin stitch welding. I prefer to jump around my stitches to minimize heat distortion.

I'm welding with a Miller 652 on 480v burning .052 dual shield wire with Co2 shielding gas.
Machine settings:26 volts
230 amps (wire speed)
After weld is complete, grind smooth. There can be no holes or air will leak. If you find holes or inclusions after grinding you will need to weld the hole and then again grind smooth.

The 16.5" wheels don't have a raised inner bead so the trick there (found on Pirate4x4)is to add some 3/16" round bar to the inner bead area. The bead measures one inch on the massive Baja Claw so I spaced the round bar 1-1/8" from the inner bead of the wheel. I marked the wheel with a soap stone line for reference measured and tacked

And continued around the entire wheel

After tacking I stitched.

And there you have it, now three more to go

Nice work.

Did those rings not come with anti coning rings? I'd suggest adding tabs to the inner ring to prevent coning.

Thanks for the compliment. The diy kit came with 3/4" thick rubber for the anti-coning. Hopefully it doesn't squish too much lol