Titan 20" double beadlocks - the full story(graphic rich)
 

I had been looking for and option where I could get a true double beadlocked 20 rim that did not break the bank – everything I could find was 225 – 250$ + per rim often with out the insert to go with the rim…

I knew the 5 ton cargo trucks used a two piece bolt together rim that would work:
http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...20beadlock.jpg

However these were rare and nearly as expensive as the aftermarket choices – besides the fact that the 10 lug budd pattern would not fit my axles

Moving on I had thoughts of taking two 20 split ring rims and cutting the shells down to but a plate center in each side and then bolts them together much like Johns351c’s civi beadlocks are done – then the problem became sourcing 8 good rims – having centers made for 8 halves and getting the whole deal anywhere near true with the tools I had to work with…

Then while cruising the salvage yard I came across these oddballs – they are a two piece rim that was designed to be run tubeless – they come from the LAV- 25

http://www.combatindex.com/hardware/.../lav-25_14.jpg

After haggling with my buddy at the yard we settle on a price of 20$ - As we loaded them into the truck and I started to get 80$ out and he goes “I was talking for all four” – Thinking a good deal just got even better I hesitantly said ‘you sure – 20$ for all four” – and the answer was “sure! if you can use them be my guest…”

So upon getting home my plan seemed a little better than buying pre made wheels – all though they were not much too look at and at the time had no hardware and I did not know what they were off of – it was a start!

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...g_beadlock.jpg

Then the research fun started – After getting the stampings off the rim I was able to locate the company who made the shells – Titan – they sent me onward to Hutchinson since Hutchinson does the final prep work and selects the hardware based on application…

While talking to the guys at Hutchinson they told me that the inserts designed for these rims are a 90lb rubber runflat that is about 8” or 9” tall – apparently there is a special machine to insert the runflat into the tire because it is so big – there offer was to have me ship the rims and tires to them (WA state to NJ) for assembly and they would palletize them and send them back assembled – while that sounded great and the offer was unusual the logistics were impossible!

I started looking around for the hardware and ignoring the insert issue for the moment – finding a serrated bolt from the Dorman catalogue that matched the 5/8” holes and had the proper knurl diameter was not too bad – price wise there were about $2.40 each – not too bad until said I needed 40 – I then found some large flange nuts that would work with the bolts from Tacoma screw… they were better at $0.50 each… Lastly the valve stem hole is a 7/8 diameter hole – the only stem I could find was for a log skidder and was a brass air/water spud with the large valve core - ~25$ later at Les Schwab I was all set – another 20$ got the inflation tool for the large stems and adapters to go to a Schrader sized stem…

I then got a hold of John Staszak (JOHNS351C) and we mapped out a plan for the plate centers and solved the insert issue – based on the dimensions I gave, he drew up a simple design and with an OK from me the laser hit the steel, some thoughts on the insert was to use an OEM 5 ton inset and trim it down to size with a grooving iron – but then John graciously gave me a great deal on some non-standard width HDPE plastic inserts – complete with valve stem slot and hole…

I got this exceedingly heavy package in the mail;

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...s_Received.jpg

Upon removing the cardboard wraps –everything made the trip well: it is tricky to damage ½” thick plate ;)

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw..._unwrapped.jpg

So now the work started on my end – a whole lot of grinding some seriously tough mil spec paint off the shells (the original paint is date stamped 1999) yielded prepped rims:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...ms_prepped.jpg

Next was to mock up the center with the 3” of backspacing I needed – to do this I simply cleaned the welding table and used the sections of 2x3” tube cut from the same stock – I figure this thing is never going on the freeway so it don’t need it within a few thou.

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...mocked_up2.jpg

To center the centers I used the taper of the rim combined with the need to grind the edge of the center in prep for welding – the edge break made the center settle into the taper and self align

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...weld_zones.jpg

Then I tacked in all the centers – only tacking the sides of the plate as to limit warping and cooling changes:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw..._tacked_in.jpg

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...ims_tacked.jpg

With every one tacked in it was time to fully weld – starting with the back side I alternated fins as you would tighten lug nuts:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...ack_welded.jpg

I them moved on to the front (after waiting for things to relax and cool down a bit):

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...ont_welded.jpg

With all the rims welded up and cooling it was time to address the fact tthat the LAV-25’s bolt pattern (which was on the lock ring and not the shell) would interfere with the Rockwell pattern making it impossible to get a socket on the lugnuts… The plasma cutter soon solved that issue:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...pre_plasma.jpg

and after:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...ost_plasma.jpg

This solved the interferance problem but the looked like I used a chainsaw; as soon as I started hand grinding these rings I got 1 roughed out and decided I needed to work smarter (the ring had a nice harmonic to it when using and angle grinder! ) Enter the mill…

I build a jig to hold the ring by the lock bolt holes and used a rotary table to spin it past a nice little carbide cutter – chopped right through all the plasma slag and left a nice round hole:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...entermill1.jpg

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...entermill2.jpg

At this point I had a round surface but sharp edges - so with a little grinding out came a tool bit for the flycutter – 45 degree chamfer and both upper and lower edges made any possibility of my dumbass cutting myself pretty slim while reaching in to secure lug nuts or air up a tire…

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...flycutter1.jpg

And one last look at the jig with no ring on it:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...hining/jig.jpg

So back home a little priming and painting was in order:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...imed_front.jpg

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...ted_front1.jpg

After polishing up the seal surfaces and applying a thin coat of silicone to each side and letting it dry I was ready to assemble a tire and rim… As for tools it is really simple – everything used is pictured here:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...nstall_kit.jpg


Step 1 – put the insert in the tire – the technique that worked the best for me was to put a strap on the insert and ovalize it – next lean the tire against something about 2ft tall so it is at about 45 degrees – step on the insert forcing the narrow side into the tire; I then put a small bottle jack between the tire beads and spread the tire as much as possible – now rotate the insert into place – it will hit the bottle jack – so at that point remove the jack and a couple of swift kicks or a BFH pops it neatly into place…

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...ng/insert1.jpg

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...ng/insert2.jpg

The lock ring dry and ready to install:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw.../lockring1.jpg

Now clean the tire bead with a rag and then with a sopping wet soapy rag to lube the bead a little… the rim shell was placed on something (some boards in this case) so the tire sidewall is off the ground, and the valve stem installed:

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...ting/stem1.jpg

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...ing/shell1.jpg

At this point 170lbs of me attempts to gracefully position a 250lb plus tire over the awaiting shell – while lining up the slit in the inset with the valve stem – it should look something like this when dropped on (note due to me being retarded and assembling 3 directional tires on rims the same way I had to disassemble this one and flip it – that is why the studs are already installed – it really was not too bad to beak it down) :

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...ing/studs1.jpg

Now with the tire on the shell you have to snug the lock ring down close enough to the shell to put a stud and nut in – this process also starts seating the beads of the tire as the insert crushed the bead onto the rim

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...inch_bolts.jpg

I then pounded the rest of the studs in and worked my way around the pattern until the two sealing surfaces where in contact and the nuts snugged up nice and tight (seat of the pants torque) And there you have it – finished!

http://home.off-road.com/~wanderingw...g/finished.jpg

so how much money did you end up having into the whole deal?

$$$ who cares !!!!! No one else will have a set for at least a week !!!

NICE !!!!!

All told I ended up in the thing for 865$ +/- and that included the tires: so for four 1600r20's, four rims, four centers, four inserts, four valve stem assemblies, and all the hardware that is the total*

Matt

(* I left shipping charges out - but I think that added another 250 - 280$ - mainly for the tires from montana)

Quality homebrew...nice work!

They look awesome. When can we see a picture of the whole rig with the big bags on it??

oops, never mind, just saw the other thread

Aint that the truth.
Sweet work. That is really cool. I need to get myself some beadlocks!

Those look sweet! Nicely done.:beer:

Aint that the truth.
Sweet work. Not as "bling bling" as Dustins :flipoff2: but they look like they'll work.

sweet. looks great and its so true now everyone is gonna run out and look for those hehehe.


nice job.

DP

Fawkin bad ass!

Great tech! It's really cool to see folks getting out there and getting creative. That's what it's all about. :)

Those Fawking Rock :smokin:

Incredible, the pics at the shop and all the tools at your disposal and the outcome of the rims, very nice.

:eek:

Gross overkill is so awesome:D

nice dude, good stuff

but those arent from a LAV or a stryker, still cool as anything tho:D

So 250 lbs per tire, 1/2" plate centers, I'm guessing between 1500 and 2000 lbs in wheels and tires:eek: .

I'm betting wheels, tires, and axles weigh about twice what the rest of the rig weighs.

Kickass work tho.

Matt,

You are my HERO!!!

(well, except for the sissy bit where you used a plasma cutter and THEN cleaned up with a mill - I woulda hacked them out with a torch and called it good ;) )

But seriously - you are the king of quality home built - VERY well done!

ST - I was thinking the same - (and was hoping you would know!) but when reading the numbers off the shells to both the guys at Titan and the guys and Hutchinson that was the vehicle application they told me the rims were from...

I seemed that all the pics of the LAV's I could find had a similar bolt pattern but no lockring bolts - looked to be split ring instead!? I don't know if these were a beadlock project that got canned or what - I can get the numbers up if anyone cares and wants to know for sure (possiblely to find more)

Any ideas?

Matt

Every LAV-25 I have ever seen has used the 16 inch rims and the tires that Billavista is running currently.

They have a planetary hub which is why they have the bolt pattern where they do but I still have never seen a 20 inch rim.


The rubber runflat I have watched them insert and it is really interesting to see a tire turn damn near inside out to put it in. When the take the tires off the vehicles up here they don't even bother to take the runflat out as they are such a pain to do they just put new ones in the new tires.

I am not sure what variant of the LAV uses a 20" rim but the new LAV 3 that just came out in the past 4 years may be using the 20 inch rim but the early LAV's use a 16" rim.

Just for reference at work I get to see them everyday.

But now I will check the LAV 3 a bit closer to see if they do have the 20" rims.


I personally have been looking at the new BUDD 20" double bead lock wheels that are military switched to recently for our 2.5 tons. I am waiting for a set to go to scrap to add dual bolt pattern to for mog 406's