Walker Evans Beadlock Rims

Post by **mercury6** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:34 am

Cant seem to get a straight answer from any of my local shops,
Seeing how these rims have a bead lock,
Are they street legal?? Or purely for off road use?
They look the goods..... anything else in the price range better?

Post by **bazooked** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 12:04 pm

offroad only and not road legal, go here for the best deal on trail gear wheels, mine should be here in the next couple of weeks.

http://www.locktup4x4.com.au/product/be ... d1919.aspx

Post by **dogbreath_48** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 2:02 pm

I thought walker evans were one of the only street legal beadlock rims available?

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:26 pm

Not that I'm aware of.

Bear in mind too that street legal in the US doesn't mean street legal here.

I saw a set of Mopar/Hutchinson double beadlocks available as a dealer fit accessory on a JK at Wandin -these are street legal in the US but might be a grey area here.

Post by **mercury6** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:53 pm

So MT Classick Lock's are street legal, but looks as though EW's are not.

Cheers

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:12 pm

Aren't MT classic locks a fakelock? (or a beadlook.....)

I didn't think MT sold "real" beadlocks.

Steve.

Post by **mercury6** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:18 pm

if MT's are a fake bead lock, and WE's are a one piece rim, can you tell the difference just by looking at the...

Will the average Joe Blo copper know the difference either way?

Fake bead lock or real.... how do they determine the difference?

Post by **MYTTUF** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:29 pm

With regards to legality issues......does it really matter about the rims coz unless you running a tyre that is legal (like a 33inch AT!!) then you prolly wouodn't need a beadlocked rim.
OR
is there any point worrying about rim legality when you are prolly trying to fit up a non road worthy tyre??
Jonesy

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:29 pm

Ahhh, that's a good question.

It can be done - the fakelock ring won't have the tyre between the ring and the wheel.... whether the police would get that far or not? Who knows. If you had absolutely no other defectable items on your car, they might have a really good look. 9 times out of 10 though, they'll just get you for no mudflaps... no water in the washer bottle..... tyres not covered, tyres too big...

If you claimed rear beadlocks were fake, they might ask you to pull a ring off

The bigger implication might be to your be to your insurance in the event of a large claim.

I've run mechanical beadlocks for years , and will into the future, but in relation to legality, if you ask, you might not like the answer.

Steve.

Post by **cooki_monsta** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:56 pm

just say you cant as they are fake, and the bolts are molded there

helps if u have all chrome or brushed steel and not powder coated

how ever by running anything over a 33 like myttuf said, you defeat the purpose of having a legal truck, unless its engineered.

Post by **gqpete** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:42 pm

cooki_monsta wrote:just say you cant as they are fake, and the bolts are molded there helps if u have all chrome or brushed steel and not powder coated how ever by running anything over a 33 like myttuf said, you defeat the purpose of having a legal truck, unless its engineered.

x2, if there on a decent 4by (not a padock bomb) then i dought there gunna focus on the bolts. the wheels look awesome not whipped up in the garage over a few beers. just run them. dont paint the outer ring as it will draw attention to your bolts.

Post by **cooki_monsta** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:23 pm

yea not to boast but i run around on locks and i know a few others that do, never had a prob just drive sensibly and john law will leave you alone.

Post by **big scotty** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:41 am

the walkers are legal but only on commercial so if you have a ute they are fine of course with the right size tyre for the car they are on

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:43 am

big scotty wrote:the walkers are legal but only on commercial so if you have a ute they are fine of course with the right size tyre for the car they are on

How/where did you get this information? I'm interested, not having a go.

Steve.

Post by **big scotty** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:25 pm

they have been egineered on a car in vic with 37 on them because it is a ute there was a loop hole and they got through and no not on my car

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 7:30 am

Fair enough, there's lots of loopholes for commercials. This should, however, mean that any beadlock rim can be engineered as they all only have one circumferential weld in them.

Steve.

Post by **ausyota** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:37 am

Gwagensteve wrote:should, however, mean that any beadlock rim can be engineered as they all only have one circumferential weld in them.

Steve.

Not the walker evans. They have a cast in inner ring.

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:52 am

I'm aware of that, but a steel rim is legal with one circumferential weld in it. A steel rim with a mechancial beadlock installed only has one circ weld once installed so is no less legal than a cast alloy rim.

My undertanding of the legal problems with beadlocks is as follows:

They are a "new" rim design as the bead is retained by bolts, and no-one has gone through the ADR approval process for a complete beadlock rim, which involves testing for tyre retention under explosive tyre failure at 80km/h etc (I read the standard years ago.. forgive me if the details are a little sketchy)

If this is not a problem with a bolted beadlock on a commercial vehicle, then whether the inner ring is alloy and cast or steel and welded is irrelevant as a rim can be legal either way. The real issue is the legality of bolts for retaining the bead.

I'm not questioning that a car was passed with them, but the reason the rims were passed shouldn't be because they were walker evans, rather that the engineer accepted that bolted bead retention is safe.

To date, I am not aware of any other engineer (or roads authority in any state) doing this.

Steve.

Post by **Harb** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:58 am

I think you will find Engineers are like rego checking stations........ Some just pass stuff that are not really legal by the book.
So I suppose technically you may find an engineer to sign off on beadlocks or any other mod for that, but it may not be legal at all.
Thats why I like tough engineers, its one thing getting your truck passed and a whole different story getting it Legal

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:21 am

Hijack -

I am well aware of this. I've had an engineer telling me to run an exhaust in front of the rear wheel on a seb soft top passenger vehicle, which is 100% illegal. (which is what I told him) but he argued it WAS legal and that I was wrong....

Emissions are another BIG grey area.

Sorry for the tangent, but Harb's point it a good one, which is why I asked for grounds the engineer passed the rims on. AFAIK, they aren't legal.

Steve.

Post by **dogbreath_48** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:41 am

Gwagensteve wrote:which is why I asked for grounds the engineer passed the rims on.

Maybe US DOT approval was good enough for him?

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:49 am

Walker evans beadlocks are not DOT approved, only their "street" wheels (fakelocks) are.

AFAIK, only Hutchinson beadlocks are DOT approved.

Steve.

Post by **dogbreath_48** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:58 am

Gwagensteve wrote:Walker evans beadlocks are not DOT approved, only their "street" wheels (fakelocks) are.

AFAIK, only Hutchinson beadlocks are DOT approved.

Steve.

Thanks - in that case there are certainly a lot of misconceptions flying about!

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:09 am

I read between the lines on the website - their "Street" clearly state DOT approval while their beadlocks do not mention DOT at all and are advertised as an "off road" wheel.

That seems pretty clear to me.

Steve.

Post by **SIM79** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:31 pm

Are the 15 inch rims 8 or 8.5 wide? I have checked the web site and it shows them a 8 inch wide but it also shows the 17 inch rims as 8 inch wide and all the Australian sites list them as 8.5 wide.

Post by **RV80** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:35 am

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