Bead locks for street use??

[hotrod]

Why are bead locks illegal on the street? does anyone here bend that law? I have a set of beadlocks for my sami but i dont want to swap them back and forth with a normal set everytime i want to take it down the road. :confused:

[yellowjacket]

Show me in printed form where the law is that shows them to be illegal...:)and with all the fake lock wheels, i bet ur average cop wouldent know the difference...

[twiztedzuki]

they not dot approved, but drove for years with them without any hassle so i would drive with them.

[donaldcon]

No ohio law that says they are illegal. I called the ODOT on this issue to ask questions,

My exact question was, do all items such as bead lock wheels HAVE to be DOT approved to be put into use on the street.
I was told , non DOT approved item is not considered safe for road use and the manufacturer can not be held liable for any problems resulting from the failure of said items and the DOT does not support the saftey measures of said items.

They wouldnt tell me striaght up that they could or could not be used on the street, and to me that means they are no illegal, or they would have said so. There are DOT approved beadlocks out there and they are approved becuase they paid the money to have them tested and insured for street use.

[Coppertop]

I've ran my beadlocks on the street for years with no issues.Even when the Ohio Patrol pulled me over for my bumper height,he never said a word about my beadlock wheels.

My rigg is no daily driver though.

Nick

[twiztedzuki]

there are no dot approved beadlocks, but u are rite on the liability issue. i wouldnt worry about driving with them nobody gonna look anyways.i stand corrected hi-impact is making dot beadlocks but they are internal style

[jfiscus]

I know this has been covered multiple times on this board, but I can't find the threads from searching...

[donaldcon]

Mopar sells dot approved bead lock wheels. for $650 each :)

Ohio has no law banning multi piece wheels so you are fine. If multi piece wheels where illegal here, the old split rims would be illegal too.

[twiztedzuki]

think i buy 2 sets then!:thumbup: DF

[94Dodge Truggy]

I have ran them often on the road with no law issues. If you get into an accident with injuries they may be frowned upon.

[hotrod]

Good deal! Thanks guys. I didn't think it would be a huge deal and I guess I just wanted to make sure I could slide. I guess most cops couldn't tell anyway.

[donaldcon]

as said in another thread where you may see issues is if one comes lose and you wreck. Insurance company may refuse to pay becuase they are not approved. Just keep the things torqued though and there shouldnt be an issue

[flatlander757]

I daily drive on 40s w/ 17x9.5 Allied beadlocks... Check the torque every month and don't think anything else of it.

After the second of driving on them, I was never able to get any more torque on the bolts... only the first time I went to re-torque them.


About 3000 miles later all is well.

edit:

Also.. the DOT doesn't "approve" anything... that's all marketing hype. The DOT mandates the stuff that OEM manufacturers put on their cars... not consumers. The only thing I've ever seen that must be DOT approved are tires. Most states DO have laws in effect that require they be compliant.

I was a state inspector in VA... which is one of the more strict places to get them done, and built my Jeep through all the loopholes I could find... and it passed. Beadlock wheels were the least of my problems... I even left the "off road use only" stickers on them and the trooper looked at them and said, "hmmm... the irony is I can't do anything about that."

I had a state trooper come in and look over my Jeep himself so I had no question as to if it were legal or not.

[hotrod]

hutchinson beadlocks are 50 state. It's all in the safety bead on the inner lip of the rim. Inside and out. That's what keeps your tires on the rim in case of a sudden flat at speed.

DOT makes the stds. that MANUFACTURERS must comply to. You can run a self made wheel, i.e. recentered 2 pc. or beadlock, IT IS NOT ILLEGAL!!! However your are financially and otherwise responsible, if say your modified wheel fails on the street and you kill someone in a crash....

Or falls off on the highway and kills a 22 year old?


Wait, was that to soon????

[blazerbrad]

As stated above, it is not specifically a beadlock that is illegal but rather if it is DOT certified or not. Non-DOT certified parts are technically not legal to used on vehicle operating on public roadways. I do this type of stuff for a living.

With that said I really doubt you would ever get a ticket for having beadlocks, both because they are not specifically illegal and the average law enforcement agent probably doesn't even know what they are. Almost every commercially available rim I have seen is DOT certified (look and you will see a stamp on them), and then these rims are converted to beadlocks. Even though the DOT certification was done without the beadlocks and thus now void (any significant modification voids DOT certification and I'm pretty sure beadlocks would fall under this clause), they do still have a DOT marking on them. A trooper or such would have to dig pretty deep to verify that the DOT marking was not valid, and thus a reason to issue a citation.

I wouldn't really consider DOT certification "hype". Granted the actual DOT only tests a very, very small percentage of products randomly. The manufacturers are required to "self certify" the parts, meaning they assume the responsibility that the parts in question meet the requirements of the DOT. It is well worth their time and money to perform the tests because if they get caught it could cost them a huge sum of money in fines or recalls.