how to: Allied Beadlock install - For those who havnt done it before (like me!)

So I had to replace a tire on a 15" Allied 32 bolt beadlock rim.. I had never done it before, so I watched a few youtube videos, looks easy enough, time to dive in. I'll spare you the wrong ways to do it and go straight to the easy (proper?) way.

1) soap and soapy water are your friend.. use lots.
2) mount tire on rim - mine was easy.. slid right on. You may have to position tire at 45 degree angle over rim and take a flying leap at it.
3) put rim (with tire) on 5 gallon bucket
4) center tire over wheel, lay ring on top and line up holes
5) get (8) bolts that are long enough to reach to the threads from there (the stock ones are too short at this point)
6) install bolts in a star pattern, go around the star several times cinching down each bolt a little more until the ring is down far enough to install the proper bolts.
7) once all bolts were at the same hand tight level I used a small electric impact driver to get all the bolts barely snug before switching to a torque wrench - I tightened one bolt, then tightened the one 180 degrees across from it. - AGAIN this was only to snug everything, not TIGHTEN anything.
8) Set my torque wrench at 10 ft LBS and tightened every bolt (in a circle)
9) I did the same thing at 15 and 20 LBS
10) at 20LBS I noticed there was no more gap between ring and rim - so I made another loop around the rim @20LBS to make sure everything was even.
11)I made a total of 4 loops around before every bolt was tightened evenly at 20lbs - **See note at end
12) fill tire with air and attempt to seat rear bead - mine went on without issue.

***NOTE*** I do not know what the proper torque spec is. My wheels are Steel Allied Daytona w/ 32 Grade 8 bolts which I'm sure could take a lot more than 20 Ftlbs. I stopped here so I wouldnt hurt anything due to over tightening, and plan to call Allied tomorrow for the final word. I would suggest doing the same - especially if its aluminum.

Fun Fact: at TDS this year I got the pleasure of meeting the super awesome dude who runs the raceline division of Allied wheel. Already knowing I had to replace a tire, I asked him about how long should I expect it to take. He said his guys who do this daily get about 12 done in an 8 hour day.

Good write up. I did the same exact process for mine. Only difference is I set mine at 15 foot pounds. I think this was written somewhere but can’t remember where.

Another tip is to put a piece of tape on the tire next to each bolt. Use a marker to number the torq order on each piece of tape. Torq down one wheel then pick up the pieces of tape clock wise. When you do the next wheel just put them down in reverse order and your torq order will be ready to go.
I also wrote this order down on paper so when the tape got old I could make a another set.
I may make a cardboard ring with the numbers on it so I can just set it down on the tire and go without messing with tape.
Here is a shot of mine on a bucket with the tape order laid out.

I ran mine down with a butterfly wrench in a criss-cross pattern to get everything seated quicker, then chased it down with a torque wrench to 15 ft-lb per the installation instructions. I think 5 wheels and tires took about 5 hours start to finish, although I was also adding balancing beads which addd to the PITA factor a bit.

I used a cordless drill (takes a couple batteries to do a set of tires) to got the bolts most of the way. Start with a low torque setting on the drill, then a high torque setting..... not the drill setting Then follow up with at least 2 stages of torque wrench settings to get to the final torque number.

Once at your final torque number, do it again, and again and again if necessary. If they are still moving when you come back to one that was previously torqued, then the neighbors of the one you just moved will need to be re-torqed.

I set mine at the bottom of the torque spec (12-15 ftlb for Allied 8's). I think you better make sure of what the exact manufactures torque spec is for your particular bead lock befor you start getting towards final torque.

BTW, I have been running mine for several years now and the last time I replaced my tires I replaced ALL of the hardware because all of the orginal hardware had started to fail (heads popping off). Probably due to the original tire shop I had install them overtorquing them when they were new. That is why I run at the bottom of the torque spec. Haven't had a problem every since I started torquing them to the minimum torque.