Put a new set of tires on the rig today, Old ones were 30" diameter and I put 32" on this time. It's hard to tell how much they will squat after they are run for a while but it looks like I'll gain about 1.5 inches of clearance.



Dairyman had a post a few days back on how a rock got up between the brake and wheel on the rear of his rig. A close look at my rig told me I need to do something along the lines he did, to prevent an unhappy repeat of his experience. Here is a pic of the inside of the front wheel.

Notice the relative lack of any rock dings on the front. Now to the rear.

You can see a lot of rock rash and there is even a circular score mark where a rock was lodged for a half revolution. So a set of flaps designed to prevent this happening should be here tomorrow.

My rig is also equipped with Beadlock Wheels. for those unfamiliar with them, here is a couple pics of the rim and tire as they are being mounted.

It is easy to mount a tire on this type of wheel as the top bead sits in the indent around the wheel and the tire is then clamped to the wheel with a ring and 18 bolts.


Bolts are supposed to torqued in sequence as numbered on my ring. It is easy to start the bead as the top bead is clamped and air-tight and all one has to do is press down on the tread of the tire to seal the bottom bead until air pressure completes the job. It is kind of tedious to tighten all the bolts but since I'm retired, my time has very little value. Tire shops want $25 and up / tire to mount beadlocks so I saved a couple bucks by mounting them myself.