beadlocks for 19.5's

[gitpicker2009]

Does anyone use beadlocks to air down 19.5 tires?
I have a 4500 dually, 4 wheel drive that I REALLY want to take down to some of our Texas beaches. I carry an AF1150, so it's pretty heavy.
Almost every beach says to air down, and I'd feel more comfortable doing so, but, know that you really can't with 19.5's.
I've seen several sites talk about beadlocks.
Any experience or tips would be appreciated.

[DieselBurps]

Global expedition vehicles uses a Hutchinson 19.5 beadlock with some of their campers.

[av8rds]

My tire guy is adamant about not doing it BUT I see Class A's with their 19.5's air'd down all the time on the beach......I have yet to try it myself but I'd really like to go F-450/550 so it may be in my future.

[Kayteg1]

I left TX Crystal Beach 5 days ago
Haven't seen anybody airing down, so you do have lot of choices.
But frankly, I park my new dually on the street before.
Have seen too many things Ocean salt can do to machinery.

[jimh406]

I don't know what pressure they come off, but they do come off. It's been documented on here a few times when people attempt to air down for beach driving. As Bedlam noted though, they really don't gain much surface area when you air them down so what would be the point.

Then, there is the rim type between 24.5 and 19.5. I can't say if they are the same or not.

[noteven]

We usta run 55 psi off road in 24.5 tires on drilling rig mud vacuum trucks - tandem axles at about 46,000 lbs. They dint fall off rim. That only happens to 19.5s on rv dot net.

[Bedlam]

19.5" tire sidewalls were not designed to be aired down. You can safely go down to 70 PSI and I have even tried 50 PSI on my 245/70R19.5 PR16 tires, but the tires just won't squat and going lower will most likely roll the tire off the rim.

I'd like to see a dually sock that would stretch over both rear tires but have not seen something like this for sand.

[pcoplin]

I would call Hutchinson, they can probably make you whatever you want.

[tad94564]

I also thought with the 19.5" steel ply side walls, airing down too far damages them so they will 'zipper' apart.

[Trackrig]

I would expect that in Texas you would have a lot of good off-road tire shops to call?

Bill

[Boatycall]

jimh425 wrote:
I don't think it's possible with 19.5s due to the type of bead.

I've heard the same thing. I would recommend first calling a 19.5 tire Mfg and get this claim verified - I'd like to know for sure also.

Being an avid Jeeper, I had beadlock rims on all my Jeeps. I'll throw this out as something I had to do once on one of them - I had a cheap set of steel rims I welded a beadlock kit onto. Not being a great welder, they leaked. To solve that, I ran inner tubes. Moral of the story - possibly make your own beadlock rims out of 6 steels? Only a thought...

[SidecarFlip]

I guess you'll know when your tires are digging for China and that big tow bill hit ya...

[jimh406]

I don't think it's possible with 19.5s due to the type of bead. American Force does make a lot of different 19.5s and 22.5s. Maybe you could just go for bigger tires or go with super singles.

Otherwise, it depends on the beach if it is going to matter or not. Some are quite hard.