Narrowed Axial Racing bead lock wheels(lots of pics)
 

finally got a set of axial racing's bead lock wheels for 40 series tires. i thought it was great when i first heard about them because the choices for 40 series wheels are rather limited. plus, i think the axial racing wheels look way more scale than the pro-line bead locks. axial also offers several different bead lock rings in many colors. i have also ordered the blue 'holy roller' rings, but they are on back order. all of the axial bead lock wheels come with grey anodized aluminum rings. check them out at-

http://www.axialracing.com

they can be ordered from-

http://www.rcpcrawlers.com, or send a PM to rockpiledriver(yes, he has a vendor star)

here is a pic of the new wheels. they also come in white, chrome, and black chrome. i opted for just plain black.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1162.jpg
in stock form, they measure at 3 1/4" wide. too wide for moab XL's.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1164.jpg
here are the tools i used to narrow my wheels. notice the safety glasses!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1166.jpg
close up pic of cut off wheel and arbor. available at any hardware store.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1167.jpg
after i have lined up the cut off wheel to the portion i want to cut, slowly start making your cut by rotating the wheel slowly against the cut off wheel. go slow and let the cut off wheel do the work. eventually the wheel will cut all the way through. make all of your first cuts on all of the wheels, then do the second cut. that way all of your wheels will be identical to each other.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1168.jpg
what the wheel looks like after the first cut.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1169.jpg
same procedure again for the second cut. move slowly, and be positive that the wheel you are cutting is held square and firm against the drill press table.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1170.jpg
wheel after second cut.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1171.jpg
detail pic of how far i cut into the reinforcement webbing on the back of the wheel. after i made the cut, i used a strong pair of side cutters to cut the webbing.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1172.jpg
after i tacked the halves together, my wheels measured just under 2 inches. perfect!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1173.jpg
supplies for using fiberglass to reinforce the seams. here is another thread that explains the glassing process in great detail-

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showt...ght=fiberglass

the so-cal crew has been doing this to their wheels for a long time. none of us has broken a wheel. i also like to use 30 minute 2 part epoxy.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1174.jpg
pic of finished wheels.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...a/IMG_1175.jpg

after i get the moabs, i will update this post with the mounting of the tires, and the use of 'pigeonfarmboy's active super foam'. also, i need to figure out how to mount these to my thundertech clod CVD's. hopefully i'll have that solved by the time the moabs show up, and before i go to moab next weekend!

That looks great!!

Can't wait to see what they look like with the moabs on them. Great job.

What is this active super foam you speak of. I searched but only came up with this thread.

i'll give full details with pics as soon as i get the moabs!

OK sweet.

hinty hint hint http://homepage.mac.com/pigeonfarmbo...oftphotos.html

Narrow Tiers Q
 

Do you have to narrow the tires as well?

not if you are using moab xl's. narrowing the wheel to 2 inches seems to be the magic number when using XL's. having the narrow wheel really pulls the sidewall into play.

You've done a pretty good job on yours. Pretty dang slick looking. I'm fixing to order some this evening,hopefully I might have them by this next weekend.

thanks raptorman! the reinforcement webbing on the outside of the wheel made it difficult to glass, but no one will see it when the tires are on. ugly, but does it's job. still need to figure out how to mount them to my CVD's. either need a 12mm to 17mm adapter, or something else completely. i'll keep you posted.

Good luck......mine will bolt right up with no adapter necessary:-P :flipoff:

Are you gonna fill them with airsoft bb's?

you guessed it! the airsoft bb's work great because they are so much lighter than lead shot or regular bb's, so you can almost fill the tire completely. the bb's still move around, they support like foam, and they conform to rocks(hence 'active' foam) another benefit is that they do not get corroded.

Hmm sounds good I may have to try it. There are little green bb's all over my yard and my neighbors yard from airsoft wars. Post a vid or pics of them in action when you get done.

go to youtube.com, search for pigeonfarmboy, and watch the airsoft bb's in action in the crawling vids. especially the 2 lake balboa vids. all of those rigs are using airsoft bb's.

any pics with the tire mounted???

WOW, it looks like the airsoft filled tires work real good. How do you fill the tire up with the bb's and keep them from falling out. My guess is to glue or bead-loc one side down, then fill the tire up and do the other side which now that I typed it, it sounds like a good way. Oh, and how full is almost all the way, about 3/4 of the way? Or more?

that is exactly how you fill them. glue or lock one bead down, then fill them up. pigeonfarmboy likes to use a postage scale and weigh how much he puts in each tire. i think he said 7 ounces for large super class tires. i'm sure he'll chime in on this. myself, i like to use the ol' eyeballing method. i fill them to about 2/3 capacity. if you have bead locks, it's easy enough to try more or less bb's to see what works for you. i suggest using the 0.12 gram airsoft bb's. there are also 0.20 gram bb's, but they are heavier.

Sweet, I have some 0.12's I guess I will have to pick up some more tomorrow. How many should I buy? Would 10,000 be enough for 4 Moab XL's?