One of the first things I considered was wheels and tires. I wanted to be able to repair a flat in the field. Beadlock rims allow you to take the rim apart, perform a repair and then put it back together again. You can also wrestle a tire on and off without a beadlock but I wanted a very strong wheel. I chose
Trailready beadlocks for their quality and the super wide "World Series" ring that they offer. It reinforces the rim substantially, much more than many other designs available.
My tire of choice was the
Falken Wildpeak in a 37x12.5-17. The Wildpeaks are a great all terrain tire. I spend a lot of time offroad but I also cover huge distances on the highway. I have to consider durability, traction and fuel economy. The Wildpeaks give me all that. They also have a load rating of 3525lbs each.
One thing I learned was that the Wildpeak tires have a very thick bead on them. Spacers were needed to seat the beadlock ring onto the wheel. Trailready has the correct spacers and they are lightweight and easy to install.
If you are going to repair a tire in the field, any balancing that was done is now compromised. Fixing a flat and then hitting the pavement for a couple hundred miles with an out of balance condition will kill your tire. I HATE! wheel weights but thankfully there is an awesome solution to this problem. I use
Centramatic dynamic wheel balancers. It does not matter what the balance on the wheel and tire is, the Centramatic Dynamic balancers will make the wheel run smooth and true. They mount between the hub and the wheel. The minute I drove with the Centramatics I could feel the difference! If you hate wheel weights like me and want to get the most mileage out of your tires, wheel bearings, etc. you should check out Centramatic. I run the Centramatics and NO wheel weights.
You can also see the
Warn hubs I had installed by my friend Tom Baker at
Baker Automotive in Fullerton, Ca. He upgraded my hubs while doing a complete front brake job including rebuilt calipers and a new rotor.
Last but not least is my tire pressure monitoring system by
Pressure Pro. The sensors mount to the valve stems and send a signal wirelessly to the dash mounted display. You can monitor up to 6 tires with this unit. Once programmed it will sense a slow leak and give you a warning. It's great peace of mind when you are towing, (my trailer will have the sensors too), or carrying a heavy load. I have not installed the unit yet, I am still laying out the dash. The super wide "World Series" rings on my Trailready beadlocks also protect the Pressure Pro sensors from damage offroad.
