wwood
Member
Just got ATX slabs installed on Toyo 35x12.50/R17 ATII's for my 2013 JKUR.
Thought some of you might like to hear that using Discount Tire worked out really well.
I ordered the wheels from my local DT and they price matched Northridge - $1750 delivered for 5 wheels. They reduced the price of the wheels enough to absorb the AZ sales tax of about 9%. My tires were already mounted on Rugged Ridge wheels that had about 1k miles on them. The RR wheels run great and look great but I should have bought the Slabs in the first place - definitely first class. Live and learn, now I have to sell the RR wheels.
Anyway I needed the tires dismounted from the RR wheels and then mounted on the Slabs and balanced. DT would not mount the tires on the Slabs but they:
1) put Jeep on lift and kept it there all afternoon
2) removed the RR wheels/tires from Jeep
3) dismounted my tires from the RR wheels
4) allowed me the time to mount the tires on the new Slabs in their parking lot using my own tools
5) balanced the Slabs/tires on their Hunter road force balancer
6) reinstalled the Slabs/tires on the Jeep
Total fee for their work was $130 which I thought was fair. Total job took about 3.5 hours.
Took me 3 hours to mount the tires on the 5 Slabs using hand tools, they would not give me access to an air line or it would have gone a lot quicker. The Slabs have 24 bolts on the beadlock ring so that's 120 bolts that had to be gradually tightened in a crisscross pattern to keep the ring level and then torqued in stages to 24ftlbs. Doing the work at their place was preferable to having to transport 5 heavy wheels/tires back and forth to my house about 5 miles away since I could only fit 2 at most in our other vehicle.
Mounting the tires on the Slabs is easy technically but still a lot of work because there are so many bolts. I just watched Mel's video a couple of times and it went exactly as he demonstrated.
I absolutely love the Slabs. They were easy to balance, 2 of them took about 2oz of stick-on strip weights and the other 2 only needed 1oz or less. The Jeep somehow feels smoother with the Slabs. Took it up to 80mph on a decent road and zero vibration at any speed. The Slabs are noticeably heavier than the RR wheels of the same size (17x9). I did not have a scale available to weigh them but my guess is that they are about 5-10lbs heavier.
The beadlock ring is massive and the wheels are very nicely made. The bolts that secure the ring are plated steel cap screws that take an 8mm allen key. The bolts thread into hardened steel threaded inserts held in the aluminum wheel with red loctite. All of the bolt holes in the beadlock ring lined up perfectly and threaded easily by hand into the steel inserts.
The local VP of Discount Tire happened to be at the shop when my Jeep was there. If he was not there I think DT would have at least let me use an air line to run my air ratchet which would make the job vastly easier. The local manager, the VP and top tech guy went back and forth about whether they should mount tires on beadlock wheels. No answer one way or the other was reached. Actually, I was happy to mount the tires myself. I like knowing how stuff works and DIY is the way to learn. Fortunately I am retired and have the time.
Before
After
The Box
What comes in the box
Mounting instructions
Tire mounted ready for ring
Torquing the ring bolts
I do have one question for guys that have been running these wheels for a while. I noticed in other threads that the ring bolts get corroded after being wet over time and some even break when retorquing. Wouldn't it be a good idea to put some anti-seize on the bolts to prevent the corrosion and make them easier to remove and retorque when necessary?
Thanks
Thought some of you might like to hear that using Discount Tire worked out really well.
I ordered the wheels from my local DT and they price matched Northridge - $1750 delivered for 5 wheels. They reduced the price of the wheels enough to absorb the AZ sales tax of about 9%. My tires were already mounted on Rugged Ridge wheels that had about 1k miles on them. The RR wheels run great and look great but I should have bought the Slabs in the first place - definitely first class. Live and learn, now I have to sell the RR wheels.
Anyway I needed the tires dismounted from the RR wheels and then mounted on the Slabs and balanced. DT would not mount the tires on the Slabs but they:
1) put Jeep on lift and kept it there all afternoon
2) removed the RR wheels/tires from Jeep
3) dismounted my tires from the RR wheels
4) allowed me the time to mount the tires on the new Slabs in their parking lot using my own tools
5) balanced the Slabs/tires on their Hunter road force balancer
6) reinstalled the Slabs/tires on the Jeep
Total fee for their work was $130 which I thought was fair. Total job took about 3.5 hours.
Took me 3 hours to mount the tires on the 5 Slabs using hand tools, they would not give me access to an air line or it would have gone a lot quicker. The Slabs have 24 bolts on the beadlock ring so that's 120 bolts that had to be gradually tightened in a crisscross pattern to keep the ring level and then torqued in stages to 24ftlbs. Doing the work at their place was preferable to having to transport 5 heavy wheels/tires back and forth to my house about 5 miles away since I could only fit 2 at most in our other vehicle.
Mounting the tires on the Slabs is easy technically but still a lot of work because there are so many bolts. I just watched Mel's video a couple of times and it went exactly as he demonstrated.
I absolutely love the Slabs. They were easy to balance, 2 of them took about 2oz of stick-on strip weights and the other 2 only needed 1oz or less. The Jeep somehow feels smoother with the Slabs. Took it up to 80mph on a decent road and zero vibration at any speed. The Slabs are noticeably heavier than the RR wheels of the same size (17x9). I did not have a scale available to weigh them but my guess is that they are about 5-10lbs heavier.
The beadlock ring is massive and the wheels are very nicely made. The bolts that secure the ring are plated steel cap screws that take an 8mm allen key. The bolts thread into hardened steel threaded inserts held in the aluminum wheel with red loctite. All of the bolt holes in the beadlock ring lined up perfectly and threaded easily by hand into the steel inserts.
The local VP of Discount Tire happened to be at the shop when my Jeep was there. If he was not there I think DT would have at least let me use an air line to run my air ratchet which would make the job vastly easier. The local manager, the VP and top tech guy went back and forth about whether they should mount tires on beadlock wheels. No answer one way or the other was reached. Actually, I was happy to mount the tires myself. I like knowing how stuff works and DIY is the way to learn. Fortunately I am retired and have the time.
Before
After
The Box
What comes in the box
Mounting instructions
Tire mounted ready for ring
Torquing the ring bolts
I do have one question for guys that have been running these wheels for a while. I noticed in other threads that the ring bolts get corroded after being wet over time and some even break when retorquing. Wouldn't it be a good idea to put some anti-seize on the bolts to prevent the corrosion and make them easier to remove and retorque when necessary?
Thanks
