Do you ever get something stuck in your mind and it just worms around until you have to give in? It happens to me all the time. I got it in my mind that my G55 should be less of a road machine and more of an offroad monster. I've seen a couple of 4x4 squared G-Class trucks and, while I never drove one, that was the direction I wanted to go.
As part of the process, I got my mind sent on bead lock wheels. Even though I most likely would not be airing them down often, it was in my head, so it had to happen. Most of us know that the 4x4 squared uses Hutchinson Wheels but since I was going with Tibus Portal Axels, it made sense to go with the Tibus Portal Axels. Right? Wrong!
I'll cut to the chase here and say the wheels are working well, ride well, hold pressure, and look great but the road was a long and bumpy one -- costly too. Honestly, I wish I had purchased a set of four 18" Hutchinson wheels that, at the time of this writing go for about $4,000 a set.
When I had my G55 converted to a G55 4x4 squared, I purchased a set of four Tibus 18" bead lock wheels for about $5,000. From the moment I got them I had trouble. They were not balanced properly and the TPMS sensors came unglued from the liner as were rattling around inside. Since the work was done at GwagenParts in California, I took the truck to a local 4x4 called the shop to get them balanced and the TPMS properly mounted. Most of my problems began here.
Every time you pull the wheels apart, the o-rings need to be replaced. Tibus does not publish the o-ring specs so I sent a note to Tibus and they shipped me new o-rings. It takes a couple of weeks for them to be shipped from Germany at a cost of about $200. Hint #1: keep extra o-rings handy.
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| Corrosion of Tibus Wheel |
Bill Rader told me about issues Tibus was having with the liners and offered to get me new Hutchinson liners (yes they fit) clean up the wheels and get them balanced. $3,500 later they work great. Although, I will say the fit and finish of some of the parts on the Tibus don't hold up well on the salty roads in Utah.
The wheels spent about 8 months at Bill's place and luckily I have a second set of AMG wheels and tires so I was able to keep my car on the road. The first thing Bill noticed was that when his team pulled the wheels apart and found a bunch of corrosion and several of the studs were cross-threaded.
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| Stripped Stud |
I had to order o-rings again and this time studs from Tibus. Most of the delay with having the wheels fixed was no fault of Bill Rader's team but was tied up with getting the parts from Tibus. Bill and his team got the wheels cleaned up, and replaced the lock nuts with Hutchinson nuts, and the old defective liners with new Hutchinson 18" Liners.
Two years later, I'm finally happy with the wheels. They ride smoothly at highway speeds, keep pressure and the truck handles well. I will say that after investing almost $9,000 in the wheels, I wish I had purchased the Hutchinson wheels and saved myself $5,000 in maintenance and a lot of time.
So if you get it into your head that bead lock wheels are in your future, lean on my experience and go with Hutchinson.
