To Beadlock or not?

Pretty sure beadlocks are illegal on road. Though you will probably get away with the Staun internal beadlocks.

Mechanical (external) beadlocks are illegal although I know people who haven't been booked with them on.

Staun's themselves are legal but the rim must be modified (another hole must be drilled for the second valve). Modified rims must be engineered although you can buy rims with 2 valve holes in them which are legal.

FWIW muddies aren't the best tyre for sand. AT's are better because they don't dig down and then float better. Remember too when you lower tyre pressures the contact patch lengthens not widens so going wider tyres won't necessarily give a benefit. In fact wider tyres are detrimental because you are pushing more sand.

No Alex you don't need beadlocks for desert touring & generally you would only fit them for mud if you play very hard or compete in comps. Tyre pressures can be reduced successfully with little fear of them falling off the rim even with 3.5 tonne. Have your tyre installer fit them without lube if you're concerned they may come off.
Either tyre size would work well. Choice may be decided by which size is available in each brand particually as 255's are not as common.
Cheers Craig............

Hi Alex,

I have a 105 series 'cruiser and run 285's. I found that with the standard 8 inch rims 265's exposed too much sidewall as the tread width was too narrow, especially when running low pressures in sand. Standard for mine is 275, but hard to get good off-road tyres in that profile. However, running larger tyres will mean less power, more fuel and an inaccurate speedo.

My rig also weighs in at over 3 tonne and I have dragged a van, as well as my off-road camper, through some pretty severe sand (CSR, OTT to Cape York to name but a few) and at pressures down to 12 psi. I also have a diff locker in the front. Never needed bead locks, but you do need to be real careful cornering at very low pressures. At 18 psi cornering hard does not seem to be an issue - well, not so far anyway.

I run fairly aggressive tyres, but not quite muddies. I always pick light truck American tyres such as BFG, Dick Cepec or (currently) Mickey Thompson as I always get really good performance, wear and puncture resistance from them.

Cheers
Gerry

Alex,

I'm waiting on my new 79 to arrive as well. I'm having it cut and stretched with a 500 kg GVM increase done at the same time. Bearing in mind that 3.5 tonne is just touching the standard GVM of the vehicle, you shoudn't need to worry about the tyres.

I am aiming to keep things light but it doesn't take much to get up there weight wise once you start adding fuel and water for a long trip. The main area of concern would be keeping an eye on the load rating of any tyre you may consider. I'm going a M/T myself for the outback travel and after much research have opted for the Toyo Open Country MT. Their larger tyres LT305-75/16 and 35" have a load rating of 1750kg and have a great sidewall strength as well. They aint cheap though. I saw therse in action on this years trip and they handled good loads at very low pressures in all conditions. Very impressive.

Cheers Mick

Hi Alex,
My HDJ100 weighs in over 3 tonne probably around 3.5 when fully trip loaded. I do a lot of sand driving and regularly run 12-15psi. I don't have beadlocks and as long as you drive sensibly you are unlikley to have any problems. FWIW, I have run 16psi fully trip loaded and towing a trailer for extended periods and as long as speeds are kept low I have no problems with tyres coming off the rims. I am however looking at the staun beadlocks and may fit them so I can run even lower (I have run 10psi) but debating whether I really need to. The external beadlocks are definately a no go for highway use. They are very difficult to balance and then keep balanced after a few kms at highway speed you'll want to get out and walk!
cheers
Rob