- Article/photo's courtesy of
- clarkjw24
Recentering H1 and PVC bead locks
H1 info:
H1s are military beadlocking rims. They are two piece rims, an outer and inner bolted together. In order to be a beadlock you must also have an insert that goes between the insides of the tire's bead. It can be the factory style rubber runflat, mag runflat or an aftermarket piece of pvc. They measure 8.25x16.5, as far as I know there are no other sizes. All of them come with the 8 on 6.5 lug pattern. There are two versions of the rims, 8 bolts and 12 bolts. This is refering to the number of studs and nuts that bolt the two halves together.
Parts and equipment needed to recenter your H1s consist of:
H1s
Beadlock inserts
New centers
New orings
studs and nuts if needed.
Torch or Plasma cutter
4" side grinder
Impact and sockets
Stick or mig welder
Vertical Bandsaw or portaband
Here are pictures of the H1s and mag insterts in their stock form. One of the rim bolted together and then the two halves with the studs and valve stems removed.
I usually cut it out about an 1/8" wider. You can use a torch or plasma here just be careful lot to booger up the studs if you're not planning on replacing them. After you've cut the old center I use the grinder to clean up the cut edges. Now you're gonna need to flip the bottom half over and clean up the inside where the new center will be welded in. Remember these are military rims so there is prob about 20 layers of paint and crud on them. Also at this point you'll need to remove any of the stick on weights so the new center will slide in. I usually use a wire wheel or grinder and just clean where I'm going to weld. Mainly because if you want the rims powder coated or nicely painted you're gonna need to have them sandblasted. It would take days with a wire wheel, trust me I know.
I've only used the USA6x6 pressed centers. They drop right in and sit nicely on a ridge in the rim. Sitting on this ridge it will give you about 3.75" backspacing. Now you can change your backspacing to less but you will have to build a jig in order to get it true. It depends on how much you really want a 1/4" to 1/2" less backspacing to go through the extra work. Here is a new pressed center.
Here is a PVC insert being installed on my spare
O-ring in place
Bottom half of rim sitting on a block or 5 gallon bucket
Squeezing insert in the tire between the beads
Finally in
Tire, insert, O-ring on bottom half
Stud nuts going on
Running them down with the impact
Now you're ready for air if you want, I run about 5lbs in mine, no issues