WHAT DO INTERNAL, PNEUMATIC BEADLOCKS DO?

They securely lock the tire to the rim. Also, they are basically an inner liner, a NACAR run flat of a sort. The only difference is that offroad beadlocks leave room to accommodate airing down for bigger, softer tread footprints. They lock both tire beads to the rim at the beadlock pressure and provide a 3” high, 50 PSI tire- and rim-protecting bump stop.

WHY DON’T I SEE MORE INTERNAL (COYOTE) BEADLOCKS?

I think that there are four basic reasons and I’ll take them one at a time:

1. They are trying to install. Pulling no punches, there is an unforgiving learning curve. If you are not tire-savvy, your first choice should be to use the DEALER LOCATOR tab on the website home page to find an installing dealer. Our Beadlock Installation video provides lots of details but there is nothing like the experience of a club buddy who has mastered the installation process. Typically, that takes an hour or more on the first one but is down to 20~30 minutes on the fourth or fifth one. Under any circumstance, I’m always available to walk you through the hard spots with a phone call. Conservatively, I’ve done well over a hundred sets and have yet to fail in any respect.
2. Misconception We all have a good handle on the strength of nuts and bolts but air pressure (strength) leaves us wondering. We trust nuts and bolts, period! We’re iffy about air. “Air pressure, isn’t that what you blow up the kid’s balloon with?” Cumulative force is where the misconception arises: Enter pounds per square inch. An internal beadlock inflated to 50 PSI on a 17-inch wheel has a total holding force at the bead of more than 3,000 pounds. 84,823 pounds is the total force against both sidewalls of a 37-inch tire. Put another way, are you likely to pop your beads with the tire at 50 PSI?
3. They ain’t got no bling. Internal beadlocks never broadcast their worth even when on the trail. See this link to Montana Overland and 4X4 Adventures year-long review. In just a few words, in 2024/25, he verifies our grueling Means Dry Lake tests in 2004.
4. You have to drill a hole in your rims that you have so proudly chosen. The fear is obviously putting it in the wrong place which I have done twice. One time was in a steel rim and the other, an alloy rim. There are people capable of flawlessly welding up a mis-drilled hole and making it virtually invisible. The old adage, “Measure twice and cut once comes into play when drilling holes, too.

WHAT KIND OF RIMS DO COYOTES FIT IN?

They can be fitted in your rims, regardless… steel, alloy, split, mechanically beadlocked or whatever… your rims. We’ve yet to find a rim that would not accept a Coyote internal beadlock. That is partially due to the incredible flexibility of the patented air channel. It’s a snorkel of sorts that gets air past the inner tube and into and out of the primary air chamber.

WHAT HOLDS THE AIR IN COYOTE BEADLOCKS?

Custom-made, specially-sized, heavy-duty inner tubes create an air chamber independent of the tire’s primary air chamber. Remembering that your tire is still a tubeless set-up so it has an all-thread valve stem to seal the tube valve stem hole and keep the entire wheel air tight.

WHY WON’T JUST AN INNER TUBE ACT AS AN INTERNAL BEADLOCK?

It’s only one air chamber. Whatever pressure the tube is at is what is the pressure that’s holding the tire beads against the rim AND! the pressure you are wheeling at. Two chambers, as a pneumatic beadlock is, means that you lock the tire beads against the rim at 50 PSI (for example) and still have the advantage of 10 PSI (for example) in the primary air chamber for a big, soft footprint.

WHERE ARE COYOTES MADE?

Coyote Enterprises LLC makes the beadlocks in the U.S.A. Since inner tubes are no longer made in the U.S.A., Coyote inner tubes come from Viet Nam.

WHAT IS THE COYOTE WARRANTY?

Coyote beadlocks have a FIVE YEAR WARRANTY. And the inner tube warranty is on year.

HOW LONG WILL COYOTE BEADLOCKS LAST?

We have users that are going on their second and third set of tires with no replacement beadlock parts required. However, it is very common for them to replace the tubes “just in case.”

WHAT SIZE RIMS WILL COYOTES FIT?

14, 15, 16, 16.5 and 17” rims of all styles and materials can be fitted with Coyote internal beadlocks. We’ve yet to find a rim that we couldn’t fit. Check our parts numbers for rim widths, but generally, we cover 7 to 10” wide rims.

HOW MUCH DO COYOTES COST?

Depending on size, you can typically fit Coyote beadlocks to you wheels for under $200 a corner.

WHEN WERE INTERNAL, PNEUMATIC BEADLOCKS INVENTED?

The pneumatic beadlock concept was invented by Olle Hogberg and introduced to the Swedish military in about 1990.

DO COYOTES REQUIRE ANY MAINTENANCE?

Coyotes require no maintenance contrary to the lock ring, bolt circle torque maintenance issue for conventional mechanical beadlocks. We do however recommend an occasional tube pressure check.

DO COYOTE BEADLOCKS TAKE LONGER TO AIR DOWN THAN WITHOUT?

Definitely no! In fact, it’s faster to air down Coyotes due to some of the tire’s primary air chamber being occupied by the beadlock which you do not air down.

CAN I USE MY COYOTE AUTOMATIC TIRE DEFLATORS TO AIR DOWN COYOTE-BEADLOCK-EQUIPPED TIRES?

Definitely yes.

ARE COYOTES STREET LEGAL?

That was the first question that I asked the California Highway Patrol for my 2004 newsletter report, Low Pressure Revolution. His U.S. DOT query reported that it said that it looks at Coyote beadlocks as inner tubes of a sort.

DO COYOTE BEADLOCKS RUB ON THE INSIDE AND WEAR OUT?

No. Here you see that the primary job of a Coyote is to push out against both tire beads and make the tire think that it is a 50 PSI (beadlock pressure). Please excuse original Australian SecondAir design. Only under extreme sidehill conditions will the bulged-out tire sidewall come in contact with the beadlock sidewall.

WHAT CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE DESIGN AND TEST OF COYOTE BEADLOCKS?

That is best handled by our Beadlock Tests and Features page. It reports on some debeading test conditions that I hope you never encounter. This link takes you to the history and evolution of bead locking methods and wheels.

ARE COYOTE BEADLOCKS USED IN RESCUE VEHICLES?

Yes. They are most common in 4X4 snow rescue and recovery vehicles. There is also an AL storm chaser that has depended on Coyotes for over five years. Remember, you are driving blind, road-wise, when you are driving flood waters.

ARE COYOTE BEADLOCKS USED IN COMPETITION?

Yes, they are used in all forms of races like drag and oval track races, Rock Bouncers, Rain Forest Challenges and as you’d expect, offroad venues of all sorts across the world. The Coyote beadlock’s primary job is to keep the rubber on the metal but an equally important task is that they offer a 3” high, 50 PSI tire- and rim-protecting bump stop. Cody Waggoner (pictured) was the first to use them in about 2004.

ARE COYOTE BEADLOCKS RUN FLATS?

Definitely not. We give them a qualified “limp flat” capability. Feel comfortable limping off to the side of the road or back to camp for a safer place to change to your spare but lengthy limp flat runs are discouraged.

WHY ARE COYOTE BEADLOCKS RECOMMENDED FOR OFF HIGHWAY USE ONLY?

Liability issues. We do not want “daddy” 4x owner telling mama 4x driver, “If you get a flat, just drive home and I’ll handle it.” We have yet to have any distressing highway use reports, but nevertheless, we stick by our guns and recommend Coyotes for off highway use only.

HOW FAST CAN I DRIVE WITH COYOTES IN MY TIRES?

Our drag race users report speeds in excess of 170 MPH with elapsed times in the low 7s at just 12 or 13 PSI in the tires. The five-year-in-a-row Baja 1000 Jeep Speed class winner reports 100 MPH runs into the pits on Coyote equipped flats. He also reports winning one race with no flats.

DO COYOTES CHANGE VEHICLE HANDLING?

Apples for apples, given the same load and tire pressure, with and without Coyotes installed, your vehicle will handle pretty much the same with fully inflated tires. And with a flat, provided you did not have a blowout that also took out the Coyote, they handle better. Think of the Coyote as allowing only a “half flat”. The tire sidewall never fully collapses thereby reducing the squishy “hula butt” feeling of a traditional full flat.