going to design my own wheels
 

I'm looking into designing and 3d printing my own 1/8 buggy beadlocks. or designing an insert for Pro-Line's SC beadlocks with a 17mm hex, which would probably be weaker than designing a whole wheel. I don't currently own a 1/8 buggy, or any wheels for them (fingers crossed i get a Typhon for my Birthday in a month), but i do already have the PL beadlocks. As don't own any 1/8 stuff I need some help getting measurements for standard wheels, and from there i can design the beadlocks.

measurements i need right now are:

• D1: diameter of the hole for the 17mm hub
• D2: diameter of the bead area
• D3: diameter of the "bead-stop" (no idea what it's actually called, so now it's called a bead-stop)
• D4: width of the wheel
• D5: width of the bead area
• D6: width of the "bead-stop"
• D7: thickness of the hub area
• D8: diameter of this flat area
• D9: (not pictured) depth of the hex
• D10: (not pictured) distance from face of wheel (edge of bead area) to face of 17mm hex (wheel offset)

Attachment 2249303

it would also be helpful if someone could draw up a diagram of the cross-section of the tire/wheel so i can understand the actual shape of the bead, example:

Attachment 2249304(wikipedia)

Measured from AVID wheels:

D1 = 11.9mm
D2 = 83mm
D3 = 85mm
D4 = 42.8mm
D5 = 8.5mm outside, 7.5mm inside
D6 = 1.25mm
D7 = 4.25mm
D8 = 27mm
D9 = 4.25mm
D10 = 34.5mm backspace from hex face to inside bead (distance from marked D6 -> D4 on your pic)

thanks for the measurements :)

ok, so 30 minutes later, here's what i've got:
Attachment 2249420

Looks good... can't wait to see a finished sample!

Only thing that I don't understand is how you can make them bead locks due to the design of the tire being mounted on the outside diameter of the wheel

it mostly depends on how thick the beads are, and how flexible. it would be extremely helpful if you could draw something up like the second pic in post #1. but I'm still in the research stage of this, so it might not happen, in which case it will still be fairly easy to make a 17mm hex version of the center ring for the Pro-Line SC beadlocks.

my LHS has a box of loose tires, I'm going to go there some time this week and see if they have any for 1/8 buggy.

here's a little sneak peek:
Attachment 2249687

first prototype is done, no idea how well it will work.
Attachment 2249769

Interesting... my only concern would be added weight, traditionally bead locks are used in crawlers so folks can adjust the weight added to the wheels to improve performance... are there any 1/8 crawlers that use 17mm buggy wheels?

I'm not convinced that a bead lock will hold a tire on 4S-6S... best of luck!

not sure either, but we'll never know unless someone tries it haha. I have an Axial Bomber with aluminum beadlocks on it, and I think that the shape of the 2.2 bead would actually be harder to keep in the beadlock at high speeds, but we'll see. since i won't have a 1/8 buggy till my birthday, and maybe not even then, I'll have to get some sort of 17mm hex for my Stampede, as well as some good tires (might even make an adapter so i can use my 3S crawler battery in it :D).

just sent off the .STLs to a 3D printing service relatively near me, ABS first, then when I'm sure they'll work I'll put them up on Shapeways in nylon (maybe?). I also started designing my 17mm hex version of the Pro-Line beadlocks, just the back ring.

Printing them in ABS first, shipping from the printer soon.

So the printing hub got worried when they didn't get a tracking number from the shipping service, so they printed an extra set, and now they've got a tracking number for the original set and are sending the second set for free. I'm impressed with their CS to say the least.