Yokohama Geolandar A/T G018

[Zed]

2 hours ago, W a q a r said:

Hi @Frederic, I usually air down to 9–10 psi on sand, and with the Kumhos the sidewalls feel very flat. Many times I feel the tires rubbing hard in the sand, and even noticed a rubber burn smell when I stop. 

 

This Kumho AT52 LT 285 looks stout, and my F-150 friend uses same spec tires Kumho LT 285 with no complain.

Granted there are steel belts under the tyre's tread, but they shouldn't cause overheating and burning smell issues. Most likely culprits are usually close to the tires: wheel bearings, brakes, knuckles or it could be transferred like overgreasing shaft flung to the muffler and causing the smell. Or the usual stuff with Jeeps: front seal, rear seal, transfer case seal, then oil flying to the rear tires or exhaust, causing the smell. I wouldn't change the tires, drive them till they wear out. But do check with your mechanics where that burning smell is coming from!

 

[W a q a r]

Thanks everyone for the advice, it all makes a lot of sense 😁. I’ll hold off on new tires until these wear out, and will also get them checked by a mechanic soon.

[_Herman_]

6 hours ago, ChrisW said:

It’s not something I’ve experienced - I’m running 35” BFG K02’s on beadlocks. I usually run 8 PSI, although the K02’s have stiff sidewalls. 
 

If you’ve got a burning smell there must be some sustained friction occurring somewhere. The only places that come to mind are if there’s some sort of tyre rotation on the rim (which would indicate the beadlock rim is not tight enough), or if there’s tyres are flexing enough to contact the car somewhere (eg rubbing against a liner). 
 

One way to test if it’s due to the tyre being overdeflated and the sidewalls flexing too much would be to do a drive with slightly more pressure and see if that changes anything. Maybe the sidewalls of that particular tyre are not suited to running at a low pressure. 
 

The other easy thing to check is the torque of the beadlock bolts. Those do need checking periodically (I usually do it every six weeks or so). It doesn’t need much torque, maybe 20 lbf, but they do loosen slowly over time. 

Easy check for rotation on the rim, do what (some) dragracers (used to) do:

Draw or paint a radial line over rim and tire, and see at the end of your drive if they still line up.

[W a q a r]

Is it actually possible for a tire to rotate on beadlock rims at the outer bead? I guess it could happen on the inner rim, but thanks for the tip, I’ll mark both the outer and inner sides to check if they stay lined up. 

[ChrisW]

11 minutes ago, W a q a r said:

Is it actually possible for a tire to rotate on beadlock rims at the outer bead? I guess it could happen on the inner rim, but thanks for the tip, I’ll mark both the outer and inner sides to check if they stay lined up. 

I think the items that @Zed mentions above are worth prioritising to check first. They’re much more likely sources of a burning smell. 

[W a q a r]

Yes, will do that this weekend. 

[Zed]

2 hours ago, W a q a r said:

Is it actually possible for a tire to rotate on beadlock rims at the outer bead? I guess it could happen on the inner rim, but thanks for the tip, I’ll mark both the outer and inner sides to check if they stay lined up. 

I think this is what @Herman G mentioned by drawing radial lines over both rubber and metal rim. I'm sure they will line up, especially if you did your beadlocks installation with dealer or well-known tires shops. If your rims are black, chalk is easily washable. If not, I'm not sure you want to red-spray your rims 😂

 

Beadlock is a Clamping Mechanism to squeeze the bead tightly so it doesn't pop-out, the Outer Ring should not cause friction with the Inner Ring.

[_Herman_]

Dragracers have immense power with explosive starts and insane grip (sticky tires after a burn out, sometimes even sticky stuff on the pavement.  Don’t know if you ever walked on an official drag strip, but sometimes you feel it stick under your shoes), meaning that sometimes the traction asphalt-tire doesn’t break before the tire-rim traction gives a little, that’s why they have beadlocks in the higher classes. Google-knowledge says ‘from 800hp on’.

Not likely on loose sand indeed, with less power and having it distributed over 4 wheels. You’d suffer more from it in 2wd accelerating away at the traffic lights.

So it’s a very unlikely source of smell indeed, but as you mentioned it I guess one chalk line is a simple check.

Nice video showing the wrinkles in the tires in slo-mo.  Soft sidewalls anyone?

https://youtu.be/gXp2QgY1OB8

We’re wandering off-topic a bit 🤣

Edited August 27, 2025 by Herman G
added link