Safety Beads on Light-Truck Wheels

A visual always helps. In these pictures you can see the circumferential raised lips, or beads, on a typical light-truck wheel which are often called the “safety bead”. They help the tire stay on the wheel. The first photo below shows a relatively new, 17 x 8-inch TRD Tundra wheel, but they are all similar. The safety bead ring is inboard approximately one inch from the actual tire bead seat.

TRD 17 inch Tundra Rock Warrior wheel safety bead rings.

Below is another example, a very well used 16 x 7.5-inch TRD FJ Cruiser wheel, which has had several sets of tires mounted.

TRD FJ Cruiser 16 x 7.5-inch wheel with circumferential safety bead rings.

Copyright © 2012 James Langan

2 Replies to “Safety Beads on Light-Truck Wheels”

  1. Thanks for posting these photos. This is actually something I have been wanting to see. I was previously looking for a wider set of 16″ wheels and one of the concerns was to make sure there was a good safety bead. The Tundra wheel’s safety beads appear to be more pronounced than the ones on the FJC wheel…

    1. The Tundra bead retention ring may be better, but it may also be the photo and/or the dirty FJ Cruiser wheel.

      I do know that these “safety beads” work very well on the FJC rims. In a few cases it’s been difficult for tire shops to dismount tires and they actually commented on the pronounced safety bead on the FCJ wheels.

      Comparing them briefly just now, both the Tundra and FJ Cruiser wheels have a more pronounced bead ring on the lug nut side of the rim compared to my old F350 Power Stroke wheels.

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