New Internal Beadlock From Centerline Wheel Puts I.C.E. On The Road. Plus, sneak preview of the next generation BFGoodrich Mud Terrain T/A KM2 tires for you truck and SUV.
Wheel designs for the light truck market can vary with the unlimited styles and tastes of every enthusiast in North America. Even limiting the discussion to just those wheels you can thrash off-road, the design options seem endless.
Many U.S. wheel manufacturers are capable of designing and engineering a wheel that will stand up to severe use in competition and be impervious to anything street use will ever require. And the ongoing discussion of what it means to be Department of Transportation-approved for street use seems to as mystical as the notion that the D.O.T., in fact, approves anything. Tires, of course, are subject to fairly stringent D.O.T. criteria.
That said, Centerline Wheels offers a revolutionary, 100-percent forged, internal-beadlock wheel called I.C.E. This is the acronym for Integral Centering Element (I.C.E.), the internal component of the three piece wheel. O-rings seated inside the back half and front half of the wheel provide an air seal. Air channels through the valve stem into the air chamber of the tire via interior passages engineered in the air tight wheel design.
This engineering break-through in performance wheel design won SEMA Hall of Fame member, Ray Lipper and Centerline Wheels, Lipper’s company, the “Best Engineered Product” award at the 2006 SEMA show. What’s more, this wheel may well be one of the most significant, functional rather than merely aesthetic, innovations in wheel design in recent memory.
In the early 1970’s, Mickey Thompson asked Lipper to design a wheel Thompson could rely on for his off-road race trucks. Lipper, who had built a reputation in drag racing with Top fuel, Funny Car, and many NHRA class vehicles, determined a stronger, heavier, and altogether more robust design was needed for harsh off-road performance. Lipper applied for, and received, a patent for a wheel centering element that retained concentric integrity and added strength to a two-piece wheel design. Using 6061 T6 aluminum, Lipper chose a material that could take a beat down in the desert, but with enough flexibility to be straightened in a pinch. Vent holes in the first generation of Centerline off-road wheels did not take away strength, but added a new look in wheel design that would be emulated by other manufacturers without mercy, right up to present day.
In any event, the I.C.E. is designed to secure the inside bead of a tire rather than the external bead. No doubt, the appeal of traditional true-beadlock shoulders bolted to the outside face of a wheel looks high-performance. So much so, that manufacturers offer simulated beadlocks so consumers can have the look without the function.
But if you want the advantages of being able to run low air-pressure in your tires for off-highway traction, have run-flat capability in rough terrain, and have the ability to change out a mangled tire in the field without the use of machines, consider the Centerline I.C.E. wheels for your vehicle. These are a great choice whether you race in the desert, or finesse your trail rig up and down the rock-crawler paradise of the Rubicon Trail. Oh, yeah faux pre-runners and street trucks can use ‘em too.
It’s a stout three-piece design of forged T6061 Billet Aluminum components consisting of a high-polish mirror finished outer ring, internal centering element (I.C.E.), and the back-half of the wheel. The internal centering element is the actual bead-locking mechanism that secures the inside tire bead. This internal centering element facilitates air channels into the tire’s air chamber (a practical function of this innovative wheel design), so the tire bead is locked in, yet sans the ring of bolts-and-shoulder loop on the exterior circumference of the wheel. The three-piece wheel is secured with 20-22, two-inch hex-headed fasteners on the inside of the wheel, above the 20 wheel vent holes.
This is just a first look at an automotive aftermarket wheel that is far more than a knock-off design. The Centerline I.C.E. offers the advantages of traditional bead-lock wheels with on-highway/off-highway performance you can count on. We will be loading these wheels up with some next generation BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/A KM2 tires next. We’ll show you how easy these wheels are to work with, then evaluate the new BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain KM2 tires. Stay tuned!
SOURCE:
Centerline Wheels
13521 Freeway Drive
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
800-345-8671
White Motorsports
11620 Sterling Ave., Ste. A
Riverside, CA 92503
(951) 324-8242
 Overview of the Centerline I.C.E. wheel just as it leaves the box. |  Centerline's I.C.E. wheel is engineered as three primary components that fit together to create an air-tight air chamber and internal beadlock mechanism. Note the two O-ring rubber seals that keep the inner tire air chamber tight. |  Top view of a partially assembled Centerline I.C.E. wheel shows how the three sections work together. |
 Here's the outside face plate of the I.C.E. wheel. Inside are the 20 two-inch Allen-Head fasteners, using a 3/8-inch Allen-Head socket that secure the three-piece wheel (Torque value: 80 to 100 Lb.-Ft. on each Hex-head fastener). |  Note the elongated air channel that serves the internal air chamber. Also note, each internal centering element will be clearly marked as to the correct direction to assemble each wheel. |  Here's the three components of the Centerline I.C.E. wheel in a pseudo exploded view. Those human hands belong to one Miss Laurie Marcellus and her daily display of bling. |
 Here you can clearly see the inside bead-locking shoulder on the internal centering element. You can also clearly see the air channel holes that direct air from the valve stem into the air chamber of the tire. |  All high-end forged aluminum wheels in the automotive aftermarket have curb apeal. The Centerline I.C.E. wheel reflects performance following function. Your choice. |  New Centerline I.C.E. internal beadlock wheels mounted to the next generation, BFGoodrich Mud Terrain T/A KM2 tires (35x12.5x17). |
 Inside view of the new internal beadlock from Centerline shows the seemless fit of the three-piece wheel. Note the shoulder blocks shoring up the sidewalls of the next generation BFG Mud-Terrain T/A tires that will be available to the public by early Fall 2007. |  The Centerline I.C.E. wheels and new BFG Mud-Terrain T/A tires where balanced courtesy of White Motorsports in Riverside, CA. |  Centerline I.C.E. internal beadlock wheels provide low-tire-pressure capability and prevent the tire bead from peeling off wilst merrily sliding in the dirt. |
 Tread top view of the new BFGoodrich Mud Terrain T/A KM2. |  New BFG Mud-Terrain footprint latched to new Centerline I.C.E. internal beadlock wheels. |  Close up of shoulder blocks on BFG Mud Terrain T/A. |
 Loaded up, next generation wheels and tires from Centerline Wheels and BFGoodrich. We'll review the tires in a couple months. | | |
