The stock stamped-steel cover hit the Dumpster long ago, so we had ORU seal up our 14-bolt with its cast-aluminum cover. The Dana 60 version of this ORU cover survived our 2002 Ultimate Adventure, but since we plan to cut the lower lip off the axlehousing, we may go with a cast-iron piece for a bashproof setup.
For a truly bulletproof, street-legal, and maintenance-free bead-lock wheel, we chose a set of Hutchinson Rock Monster wheels. These high-end forged-aluminum wheels use an exclusive double bead-lock design that holds both inner and outer sidewalls in position. Twenty-four 1/2-inch studs hold the two wheel halves together while a tire-specific rubber ring locks the tire sidewall to the aluminum rims. They're not cheap, but for a truck like ours, these wheels are worth every penny. To seal the two wheel halves together, a special O-ring gets pressed into a machined groove on the wheel face. We coated the ring with some grease to keep it from sticking and then placed the wheel half into the rim shell and started the nuts on the eight long studs.
To match our street-legal bead locks, BFGoodrich brewed up a set of 39-inch DOT-legal Krawler tires. They practically got delivered to our offices in an armored car! They use the same tread pattern as the championship-winning competition Krawler, but are constructed with a harder rubber compound that will let us run them on the street. We slipped the Hutchinson inner rubber bead lock into the tire and then slid the inner wheel shell in through the backside of the tire.
While we were waiting for the axle hardware to be assembled, we were back at GM Truck Center shooting photos of this custom winch mount for the rear of our K10. Since we knew there were going to be times we needed the capacity of a 16,500-pound winch, but didn't want to hang the138 pounds off the front bumper, we mounted this Warn 16.5ti over the rear axle of the truck to pull us out of anything we can't drive through! Don't worry, we'll still put a winch in the front of the truck, but it'll only weigh 89 pounds.
As we're writing this, the Ultimate K10 is tucked away in the corner of Fabworx, custom metal fabricators, getting a four-point rollcage installed. Next month we'll show you how Fabworx built the cage and fitted our MasterCraft seats and Tuffy Security center console.
Ultimate K10, Part 1
Ultimate K10, Part 2
Ultimate K10, Part 3
Ultimate K10, Part 4