Never thought it would be a serious issue but when I walked out to my truck, the front wheel was deflated. Turns out the mud someone knocked the bead (sp?) off the wheel.

Wierd thing is, acouple weeks later my aunt's explorer had the same thing happen, only she wasn't driving in a huge mudpit, but only on a dirt road with a couple muddy pot holes.

 

never had that hapen in the mud only had it hapen once on a rocky dirt trail, had the tires aired down to about 15-20 psi (really soft truxus sti interco tires) the tire fell into a rut that caused the bead to seperate for a split second and alittle peice of dirt got in the bead and caused it to leak i got out and proceeded to kick the tire in that spot, it reseated and i kept going

 

At lower pressures, it's really easy to get crud jammed into the bead. For our terrain around here (no a lot of rock crawling) I don't air down at all. Before the flame jobs, let me explain - been doing this for 30 odd years.

Low tire pressure allows your tire to conform to the terrain better (bigger footprint). This is excellent for rocks, but in the mud and on hard pack dirt, the trail conforms to the tires very rapidly. Never punctured a tire or lost a bead and rarely get stuck. Most of my trail buddies air down and have those problems. If I were running sand or lots of rocks, I would air down if necessary.

I understand this runs almost opposite of what most people think, but it works for me... and I've run Poison Spider Mesa at Moab twice with this F150 - pretty nasty trail for a full size, but lots of fun... and I had 50 psi in the tires.

Break down the tire (if you mark the tire and wheel, you won't need to rebalance) and clean the beads.

 

I get that problem all the time. Now if I'm out in rocks or mud, when I get done I just check my tires all around. And since I have a nice free maintaince form my tire shop, I just run it down there and get it cleaned. I'd love some bead locks, but they aren't legal and cops love me enough already.