Teraflex Nomad Wheels

Nomad Wheels

I was looking for an upgrade and found what I think are the perfect setup for off roading. These Nomad wheels have built in RAPID deflators built into the wheel. I can now reduce the tire pressure in seconds to a preset level where it would take minutes before. These also have a protection trim ring to protect the tire and rim. Below are some of the pics of them and I will be following up with more information on how they perform.

These rims have a built in trim piece that helps hold the bead at low tire pressures allowing you to go to a lower than normal pressure. The release valve will deflate from my 27lbs to 14 lbs in about 15 seconds and will slow down to almost a stop. NOTE: if the valve is not closed, they will continue to lose pressure and empty air over time. I tested this over night and the tires were almost flat in the morning.

The valves are easy to get to and appear to be back far enough to be protected when wheeling. I will be testing and confirming this as time goes on. I am excited to test these out as I love the looks along with the red lug nuts and the fact that the trim ring will not only protect the tire and wheel, it is replaceable.

Update 5-March-2020

I not only used these rims the weekend of 28 & 29 Feb 2020 but I put them thru their paces! I visited Wolf Caves along with two other friends of mine to have a weekend of fun. This place is packed with rocks that would make some cringe and other cry in delight! To help put this in perspective, I took my little Jeep with a 2.5″ lift and 35″ tires and tried to keep up with 3 other jeeps that had 37″ and 40″ tires. Did that concern me? Not at all, I said let’s hit it and see how my rig could handle it and used the new deflators to 13 (passenger side) and 9 (drivers side) pounds to see how they would handle. I had all 4 tires delated in the time it took the others in my group to air down one! Huge win on my part!

It only took a matter of minutes to get to the first rock crawling obstacle Where the others were able to make it and I required a little bit of love from my buddy Jim Hatfield to help me get over it (pic below). I should have know that this was going to be the start of a fun day! As I tried to climb as such and angle, all 4 tires were spinning and not gripping the rock. We even tried adding a few rocks around the tires to help. What transpired was amazing in my book….even though I did not make it up the rock, the tires wrapped around the rocks and spun. They did not catch on the rocks but they never slipped on the rim! This happened multiple times during the day and while I was not impressed with the tires I had (for rock crawling) I was amazed and the way the rims gripped the tires and they did not slip or lose their bead! The “Locking beads seat knurling” was the reason for this and was an unexpected comfort feeling knowing they worked well. Next time out, I will have to try lower to see just how “low” I can go!

Now for the other part of the wheel and that was how well would it protect the wheel against the unforgiving rocks? Well I was going to test them to find out and it did not take me too long. I was going over a craves that had a 2′ drop on the drivers front side and luck have it I was the first one to try. Half way thru, my tire lost traction and it drop on the edge and landed with a hard and loud “WHAM”! after I finished driving out and got to a place to have a look, I found that the “Nomad Rash Ring” had don its job! It did take a beating and I even lost a small section of the ring but the wheel was protected and I was able to continue on wheeling! As you can see from the picture below, this happened right at the air valve and there is not a scratch to be found on or around it. The wheel lip….it did get scratched. This will be covered up when I replace the ring.

I did have some other scuff marks on the other rash rings with another smaller chunk removed. I have no idea how that one happened but not surprised at some of the rock obstacles that I went over! See the dirty and cleaned up pictures below. That being said, how would I rate this the first time out? For “normal” offroading, these are FANTASTIC and help keep the wheels looking great. You could easily take the rings off and drive around town looking fancy and then put the rings on to go out wheeling to protect the rims. Now if you were going to do hard core rock crawling, these are not designed for that (as shown by the missing pieces). Now I will be testing these again and again and will be updating here so that you can see how they work. Would I buy the wheel again? ABSOLUTELY! They did exactly what they were designed for and even a little bit more!

Let me know what you think by adding some comments below and let me know what I can do or try to test with these wheels! 🙂

UPDATE 31-July-2021

I have been using these for 1.5 years now and I am still enjoying these rims. The airdown is quick enough that after I start the first tire and end with the last one, the first one is aired down from 32 to 12psi and ready to run. If I leave them open about 1 minute longer, I go down to 8lbs. I use this in my classes to show just what happens to a tire on an obstacle when you air down. It really drives the point home on how it changes the contact point and increases traction.

Teraflex has also changed the trim rings now into 6 individual pieces where you only have to replace the section of rim that is damaged and the cost is only $35 for a set of 6 -vs- $75 for the original single piece. It makes it worth while to have a spare set to change out to keep the guards looking great. I have have not seen any damage to the wheel itself in all the wheeling that I have done.

Any questions, please let me know and I will be happy to share my experiences!