When are beadlock wheels needed?

[Pado]

I was just looking at this post: https://www.4wdtalk.com/forum/threads/this-is-why-you-air-down-your-tires.4291/

Good illustration about why airing down is valuable to traction. But when are beadlocks needed when airing down?

 

[smritte]

Low pressure, high traction and wheel spin. If you have huge tires, low pressure and high traction, you can spin the tire on the rim. My last Jeep ran 39 mud grapplers I commonly ran those 8-10 psi due to the stiff sidewalls. Without beadlocks, I would have spun them on the rims.

What that illustration lacked was the difference in tire design. There's a point (based on the tire) where you loose traction due to low pressure. You also sacrifice stability even at low speeds. My KO2's are happy to 15 psi but lower I would need bead locks. The issue is, I start loosing traction below that so beadlocks are pointless for me. Im also close to 7k in weight.

Short answer, its based on tire design/size, terrain and vehicle weight. I guess how heavy your foot is comes into play somewhere.
The do look cool though.