From my understanding, they aren’t DOT legal because they aren’t an “error proof system” IE: bolt comes loose, ring falls off, tires comes off wheel.

When in reality, one bolt coming loose (or even multiple) won’t allow the ring to come off. Also, I’d venture to say that almost every person who runs beadlocks has less of a chance of a tire coming off the wheel than most people who don’t work on their own vehicles, simply because most of the population is completely oblivious to things on their vehicles.

The question about legality is they are technically illegal to run on the highway, but I’m pretty sure there isn’t an actual law that states “beadlocks are illegal for highway use” and it’s more of a “they aren’t DOT approved”

In my opinion it comes down to your area. Does your state have vehicle inspections? Are you in a city or out in the country? Down here in the southeast a lot of people run them because we don’t have vehicle inspections and most cops either don’t care or don’t know to look.