Tires and stuff

[RoamingGnome]

Did some "Me" stuff today, finally spent a little time in the tent garage sweating over the Princess Awesome tire machine... last fall I got a deal on some good used 8-16 AG tires, and they've been sitting in the tent garage waiting for me to clean and prep the wheels and generally get my act together...

Six like new take off tires - that still have the nubbies attached - 2 for Max (my 446) and four to give BluZuki some attitude when going through the forest.

Only problem was the sidewalls had really pulled in from being stored flat (or maybe that's just how AG tires are ) Just too much of a gap between the tire and rim to seat the bead - and I don't have one of those air cannon bead blasters...

Tried a couple of ways to spread the sidewalls so they would fit the rims better - used blocks of wood and an old inner tube - both worked to spread the tires for a short time, but they settled back down within minutes - still way too much of an air gap to set the bead.

Even the big ratchet strap didn't squash the tire enough

The pair going on the Case will get tubes for liquid ballast, so they shouldn't be a problem to mount...

Decided to practice by starting with the ones going on BluZuki - bought some used 16" rims for a Suzuki Grand Vitara that have the same bolt pattern as the Samurai... cleaned up rust on the rim beads and after the paint dried for a week or two, figured it was time to try and get a couple of them mounted... Note to self - Six ply sidewalls seemed a lot stiffer than any car or light truck tire I mounted before.

I tried a couple of times to get the bead to seat and had absolutely no luck I was ready to give up and take them to a tire shop for mounting.

But stubborn me decided instead to do a little online YouTube educating and discovered the "bicycle inner tube trick".
Off to Canadian Tire I went and bought me a new 16" bicycle inner tube...

Put a little bit of air in the bicycle inner tube, slathered it with lots of tire lube and squeezed into the void between the tire and rim.

It worked like a charm, filled the gap, and as the tire gradually filled with air the bicycle inner tube was squeezed out from between tire and rim


... and the rest was history

Disclaimer... I still have more rims to prep, but at least now I know another trick to help getting the tire beads to seat...

[propane1]

Great idea Gerry. I sure would not of thought of that. I’ve heard of setting the tires out in the sun to heat them up and make them more flexible.
Need pictures of the Suzuki with the new skins on


Noel

[RoamingGnome]

I should add 99% of the time the Princess auto tire changer is just used for stripping old tires off rims - transfer station won't take tires with rims, and scrapyard won't take rims with tires or wheel weights on them...

Stripped down a couple of horrible wheels in the spring - they had been sitting under a Suzuki for years and years getting flatter and flatter until the rim reached ground level and started to dissolve...

made me think of @Eugen and some of his adventures with rusty rims...

[Spike188]

Gerry, thanks for the tire inflation tip. That method should fill a lot of gaps. I am a bit jealous of your tire machine.

[JSinMO]

Nicely done, I’m going to have to remember that tip too!
I thought we were going to see you with a can of starting fluid and a torch!

[Eugen]

Oh I didn't know the bicycle tube trick, thanks! Nicely done! I'm with Jeff, I thought it was gonna be the spray and flame in the end. That's what I did a few times on my motorcycle, in an underground building parking lot of all things

[DavidBarkey]

Tip, For colapsed tires . Expanding them with a tube works best if you can put something in the centre for the tube to push back on instead of just squeesing into the middle . Over expand soak in the heat for couple of hours (sun or near heator ) , then cool and allow to set for a few hours before removing the tube . The bicikle tube is new to me , but mimicks the rubber donuts used in tire shops .

[RoamingGnome]

Tip, For colapsed tires . Expanding them with a tube works best if you can put something in the centre for the tube to push back on instead of just squeesing into the middle . Over expand soak in the heat for couple of hours (sun or near heator ) , then cool and allow to set for a few hours before removing the tube . The bicikle tube is new to me , but mimicks the rubber donuts used in tire shops .

Thanks for the tip @DavidBarkey in my previous attempts I didn't think about cooling the tire after stretching so the sidewalls would hold their shape.

And @Eugen and @JSinMO ...the Roaming Gnome is far too boring to be playing with flammable liquids and uncontrolled explosions. They generally don't let Heavy Equipment mechanics play with "big" tires - just the tire shop! Too much liability and too much time wasted with not having experience and proper tools. I worked in a truck shop early in my apprentice years, watching one jack of all trades mechanic fighting truck tires with spoons and tire hammers - decided it really wasn't a part of the game that I wanted to play

@Spike188 the tire changer is handy and reasonably cheap when it's on sale at Princess. I don't have a solid slab of concrete I can bolt it to, so it's attached to a 3'x4' slab of 5/8" steel plate - that way I can drag it out of the way when it's not in use.

Happy I could share a trick from YouTube it's nice when they actually work the way they do in a video - I was also using Napa Tire Grease for lube - a little more substantial than soap and water and not quite as messy as Murphy Tire Soap...

[Harry]

The way I’ve gotten tires that have released from the rim is to use a rope and a piece of wood. I make the rope a bit larger than the circumference of the tire. Then insert the piece of wood through the rope and twist it to close the gap between the tire and the rim. It works on smaller tires but never tried it on larger ones. Harry