I ordered a set of Silvertowns for my 51. I'll have a photo tomorrow. One looks like a tire. The other two that are wrapped together look like bowls. One side of the tire is collapsed into the other. Both of the wrapped tires are this way. The fourth tire is still in transit. On the possibly damaged tires the entire sidewall is pushed into the tire. A better way to explain it, is the side wall is completely cupped into the inside of the opposite side wall. Instead of a bulge the entire side wall collapses with the tread edge being....well the edge. There's no bulge that side of the tire. The whole sidewall is collapsed inward. The sidewall being collapsed in this manner makes the tread flare out at about a 45 degree angle. The tread is not flat, it flares out with the sidewall collapsed inward. Like I said, this makes these tires look like a bowls. I have gotten bias plys before and they did not look like this. These tires look like they've had an engine stored on them. Are these damaged? Have any of you received tires this deformed? I know they can come almost as flat as a pancake but this is really bad.
call and ask Coker. I would cut blocks of 2x4s six inches long and jamb them between the beads. leave it like that for a couple days.
maybe they had heavy boxes on top of em while they were in transit,,, I would unwrap em and put inner tubes in them and inflate a little to see if they look like tires. sometimes I do that anyhow on "wrapped" tires, stretching them for a couple of days helps make it easier to seat the beads
I just bought a set from Diamond Back , they came wrapped in pairs really nice . I noticed on the wrapping there were notes saying do not stack. Sounds like your were stacked improperly. ,I would take pics send to summitt see what happens. Otherwise, you might do as some others suggest and perhaps set them out in the sun . As you describe them , it would be very hard to get them mounted without a tube.
John Worden had some tires that came with cracks in the sidewalls. Definitely take pics of yours before you unwrap them and at every point of the install in case you get cracks.
I would put some tubes in them, enough air to bring them to shape, then set them in the sun. They should regain shape without too much time. Bias tires sit over night, get flat spots. takes a couple miles to get them warmed up and round again. Not a pretty sight to see them like this, specially for the amount of $$ they cost, I have seen tires like this before and if there is a problem, it is not from what you describe.
Unless the bead is visibly damaged I wouldn't get too excited about it and do as others suggested either with inner tube or blocks and some hot sunlight. Could be as simple an explanation as some fat ass shipping dock worker decided to plant his ass in the middle of them to eat lunch or something heavy got put on top of them in a truck during transportation.
ALL tires looked like that From shipping before the side wall got stiffer and shorter on newer tires. Mount them up and run them, they are good.
No dock worker is going eat lunch sitting on a tire, sorry ( I am a dock worker) and tire don’t work well to put heavy things on most of the time the tires would go on top. Tires are laced (stacked at angels like a hailing bone pattern) in the over seas container when being shipped from god knows were.
Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr
then I guess a guy could cut some 6 inch lengths of 2x4's and put 3 or 4 of them between the beads to hold them apart
Post #2 & #20 is good enough. Last year i had some new 7.00 x 18, 6 ply. I had some 6 inch wood blocks stuck in there for about 6 months including the whole summer. Tubes might work on 4 ply but the blocks work better.
Worked in a tire shop long before radial tires became common.Got lots of tires where the two beads were touching.They were fine,but it could be a fight to get the beads seated.Use to have a belt that fit around the tread.Got it as tight as I could then it was filled with air,and it forced the beads out.Still was a fight to seat them.Thats were the starting fluid trick came from.
I've gotten them like that too. My tire shop had a stretching machine with forks and a foot pedal, he stuck the forks in the tire and stepped on the pedal and it stretched it back out no problem. Must be fairly common if there's a machine to stretch them back out.
They are tubeless but 2 tubes are less than 30 bucks so I'm going to try that. I'll stick a tube in them and put 'em in the sun. Thanks
Not maybe relevant, I remember picking up assorted dirt track new tires from the tire rep and the side walls were collapsed like that......a couple of hours out in the sun.....mount em' up.... worked fine