I've had, and still have Halibrand wheels and always ran tires with tubes. (Maybe I was listening to too many old wives tales about porous castings) I've heard if you paint or seal the inside of the wheel you can run tubeless tires. Anyone have any real world experience running tubeless tires? Or should I stay with tubes? Car will only be street driven. Thanks.
True "mag" Hals were porous, but I don't think the newer gen aluminum ones have quite the same reputation. I have two vehicles with Halibrands, one with Sprints and one with 5 spokes, no problems with losing air pressure.
Denny's right, magnesium will likely need tubes. I've had lots of aluminum Hal's and never a porous wheel with them.
I too heard that I needed tubes in old magnesium wheels. So I did that for years. Then one day I wanted to mount a pair of tires on some old five spoke magnesium spindle mounts, I didn't have any tubes for them. So Just mounted them without tubes. They are still holding pressure without tubes. Have ya heard the story, about the young girl who cut the ends of the hamb off. when asked why she did it, she said because that was the way grand maw did it. they ask the grandmother why she did it that way, and she said because her oven was to small. lol and new Valve stems for sure. and tubes to be safe. but I didn't need them. just say, en Ron...
A couple of light coats of clear on the inside of the Hals & couple coats of liquid dish soap inside the tires W/ dry time between coats will cure most leaks, don't forget new valve stems
I run tubes in my mag Americans only because I don't want to keep putting air in them every other week. Pat
These are definitely old and magnesium, kidney bean type. I've had the fronts on a car, with tubes, no problems. I had them for a long time. The rears I got sometime later and haven't run them yet, but there are tubeless type valves in them so somebody was running them that way. Maybe they put air in them daily. Lol Thanks for the feedback.
I have one newer Hal aluminum that leaks air. I am in the process of having the rim checked for leaks. I lose about 5 pounds in a week.
Lynn Are you using the metal/threaded valve stems? I'll use them any time I can. I have found sometimes if the rubber ones took too much pressure to install, they will fail.
For what it's worth, VHT used to make an aerosol wheel sealer. I don't know if it's still on the market or not.
It's interesting that some of you run them tubeless and some use tubes. Could it be that some castings were just a little better than others? I think I'll talk to the guys at the tire shop I use. See what they think and possibly try the new tires tubeless and keep a close eye on the tire pressure.
Any cast wheel can leak, it just depends on how good their quality control was. I've had leakers in the past, I recall a set of ETs I bought that three out of four leaked. Not fast, but enough you had to add air every week or two. I ended up adding one of the 'goo' tire sealers, that cured it....
I have a couple of 15 x 14 big window hals...bought 'em new about 30 years ago. I mounted an old pair of Pro Tracs (remember them) and one of the wheels kept losing around 10lbs of air per week. The traditional soapy water test indicated 2 pinhole leaks from a porous casting. I thought of tubes but instead I cleaned the inside of the wheels thoroughly and roughed 'em up where the pinholes were. I then mixed up some 2 part epoxy and smeared it on over the leaks and ....voila! Problem solved. I remounted the tire, had it balanced and we're 'good to go'. That was a couple of months ago and so far so good....
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