seating a tire bead in the field --

I just got back from the tire shop down the street. Learned something new. This tire was a bugger, 6 inch tire on a 6 inch rim but it must have been laying at the bottom of the stack. They tried the air blast machine first, no love. Then they got a flat rubber ring that fit tight over the rim and went down to contact the tire. It slid up as air was put it but would always pop off before the bead set. Finally he went out back and came back with a 5 gallon bucket full of some white looking slop about the consistency of grease. He slathered it by the handful between the rim and tire on the top side until it filled the appx. 1 inch gap. Hooked up the air and it worked, pushing the slop out as the bead set, no air blast or anything. He scooped the slop back into the bucket. I asked what it was, he said "like soap". Whatever it is, I need a gallon of it.

 

One thing I have found over the years. I always used to try to inflate the tire and get the bead seated while the tire/wheel assembly was still on the tire machine (horizontal). Lately, I have been taking the assembly off the machine and setting it on the floor vertically. I haven't had a problem setting the bead since. This is with stock or near stock tire/wheel combinations; for the weird stuff, get out the ether. (I have also heard that women's hair spray also works, but is not as volatile as common explosive garage chemicals.)

 

I've never tried the ether trick and now days ether isn't all ether so it doesn't flash as good. I have found that if you remove the valve core before airing the tire, you get better results. (air enters the tire much faster without the core in the way)

 

starting fluid and a strap wirks great

 

So there must be some of that goop in the tire? Just curious.... is this stuff is made for that job, and/or if there is some left in the tire, that can't be a good thing?

 

Yeah I wondered about that too. But it didn't look like he stuffed it in past the bead so hopefully it all got pushed out as the tire climbed the rim.

No idea what the stuff is. Major car/truck tire place, that's all they do.

 

On 15" tires I use one of the no flat foam inner tubes they sell for 16" bicycles

 

the "soap" is called tire and tube mounting compound , made by a few different mfg.'s , works great

 

Brad54 just did this the other day... but with and older can of ether

 

Have used that stuff a lot for heavy equipment tires and those big "Terra Tires" like on the monster trucks. It was Murphy's Tire Soap and came in a 5 gallon bucket.
It will get inside the tire and form a big ball, once found a ball the size of a softball inside a Dick Cepek flotation tire for a pickup because someone didn't take care with how they applied it. There was a severe balance problem with that one.
Also saw a gob of it fly up and stick to the roof of the shop from someone using a big air hose without a tire chuck, just hooked it direct to the tire valve (Big bore valve for earth mover tires) to seat the bead.
One fella got a bunch in the face because he was watching the process without safety glasses.....

 

I have seated lots of tires with starting fluid until a guy in my town got killed doing it and that's when I stopped doing it and started using Murphy's paste soap. From what I understand he had the wheel laying down and when he set off the starting fluid the wheel came up and raked his face off. A ER nurse gave me a very detailed description about them trying to pack his eye sockets so they could try to save him long enough to get him to a trauma hospital.

 

Ether and a match works for lawnmower tires all the way to tractor tires.

 

I've seen it done with acetylene. The tire store owner who did it knew what he was doing but still didn't like doing it that way. He'd tried everything else with no success and said he knew what to do when all else failed, but everybody was gonna have to leave the shop. The tire/wheel jumped about a foot off the floor, but it immediately sealed and inflated. He did two tires for me for a pop-up camp trailer that way. Scared the shit out of me, but it worked.

 

Well today I mounted the other tire and decided to try the ether again using a new theory. And it worked. Yesterday when I couldn't get it to work I had the wheel on the floor with the drop center facing up. There was a large gap between the tire and the wheel because of the drop center, and the either just lit like it would in open air, no expansion of the tire, no pop. This time I turned the wheel over on a bucket so the tire was resting on the edge of the drop center on the bottom and the gap at the top was small, as that side of the rim has a long taper from the drop center to the edge. Presto. My theory is that what gives the ether pop is the compression it creates inside the tire as it expands. Or something like that. Anyway I'm on the road.

 

Ether worked so well on my lawn mower wheel I had to let air out!

 

all I can say is you guys scare the shit out of me with it ......... and ive been called fearless , lol

 

https://www.popularmechanics.com/ho...w-to/a18991/how-to-set-a-tire-bead-with-fire/

 

No help when you're under the gun out in the field, but I have read that if you plan ahead, and prop the beads open wider than the wheel with several sticks of wood for a couple of days, the tire will take a "set" and the beads will be easy to seal.

 

^^^8" sticks for a L78. I've had tires delivered that had been wrapped so tight and stacked so high you couldn't hardly get the sticks in. I'm a recent convert to the ether method. But I learned a little bit not enough ether is way better than too much.

 

I've all but gave up on these suckers, 15 x 3.5's that I've had problems with in the past with a VW bug tire, but eventually got.





Just can't get the last 12 inches of the tire to seat and pop, used dish soap, used a strap, had 90 psi in it, used go jo hand cleaner, bounced it, beat it with the dead blow, nothing freaking works.



I'm ready to polish the inside of the rim to help it slide better.

 

Try some of the water based stuff that is used for bedroom antics. Being water based it doesn't cause any 'side effects'. I use it for o-ring instillation.

 

you have the mapp gas right there..... get a lighter!