bad lawnmower tire

Frank Fusco

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12,782
Location
Mountain Home, Arkansas
I'm ticked. :)eek: can I say "ticked" here?)
About two years ago I had to replace one of the front tires on my rider lawn mower. This season it just won't stay on. Loses air and comes off the rim. Today would have been a good day to mow, I didn't plan anything else and sun is out. But, tire is off again and won't hold air. And, of course, it's a holiday weekend and I can't take to tire place until Tuesday. By then it will probably be raining hard. :bang:
 
You need to put some fix a flat stuff in there. Or maybe some of that green slime. I'm not an advocate for the stuff in car tires, but lawnmower tires are a good use for it to me. If you have an air compressor, even a small one, you can get it to air up, if you can coax the tire back on the rim. Get some soapy water as a lubricant, soak the bead that needs to go on, and do a dance while standing on the side walls. You might be able to get it to slip back on. Don't give up yet..unless you really don't want to mow the yard. :D Jim.
 
I'm ticked. :)eek: can I say "ticked" here?)
About two years ago I had to replace one of the front tires on my rider lawn mower. This season it just won't stay on. Loses air and comes off the rim. Today would have been a good day to mow, I didn't plan anything else and sun is out. But, tire is off again and won't hold air. And, of course, it's a holiday weekend and I can't take to tire place until Tuesday. By then it will probably be raining hard. :bang:

Frank,
I had similar problem with my Troy-bilt... kept getting flats on the front tires... I finally had tubes put in the tires for about $11 each/including labor and haven't had a problem since.
 
Great solutions !!
Now tell me what to do when you run out of gas halfway through the lawn and you find out your kid used all your gas to fill their car and forgot to tell you :bang:
Break out the push mower and get the kid to finish the job:dunno: :D

Frank, all good suggestion here, I too have used the ratchet strap and WD-40 method on tires, worked well! :thumb:
 
Thanks all. I'm pretty sure I can air it up for temporary use.
But, I'm now sure it is not the right tire for the rim. A tube or new tire might be only answer. It's a Craftsman mower and I'm concerned the tire/rim combo might be proprietary. Meaning, replacement could be expensive.
 
Thanks all. I'm pretty sure I can air it up for temporary use.
But, I'm now sure it is not the right tire for the rim. A tube or new tire might be only answer. It's a Craftsman mower and I'm concerned the tire/rim combo might be proprietary. Meaning, replacement could be expensive.

Can you get replacement rims from an aftermarket source... mine are only held on with cotter keys, so almost any wheel that fits the axle would work.
 
While I don't have the guts to do this, I saw some arctic explorers put a tire on in the following manner:

Lay the rim flat
Spray in ether based starting fluid
Toss in a match

Boom - seats that bead like nobodies business

They were running balloon tires at really low pressure to get surface area in snow, ice so "air outs" were fairly common.

I picked up the phrase "air out" in an old story about the death of racing legend Jim Clarke. Apparantly he had a tire on his racing car the had a slow leak. It go low enough that the tire bead popped off the rim causing a loss of control and Mr Clarke's demise.

Jim
 
While I don't have the guts to do this, I saw some arctic explorers put a tire on in the following manner:

Lay the rim flat
Spray in ether based starting fluid
Toss in a match

Boom - seats that bead like nobodies business

Jim

Jim,

Being in the tire business for the last 29 years, I've seen that done a few times. My opinion is its HIGHLY dangerous!! I only saw it done on heavy equipment ie..rear farm tires or big flotation tires and always with the wheel bolted to the piece of equipment. It's just as you described. Put the air hose on the stem, spray starting fluid on the inside of the tire, lite a match and throw it in. After the big boom and you clean your shorts out check the air pressure and move on to the next one.:eek:

Laying the tire flat on the ground is like being on a rocket lunching pad. If something went wrong and the explosion went out of the backside of the tire, you would have lift off. Lift off generally results in something bad happening to somebody.:(

Randy
 
Frank, I run the green slime in my tires. I occasionally run over thistle out by the road. The slime runs as a liquid until a puncture then it hardens when it hits the air. Some years the tires look like green studded snow tires!

Yep, the ether/starting fluid trick works. Used it in the late '80's seating semi tires. Now the DOT checks the air in tires for residue, it is illegal and they claim it damages the sidewalls. Only works once. If you miss getting the bead seated, it won't flex it enough again. So maybe there is something to the sidewall damage claim.
 
I've used the starting fluid thing only once, and that was after a tire got knocked off the rim of a 4x4 we were traveling in, and we could not get the truck out of the ruts in the road enough to put the spare on. Yeah it works, and boy does it go POP :eek:

I would not do this on a regular basis, the tie-down strap (ratchet type works the best) and a regular air hose on the valve stem (with the valve removed to flow more air) works just fine.

Tubes are a good idea!

I use to use that green slime in my dirt bikes, sure does work, but I only like it on a tire with a tube in it, when you change tires, I usually put a new tube in, so the green slime tube gets tossed, with a tubeless tire, it can really be a job cleaning the goop off the inside of the rim. :doh:
 
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