09-11-2024, 11:54 PM
(09-11-2024, 05:29 PM)CCoburn Wrote: This was all back around the same time I decided to try mounting my own tires: low profile 235/40/18.
I took one down in the basement one afternoon and let the air out and tried beating it to death with a sledgehammer and this large heavy-duty chisel like tool. That wasn't working out too well, so I grabbed my weight bench and used the metal frame and the scissor jack to try and compress the tire to break the bead - that didn't work either.
I eventually concluded that if it's this difficult it just ain't worth it and it would be insane to not just pay the $20 and spend an hour at the tire shop.
In retrospect, I think maybe removing the metal valve stem core (and not just letting the air out) might've been more crucial than I thought. Maybe air getting trapped inside was causing a problem and making it more difficult than it needed to be.
I kind of knew you were joking anyway (to some extent).
Edit: I got interrupted too much on this one.
Am I reading this correctly...you tried to break the bead on a tubeless tire without first removing the valve stem and getting all the air out??? Wow! Yeah, if that's the case, you definitely found out the hard way how not to demount a tire! If it's a vehicle tire, I always take mine to a tire shop; it's way worth it to me (but me and the tire shop guys are on a first name basis with all the tires we need to get worked on).
But I do have a really crappy flat tire story for you...
I had one of the tractor tires get low once and didn't notice it. Jumped on the tractor and picked up a 2,150 pound round bale and flattened the front tire (dumb me), just blew it off the bead. Because it was a big tractor tire I didn't feel like calling the tire shop guys to bring out the tire service truck. (Plus I was super mad at myself for such a dumb mistake) Figured I'd just do it on my own with tire irons. Got the tire back on the rim with the irons, but couldn't get the bead to seat for anything. Used up almost a whole can of ether trying to flare it back on there, but not even that worked. By this time I'd spent about 6 hours on this tire and it was getting close to midnight and I still had more stuff to do. I was hoppin' mad by then. Finally figured I'd get my 4-ton chainfall down and wrap the chain around the tire, then cranked that puppy down with about everything I could muster. Well, that worked...finally. Of course, then it started raining, then snowing. Jumped back on the tractor after I got the tire mounted back up (using our skid loader). It was after 2am by then, and I was draggin' ass. Took the hay out to the girls in the pasture. No sooner did I button up the round bale feeder and jumped on the tractor heading for the barn...BOOM...blew the front tire I'd just spent all day fixing! This time the bead was damaged so I was screwed (I must have abraded the bead somehow with my tire irons earlier). DAMMIT! I was about 2 miles from the house.
Didn't have the heart to call the wife to come get me in the truck, so it was going to be a 2 mile mud-hike back to the house in the sleet, and dark as the inside of a cow outside. Fortunately, one of the neighbors down the way saw the reflective stripes on my coveralls right as I got to the road. He was headed out to plant wheat. He gave me a lift to the house right after I'd called my tire guys, told them where the tractor was, tire sizes, etc. They said had two jobs in front of me, so it was going to be a while before they got to me (they run 24x7 during planting and harvest seasons). Went home and crashed, I was toast by then.
Went back out at about 6am and the tractor was completed, but it looked like they'd got their truck stuck at least twice. Must have been on the way out because I could see the tracks were they'd used the tractor to get them out (which was fine, I'd left the keys for them). That was just a really sh!tty night for everyone. Finally got the tractor home around 7, and then had to head into town to square up on my $1,000+ dollar bill.
There's an old saying that goes..."If you're gonna' be stupid, you damn well better be tough!"
It's an accurate saying!
P.S. - One day I'll tell you about Memorial Day 2008, a day which will live in infamy for me. It was the most FUBAR'd day imaginable, where Murphy's law on steroids was in maximum turbo-overdrive!! (3 heavy tractors, 2 skid loaders, 4 4WD trucks, all hopelessly stuck. Took over 7 days, 5 wreckers and a bulldozer to get everything out). But there weren't any flat tires in that story, so I'll save it for another day.
