BLOWING up a tire

SDE · Jul 3, 2014

I have a 16.5 tire that I can not get to expand enough to get the bead to seat. What can I use to get it aired up? I do not have starting fluid. Potato guns use hair spray. How much to use and how would a person ignite it? I definitely do not want to get hurt, but who does, right?
Thank you
SDE

GordoSD · Jul 3, 2014

Try tying a nylon rope around the tire's circumference. Leave a little slack. Put a tire iron through it and wind it up squeezing the tire into the rim. Also be sure and have the valve stem removed.

G1355 · Jul 3, 2014

When we don't have either handy we use a cable winch or ratchet strap and go around tire and pull it together usually works but either works best

Wheatfarmer · Jul 3, 2014

The strap works good, BUT as soon as it starts to hold. Release it or you will have a bullet. Don't ask why I know that.

Hound · Jul 3, 2014

I use a chain and chain binder and go around the tire twice with the chain to keep it more of a circle. You can undo the over centre binder once the tire fills up a bit.
Hound

Goose · Jul 3, 2014

I feel vindicated.

Several months ago, I posted pics of a deal I made to put 100 lbs. of air into a ten gallon tank, then turn a ball valve and instantly dump the entire air out of the tank into the tire to expand the beads enough to seat.

Must have been a dozen guys laughed at the idea, saying they'd inflated tires for years and years and years and NEVER EVER had trouble with the beads catching.

Tim(nj) · Jul 3, 2014

I have the same type of contraption. Use it a lot, especially on new implement tires.

SDE · Jul 3, 2014

I tried using a 10,000 lb. nylon cargo strap but the tire is so stiff that I could not get it to seat.
SDE

TomH in PA · Jul 3, 2014

I"ve been told that a few drops of gasoline works better than starting fluid. Never tried it though.

Larry999 · Jul 3, 2014

Starting fluid will work. It only takes one good spray and use a pistol type lighter so you can keep your hand away from the rim. When you light the fluid it explodes. It can also blow a hole in a weak tire. Another option is to put a tube in the tire. It could be safer and better in the long run.

Ultradog MN · Jul 3, 2014

I didn't see that post but have seen those inflator tanks before.
Good idea.
Last fall I took my front tractor tires/rims and they used one of those tanks to get the beads seated.
Was trying to put skinny, cheesy little car tires on my mowing tractor.

Steve@Advance · Jul 3, 2014

Take it to a tire shop. Their service is a lot quicker and cheaper than the ER! LOL

Sid · Jul 3, 2014

I remember a contraption that looked like a giant O-ring that would be put around the wheel outside of the tire on one side that would s work in a situation like that. As the tire inflated it would roll of the wheel.

Does anybody else remember those?

John in Nebraska · Jul 3, 2014

If you can't get it to town and have them inflate it, leave it in the sunshine for a day, with the bead stretched wide with pieces of 2x6, this should help. If you can, have a couple of extra hands blow air in the bead with full pressure blow guns. As you inflate. Using a rope or strap is useless with steel belted radials, they work great with bias ply tho. The air bubble tire inflators are worth their weight whatever. Half the tires we get at the shop have been stored on their side, and the beads almost meet.

Allan in NE · Jul 3, 2014

Take a rope or some such thing (I just did one using a bridle rein) and wrap it around the middle of the tire. Tie it off and take stick, big screwdriver or whatever and twist it tight.

It will force the beads out.

Allan

ralph1111 · Jul 3, 2014

Don't know if your dealing with new or old tires , any way if new tire cut 5 or 6 blocks of wood long enough to spread the tire beads wider than the rim you are putting it on by about 3" and let set over night , it really does work .

Anonymous-0 · Jul 3, 2014

I made a home made version of this

Be sure to hook a clip on chuck, and have air blowing into the tire from your compressor, before you unleash the blast...
bead expander

Goose · Jul 3, 2014

That's about what mine looks like, only with a ten gallon tank from a compressor.

Bob · Jul 3, 2014

I finally bought a Bead Cheata several months back.

It"s hard to believe an idea so simple can work so well!

Gets a miserable job done in a fraction of a second.

Every time.

Old Magnet · Jul 3, 2014

I had one of those, just recently threw it out as the rubber rotted. Also know as an elephant diaphrame LOL

old · Jul 3, 2014

If you do not know 1000% sure as to how to use the explosion trick to air/seat the bead DO NOT TRY it or you can loose your head or other body parts. If you have time to play with it pop one side off the rim and then hang it so the rim pulls down on the tire to make it expand. Slide a board or other such thing in an use that to hang it off the ground and let it sit a few days. You can also use a product called Murphy's soap which is a grease looking tire soap

showcrop · Jul 3, 2014

Tire shops use a can like Goose described for that situation.

Super Trucker · Jul 3, 2014

If you have never used ether leave it alone. A quick way to lose things namely a limb. The bead blaster is the way to go.

RodinNS · Jul 3, 2014

Go get a big bucket of Murphy's tire soap... not a small bucket... a 20# pail.
Force one bead of the tire over on one side of the wheel, then pack the other side with soap to make a solid seal. Put the air to it without a valve core... then carefully scoop the soap up and dump it back in the bucket when it seats. It's messy but it works...

Bead Cheetah's are great too if you want to fork out he coin... but they don't always work either. I do some with ether as well... but soap is usually cheaper, easier and less aggravating.

Rod

Fullers Farmalls · Jul 3, 2014

Try a ratchet strap around the center of the tire. Keep tightening until it forces the sides out. Thats how my pap taught me to do it and it always worked, also much safer

2x4 · Jul 3, 2014

watched a guy having the same trouble with the same size tire. I showed him that he was trying to mount it on a 16 inch rim! Never will work that way even when you use a whole can of ether. Check your rim size.

Mark - IN. · Jul 3, 2014

As some have said, put a belt or rope around the center, tighten to draw the bead up to the rim. Many years back when I was a kid working at a service station nights after school and weekends, they used to use an inflatable belt that went around the center of the tire. Put it on, pull as tight as could by hand, then inflate to get the bead to the rim, glop the goop on the tire bead, then inflate the tire to pop the bead on. With today's technologies, I don't know if tire places even bother that way anymore.

Mark
Similar to this, and then inflated to tighten even more

Mark - IN. · Jul 4, 2014

Hey, there you go. Looking at that Ebay picture...use a small tie down. Tighten it around the tire, then ratchet its bead to the rim, inflate to pop the bead, remove it, inflate the tire.

Mark

hoof print · Jul 4, 2014

A ratchet strap around the tread works good. Take the air chuck off your air hose too, it will restrict the air flow. Just push the female end of your hose on the valve stem.

Sprint 6 · Jul 4, 2014

The best thing to do with a 16.5 is replace the tire and wheel with a 16. I have always hated trying to seat 16.5 tires since they don't have a bead lock. Just when it catches, I would drop the valve core and it drop off the bead again. 16.5s and those mobile home 14.5s should be banned. But seriously, you have received some good advice from the others.

Blackhole49 · Jul 4, 2014

If you'll be doing it on a regular basis, get a Cheetah Bead Seater, they really work. Before I had that, I had limited success using a male air fitting in my quick disconnect and no stem in the valve stem (usually took 2 people).

john *.?-!.* cub owner · Jul 4, 2014

Another thing that will help some is to get an extra clip on air chuck and remove the inner stem that pushes down the tire valve for inflating. Also remove the valve stem from the tire. This will let your compressor deliver nearly twice as much air as normal for the initial seating of the beads.

SDE · Jul 4, 2014

I have purchased a different trailer from a guy who might be interested in my trailer. He would not be using it on the road and so I had hoped to NOT have to take it to a tire shop and pay them to have it aired up and balanced. I will try to put it in the sun with a tourniquet and see what happens to it.
Thank you
SDE

El Toro · Jul 4, 2014

Do as the John theCub owner suggested by removing
valve core. Then try inflating the tire after squirting some Dawn dish soap on the tire beads.
Hal

BLOWING up a tire

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