Tractor tire that seems haunted!!! LOL

I have a tractor tire that seems haunted. LOL neighbor has a JD 4430 that has 20.8 x 38 tires on it. Last spring he had a failure in the transmission while planting corn. He pulled it into a pasture by the corn field. Hooked the planter to another tractor and finished planting. He called me to come and look at/ fix the tractor. When I go to look at the tractor the right rear tire is flat. Tires are 75% Goodyear tires. So he calls the tire shop and has them come out to fix the tire. They "fixed" the tire on Friday. We go to load the tractor Sat. and the tire is flat. They come out Monday and "fix" it again by installing a new tube. Wed. flat again. He calls them to come and get it right. They try to tell him the tire has breaks in the casing and he needs a new tire. I load the tractor right after the tire shop leaves. I unload the tractor in front of my shop. Next morning the tire is flat. So I air the tire up and get it in the shop. Get the tractor up on splitting stands. I take the tire off and pull the tube. I find four patches around the bead area of the tube. Tire guy had pinched the tube when he put in the "new tube. I aired it up and found another pinched place. He took the tube to the tire shop and raised cane. They gave him a new tube and adjusted the bill. They had been charging him service calls on this.

Last weekend I finally got the transmission back in the tractor. He had damaged the case plus a lot of other internal problems. The cheapest fix was a used complete transmission. It took me some time to find a good one. So anyway I put the new tube in the tire. I checked the inside of the tire out and there are zero cracks or breaks in the tire. I mounted the tire being extra careful to not pinch the tube. I aired it up Saturday. I still had some little things to finish. So the tractor set in my shop until last night. I pulled it out side for him to come and get. When I came home for lunch the tire was flat again. ARGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!! The tractor set in my shop for FOUR days without any leak. I was walking right by it everyday. I drive it less then 100 feet and it is leaking.

It will be Friday before I can take it off and see what is wrong. I may have pinched it but I really do not think I did. I am thinking he has something in the tire. The mystery is the first two times it went flat it was never moved.

Any bead wires popping in and out, poking in to the tube when it flexes? But that doesn"t explain flats while parked. I"ve had some mower tubes that had miniscule cracks radiating from the center (year old tubes from you know where) and each had a small weakness with a pinhole starting to develop, visible only when super-inflated.

Any liquid death scale on the rim ?

The tires are not loaded. Pretty clean rims.

That really is a bad deal sometimes they can be hard to figure out I hope you did pinch the tube because that will be easier to diagnose than some mystery problem that only shows up at random .

Buck thorns do that to tires.

In Australia so will running over an echidna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echidna

Honey locust thorns in my area get in a tire it'll keep going flat,a heavy boot liner is the only way to keep the thorns out of the tube.

Sounds like a wire coming out while rolling and pricking the tube.

This story reminds me of the Kelly 13.6 x 38 tire I have on my POS 1944 John Deere A I resurrected from death.
I wanted to install 12.4 tires but I could find good used one's & I have put too much into the tractor to install
new pair. Tractor has NICE dished steel rims. Sandblasted & refinished both rims & installed these Kelly tires I
picked up from a Farmall 460. Both tires were extremely nice with little wear or cracking.. One tire would lose air
& become low.. Removed it again checked the tire from inside I thought really well.. I could not find a leak in the
tube. Installed new tube & tire held air over last winter never lost a pound. We've used it this summer to pull hay
wagons. it started losing air. 4 pounds in two weeks. I've aired tube up & even took it swimming with soapy water
left is aired up & it doesn't lose air & 100% sure it isn't the valve stem. I've used a magnifying glass inside &
on the outside of the tube. I really don't know where to look since I CANNOT find a hole in the tube. I know it is a
thorn. I've had it off 5 times, kind of hard to work with since it's 13" tire on 10" rim & the tires say 8ply rated.
Such is life in my world..

I had a split rim on a straight truck that would lose 40 pounds in a day even if it was jacked up. I pulled it apart and nothing. I couldn?t make it leak. I took her for a swim in the stock tank and everything. At one point I thought I heard something at the stem - these are old tubes with bolt on stems. I put a tire patch on the tube and bolted the stem back on figuring I would be taking it back apart. It?s been months and it is still up. There are more tire gremlins around here this year than battery gremlins.

If the tube holes were aligned with each other around the tube, but in widely different locations the issue is with the tire, because it travels with the tire when remounted. If it occurs where the rim hits the tire suspect a bead wire as noted below/above. if within the tire body above the bead, suspect the thorn or nail issue. Very careful inspection of where the hole is (marking the wheel and tire for location before demounting can help find the puncturing nasty. Jim

Don't feel bad. I've been fighting tires here too. I gave up on tubes. I just put it back on tubeless. You might try that. I put cheap clear house silicon on all around the bead area on the rim. Then shot some ether in and fired it off. Wala! Who needs a tube? I did feel around carefully on the inside of the tire first for nails. I even took a metal detector and searched around the outside of the tire. After the silicon is dry, I take a twisted wire wheel in a drill and remove the excess silicon. That tire would have never held air without the silicon. Now what to do with the old tube? You can see the used oil on the side of the tire. I removed all the rust on the rims and brushed on used oil. I also spray the beads with wd40 after I put on the silicon. It makes the beads seat very easily.