cage for safety-ring wheels

Mathias NY · Mar 6, 2009

Does anyone have plans for building a cage to work on rims with safety-rings?

A friend of mine has an M35 (army Deuce and a half) with safety ring wheels that need new rubber. In the past we have wrapped a chain around the rim (radially) in a couple of places, but building a cage would be a better idea.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 6, 2009

Are you talking about what used to be called suicide wheels?

Phil Munson NY · Mar 6, 2009

Suicide rims use the snap ring to hold the diameter consistently. They are illegal in NYS; and should be. Too many have exploded and killed people. Split rims usually come in two and three piece varieties. The ones I prefer are called TUBELESS. Easier and safer by far.

Mathias NY · Mar 6, 2009

I was afraid this question would turn into a discussion about the dangers of working with split rims. I am familar with the differences between between split-rims and rims with safety-rings. Split-rims are illegal for highway use. Rims with safety-rings are not. The legal variety, although still cumbersome to change, do not exhibit the same dangers as their predecesors.

In an ideal world we would replace all 10 of these 20" rims with a more conventional style, but that is not financially viable at the moment. Since they are in good condition, and legal, we will reuse them.

Which returns me to my original question, does anyone have plans for building a cage with which to inflate this style of rim?

old · Mar 6, 2009

Not real hard to build but if you not going to do many it is easier to rig up a remote air valve that you can be say 20 feet away from the tire and have it laid ring down. I have done 100s of them with out a cage and still have my head but I'm very careful when I air any tire up because even a normal rim can explode and take a persons head off. I know because I have seen a car tire send a person to the hospital

Bob Kerr · Mar 6, 2009

Dad always set the tire and wheel back under the vehicle and lowered the jack back down so if it blew apart the brake drum would keep the ring from flying.

bruster · Mar 6, 2009

A road mans cage for them is just a welded pair of 1.5" pipe under and over the tire and locked in place at the center bar to keep from separating. You can look one up at Myers Tire Supply. The rears are easy to air up, add enough air (about 5psi) lock them down on their axle position, and they can be aired up. Standard way of doing it on the road, but DO make sure you're off to the side and at least 10'

Anonymous-0 · Mar 7, 2009

(quoted from post at 20:59:26 03/06/09) Dad always set the tire and wheel back under the vehicle and lowered the jack back down so if it blew apart the brake drum would keep the ring from flying.

Same here, Nothing to be scared of really. You can also slide a tire iron through the holes on the rim so the ends cover the ring, then lay it with the ring down and slide it under the vehicle. Big safety plus is a air hose that is long enough that you can stand back 10 feet or so from wheel. The money maker is taking them off proper. Make sure that the beads are pushed all the way past the ring all the way around and work them off in small bites. The rings are easy to spring which makes them dangerous. Just don't get careless.

Dave

Anonymous-0 · Mar 7, 2009

Built one out of 2" pipe years ago and never had one come apart in it yet. Was going to cover it with mesh but never did pipes are real close together. The lock on air chuck, long hose and remote air valve like others said are what you need so can stay back while airing it up. Cage won't do any good if your arm is inside on a air chuck! Saw a huge tire cage for airplane tires at the military surplus yard but couldn't get a price out of the guy guess he was holding out for ridiculous high offers. It has two rows of pipes and mesh welded to a thick steel plate base.

msb · Mar 7, 2009

I have a pressure regulator that I can plug in the air hose. Set the pressure,clip on the air chuck and walk away.

JMS/.MN · Mar 7, 2009

Good point about how regular tires/rims can explode. Our local blacksmith shop has a bent ceiling truss when one came off the Coats tire changer. Guy always leaves the locking collar on the machine now, loose enough to air up the tire.

Mathias NY · Mar 8, 2009

We do have the locking air-chuck and we never stand next to it when we inflate. I do have 40'-50' of 2" pipe laying around, I might weld up a cage now that I know what they look like. If not, we'll use the chain again and exercise extra caution.

Thanks for the replies.

cage for safety-ring wheels

Mathias NY

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Anonymous-0

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Phil Munson NY

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Mathias NY

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old

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Bob Kerr

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bruster

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Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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msb

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JMS/.MN

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Mathias NY

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