Re: Foam filled tires

Posted by Hal/WA on March 21, 2007 at 21:51:19 from (66.45.175.118):

In Reply to: Foam filled tires posted by TnT on March 20, 2007 at 18:04:56:

Some years ago, I had the front tires on my Ford 641D filled with foam. At that time, the tires looked like new from the outside, but because of numerous hawthorn thorns that kept poking through to puncture the tubes, I usually had less than a couple of hours of use time before one or the other front tire went flat. Foaming was suggested by the tire dealer that obviously was tired of fixing the darn things.

If I remember correctly, it cost about $125 to get both tires foamed. And for about 5 years, they worked just great. There was almost no cushioning like there would have been from an air filled tire, and each tire and wheel ended up weighing about 100lbs.

But then 2 years ago, one of the tires began to split between the tire ribs, like the casing was rotten. Eventually a bunch of the outer tire came loose, even though the inner core of black rubber foam held up the tractor. It didn't turn or drive worth beans that way!

It was a real pain to remove the rest of the tire and the foam core from the wheel. I used a Sawzall and made a bunch of cuts before I finally got it to come loose. I doubt that I could have ever got it loose if the foam had bonded to the wheel, but since it was inside the inner tube, when it finally came loose, the wheel was clean.

I replaced the tire with the most heavy duty tire I could find in the area. But the hawthorn trees are still around, and within a year, the new tire started going flat. I put a whole quart of "Slime" in it and now only have to add air a couple times a year, and those times are after the tractor has not been used for a week or two.

Now the other foamed tire has started to split between the ribs, so I suppose I will have to replace it fairly soon. I was disappointed that the foamed tires did not last better, since before they started to split, they looked real good from the outside and I thought they would last as long as the tractor. Maybe they were cheap tires to begin with, or maybe they did not handle becoming more or less solid tires as well as they might have.

I sure liked not having to mess with flat tires for the time the tires were foamed, but I think it is pretty expensive and might be hard on the front end, since the tires do not absorb much shock loads once they are foamed. And considering the large amount of effort I spent removing the foam from the tire I had to replace, I would guess that a guy would come out better buying a new or used replacement rim rather than paying someone to remove the foaming from one that had been foamed.

I don't think I will ever foam tires again. It was an interesting experiment though. Slime works, and is a whole lot cheaper and easier to deal with. Good luck!

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