Wheels ???

[waywardfool]

Originally Posted by sportyrick

Good luck on changing one of these on the side of the road, spoken like a true novice.

I may be a bus novice, but over the years I have had roadside tire service change 2 24.5" tires out on the side of the highway on farm trucks. Doesn't take as long as you'd seem to think for an EXPERIENCED tire man to do it. Putting a bare tire on is hardly a DIY job on the roadside. If you bothered to read my post closely, you'd see that I said a "good tire man". You carry the unmounted spare, you have him break it down and mount roadside. Cheaper than buying a new tire that isn't exactly what you'd like from the tireguy beside the highway on a Sunday afternoon.

My neighbor had 8 new drive tires put on his log truck a few weeks ago. 2 GoodYear tire trucks, 2 men. I talked with my neighbor while they broke the 1st one down. They started about 11am, and all I know is when I got home about five, all rear tires were new, and the tire guys were gone.

[sportyrick]

If I remember correctly it's a piece of cake to remove a "dayton" wheel but I know it's a real pain to remove a "bud" wheel. The difference being the 475 foot pounds of torque on the buds. Your right, I think you can remove your dayton wheels with a cheater or a air impact wrench, but you might have trouble with a bud. I ended up bringing my bus up to the local Petro and had them change the wheels out as I couldn't get the lugs loose on the rear, not one of them! It's perticularly difficult to keep your socket on the rear lug when the socket extension is a foot long and when putting your cheater on you just twist the breaker bar down to the ground. I guess you could shore it up with some 4x4s to keep it straight. You may also be forgetting that there are 2 sets of lug nuts on a rear set of bud wheels, an inner and an outer, all torqued to 475#, no such thing on a dayton. Are you talking about the same kind of wheels, I think not? An experienced guy can change a tire really fast (like 10 minutes when it's off the vehicle), I'm not there yet and have done quite a few already. But you also missed my point, how many have you changed yourself start to finish?????????? Talk to me when you personally have taken a bud wheel off, broke it down, put another tire on and remounted it, torqued the lugs to 475#, then we'll be on the same page. The tire business is very competative, they don't "gig" you when you have to have a tire put on along the road somewhere, they do charge you list price plus a service call though. In my view it's not worth dragging a spare tire along just to save a couple of dollars. I have better ideas for that space. sportyrick

[GoneCamping]

Not sure why you would find Wheel Simulators on the side of the road or call them wobbly... If they are installed properly they will not wobble or come off. I have had simulators on my wrecker trucks for 15 years, and never a problem with them unless they get damaged from a driver hitting a curb with them etc... Simulators are not the strongest thing in the world, they dent and bend easily, but if you are not going to be driving into things then they should not be a problem...

[boojiewoojie]

'Course if you don't mind waiting out in the boonies, Good Sam roadside service will send someone to change out the spare tire for you. On your bus I think they keep the spare under the front of the bus.

[swinada]

hmmm spare tire, dont think i ever seen one on my bus. Could I have missed that? Have to check tomorow.

[paul iossi]

change tires roadside the answer is in the tools, a truck 4 way with a hole in the middle of the x for a 6' johnson bar is one way, put the 4way on the nut the johnson bar in the hole stup on the leg of the 4way and pull down on the johnson bar, the nuts will break loose. another option would be a torque multiplier available from the specialty tool supplier MAC,SNAPON etc. a coal or scoop shovel with a D handle is the easy way for a non professional to lift/insrall tires, several pieces of 3/4 plywood 12 or 18" square laminated together make a stable base for a bottle jack and or a safety stand/crib base. If your removing tires/drums in the shop for brake or bearing service, jack the axle up enough to put a piece of greased tin grease side up under the tire, lower the jack so the tire just contacts the tin,remove the bearing retaining nuts and slide the wheel drum assy out for service. Don't forget to place a safety stand to support the vehicle before removing the wheel assy.
carry a mounted,aired up spare busting tires is labor intensive and dirty work best left to the pro's. the initial airing up a tire and seating the beads is dangerous and not for amatures or anyone else without the proper safety cage (a 10.00 20 with 95 psi has enough stored energy to launch a 16 lb bowling ball to the top of the empire state building)

[boojiewoojie]

Anybody wanna go bowling?

[KC10Chief]

Hey, if you didn't do anything with your wheels yet, you could paint them with rustoleum hammered paint. My wheels were all dirty and kind of rusty looking. I bought $10 worth of the hammered paint in silver and painted away. I just masked off the tire. It turned out fantastic and it really improved the looks of the bus a lot! I'm going over to take some pictures tonight.

[KC10Chief]

This is how my wheels looked when I got the bus...


Then after $10 worth of Rustoleum Hammered paint...




I painted the mirrors too.

[boojiewoojie]

Hey, the wheels look good, but the teeth is what really stands out!!