Bus Tires

[jazty]

Do you have some proper tire irons?

Yep, have the long irons.

And you will destroy the bead of the tire using a pickaxe, bead hammer is blunt and rounded

Perfectly fine. These tires are shot. They're too old for retread casings even.

maybe he is going to do that method where they explode the tire on the rim...

Hmmm.. That would be less effort!

 

[Tall Grass]

Hankook is a Korean company not chinee... I've been pleasantly surprised with the quality of Hankooks over the last 15 years or so, for passenger tires anyway.

I'm another for knobby tires on the drives. They may be a little louder, but I've never even spun a tire let alone gotten stuck with my knobby Michelins, and I have a low water crossing and deep gravel/sand to get to my property...

Thanks. i have learned. A friend has a tire shop in IOWA and sells Hankooks for all type farm trucks etc. Don't know about ag. They are good tires.

 

[Rameses-SKO]

I was randomly thinking about this today while I was working.

If you're going to use the pickaxe (actually called a mattock, but I digress) to break the beads, you're going to want to grind the sharp edge off so it's round. And since it will no longer be good for its original purpose, go ahead and cut the pick off the back side so you can beat on it with a sledge hammer after you get it jammed between the tire and wheel. You're not just going to whack it a couple times with the mattock and have the bead break loose.

Another option, if you have room where you're working... Pull all of the valve stems and drive it around in a circle a couple times with flat tires before you take the wheels off. That'll break some of the beads for you.

 

[turf]

that is definitely some nice looking tire porn!

congrats on the tires!

its past time for me to look at some new tires. my bus came with all steers that look like they have been rotated. fresh up front, half worn left side duals, and almost worn right side duals.

i assumed you just spin the tires to the other side and keep swapping in new fronts? that would reverse the spin each time you got new?

i havent thought much about brands, but after reading this thread i may look into some chinese steers. the price tag on the michelins has scared me away.

So, is the tire guy going to think i'm crazy when i ask him to rotate my tires?

 

[Robin97396]

That's pretty good random thoughts.

Nobody likes to use those bead hammers. Why waste a perfectly good mattock that nobody uses? Don't you guys drive over the tire with another vehicle to break it loose from the rim? Those bead hammers are a workout and more often a waste of time.

 

[Rameses-SKO]

Personally, I use the slide hammer type. Doesn't take but a couple strikes in about 3 spots on each side of the tire and it's good to go.


This kind:

 

[cadillackid]

that is definitely some nice looking tire porn!

congrats on the tires!

its past time for me to look at some new tires. my bus came with all steers that look like they have been rotated. fresh up front, half worn left side duals, and almost worn right side duals.

i assumed you just spin the tires to the other side and keep swapping in new fronts? that would reverse the spin each time you got new?

i havent thought much about brands, but after reading this thread i may look into some chinese steers. the price tag on the michelins has scared me away.

So, is the tire guy going to think i'm crazy when i ask him to rotate my tires?

If you want michelins, look into uni royal , I used those on my dev, rd30 and hd20 I think are the 2 types.
I went with aggressive drives since I run in snowy winter, but the steer I used is an all position tire
Uni royal is a Michelin brand

Christopher

 

[jazty]

Good news everyone! Unseating a 10r22.5 tire is super easy! I didn't even get around to grabbing the pickaxe (ahem, I mean mattock). The sledge hammer was nearby so I hopped on a tire and smacked the sidewall in 3 different spots and had the bead unseated. No problems. I then turned the tire around and was able to jump on the sidewall to unseat the other side. The other steer tire was even easier. I just jumped up and down on both sides.

So far, as predicted, big tires are way easier to deal with than small tires. Well, aside from the fact that they way ~100lbs.

I haven't installed the new tires yet since I want to clean up the rims and am currently working on replacing the kingpins.. Now there's a fun job...

 

[turf]

thanks for the tip on uniroyal! my local tire company is a dealer so thats probably my best bet.

its been a bit since i read the whole thread but i don't recall any discussion between use.

in this (and other) tire selectors they have, long haul, regional, and on/off road.

Uniroyal Truck Tire Selector | Uniroyal Truck Tires

what do you guys pick, i tried off road. do I want regional or long haul?

also their info guide has pressure down to 80psi for the weight of my bus

 

[gbstewart]

What's your opinion of the Sailuns so far?

so far they seem to be ok, I have about 5000kms on them and no signs of wear, I just have them on my steers, they are not as noisy as the Goodrich they replaced. time will tell, I want to replace my drives at some point, there winter treads and I find them loud,
btw we should be rolling threw your city some time in june,
gbstewart

 

[dan-fox]

I saw a tool recently on a website that dealt in truck tire tools that was essentially a Venturi tube with some hoses and fittings. The writeup was that you would pull the valve stem, hook this bad boy up, and run compressed air through it to pull a vacuum on the tire. The claim was to break a bead in seconds with no effort.

Has anyone seen this in action? While it sounds theoretically possible, it might also be a way to empty your wallet and your air compressor tank at the same time.

 

[Robin97396]

A vacuum pump and a few of the right fittings could test that theory.

I've never heard of a vacuum being used to break the bead on tires. Especially through a venturi tube. That sounds noisy, and interesting.

Most tires aren't that bad, but once in a while it's like someone glued the tire to the rim. You can probably imagine how hot the tire had to get in order to weld itself to the steel rim in those tough cases.

The affordable way to break the bead still stands. Lay the tire and wheel down on the ground and drive over just the tire, with another vehicle, to pull the tire away from the rim. Sometimes that doesn't even work.

 

[cadillackid]

sometimes tires are Glued to rims.. at least car tires... ive known of more than one used tire shop that would put some type of glue / sealant around bunged up rims to get the tire to seal... im guessing someone may do that in the truck world too.
-Christopher

 

[Robin97396]

That sounds like something some tire shops would do. There were a couple wheels that eventually got thrown away. I'd like to know what kind of glue that was.

 

[miltruckman]

My tire shop was amazed that I was taking load range E tires off the bus and installing load range H.

I also went up one tire size. Which was the largest size listed for that rim. The rims on bluebird tc2000's are on the narrow side though.

It got me to a nice common size at least. 11r22.5

Bill

 

[Jolly Roger-SKO]

cool idea but Venturi fitting and vaccum might work on a big rig, long haul truck that gets its tires changed yearly. But on a skoolie that sets for several weeks,months at a time then I would think even with the fancy stuff you would need something to break the bead.
Soap,lube helps the going on but if it been there for awhile? With some lube soaking time? It might fall off for you?

 

[Jolly Roger-SKO]

That sounds like something some tire shops would do. There were a couple wheels that eventually got thrown away. I'd like to know what kind of glue that was.

Years,years ago on the drag strip we used to use some stuff called VHT. We would put on the tires just before the line.
I always assumed very high traction? But if we used it and didn't have screws through the rim to the tire bead the car would spin a tire leaving the line every time.
And that wall hurt every time?
Sorry
I don't know what a tire shop uses but this stuff was like a fly strip until you took off the line and it was like super glue on your rears after that.

 

[Robin97396]

I heard of the VHT years ago. Sometimes I wish I had enough power to spin a tire.

 

[Jolly Roger-SKO]

I can only renoviese about if the tire would even be there when I hit the end?
Now my bus tops out at 49.
Wanta do better? But then again it is better cause all the idiots on the road go around me and I know who they are at the lights? But I am going slow enough that I get to see and enjoy what's around me. And only have to worry about a speeding ticket in a 45-35 zone?

 

[Robin97396]

I may not go quite that slow, but I have learned to enjoy the pace of bus travel.

I'll do more traveling when I can put my bus on autodrive.