frcnLS
Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2020
- Messages
- 41
- Tractor
- LS MT240HE
When clearing land tire "event" take place. I poked a good hole through a Carlisle 43x16.00-20 when I ran over a subsurface stump. It was a small hardwood root ball, and a broken 1" diameter spear point went right through the tire between the drive lugs. At first I thought it was a hydraulic leak from the spray, but I shut down and examined the problem. It was water. Found the leak and hightailed it back to where I park the tractor before the tire was too flat to drive.
I shopped around and the one replacement I found at any price was from a scumbag seller on Amazon who cancelled my order (clicking on 'cancelled by buyer' they did) saying the tire was not the right quality (or something like that). While continuing to shop I took the tire to a local independent truck tire repair and service shop and asked them to boot it. They said they didn't do boots, and were 'kind enough' to patch it, told me not to put water in it, offered me a same-size tire from a different brand for $800, and handed me the $50 bill for the repair. The patch was already bulging a bit through the torn hole when they loaded it into my buddy's truck. Thanks...
Back in college I installed tires and batteries at Montgomery Ward's. I knew I could do better. I had some basic HD tire irons but and they were able to get the outer bead off the rim, and having the wheel still on the tractor and that side of the axle on a jack stand made it fairly easy.
Without going through the entire shopping extravaganza, I ended up with a 9" 8-ply tire boot, a can of tire buffer, patch rubber cement, a rubber buffing wheel, and the grooved-wheel patch rollers. I use to race bicycles so know about patching; that was the easy part. I ground off their patch, properly prepared the inside surface and used the grinding tool to level the area (gringing off the molding ribs). But when I finished there was no way I could get the outer bead back on while the wheel was on the tractor. I pulled the wheel off (Hurrah for air tools!) and rolled all +/-140 pounds of the wheel and laid it on the slab and could still not get the bead on with the tire spoons I had, even with the assistance of my wife. I was the go-to guy for split rims at Ward's so I know my way around a tire. But this tire was 110 pounds of "I DARE YOU!"
I ended up with a Ken-Tool 35450 tire mounting tool, and two Ken-Tool 31710 Bead holding devices. My opinion of those? Don't even attempt to mount a bead without them! I was able to mount the outer bead in well under two minutes by myself (BTW- I am a fit, active 70 year old who weighs all of about 140 pounds). The bead holding devices are a bit of solid brass brilliance!
Now, with the wheel back on the tractor it was clear that even with the massive tire boot in place that I still had to deal with the tear through the tread side. This is the interesting part.. I used black Shoe-Goo and fibers. With the tractor still on the jackstand and the inflation valve open I cleaned the area with the tire buffing solvent, brushed it with a fiber brush, and cleaned out "the wound" with the air compressor. I used a 3" 80grit power sanding disc folded into an arch to manually roughen the area, cleaned it again with the buffing liquid, and applied a good amount of ShoeGoo into the torn area and pressed it all down. When that had cured I used a popsicle stick to lay down the first thin layer of ShoeGoo across the entire area, up to about 2 to 3" away from the wound. While it was still wet I had cut a 3" length or RIAA flat-tubular climbing webbing and pulled the long, fine strands out of it and, working quickly, I laid a parallel layer of them into the goo, applying more goo to make sure they were saturated as I went. When that fully cured, the next layer was much the same, but I used the strands perpendicular to the last layer. These fibers exhibit virtually zero stretch, so in essence, I created an external tire boot. I applied three more thin layers over a period of two or three days (can't remember the time frame) waiting for a full cure between applications. I let that rest for three days to fully cure
I then filled the tire with water using the TireSlime brand adapter. HINT: It has an air release valve, but don't bother. It is good just for checking if water instead of air comes out to know if the tire is full or not. So long as the water supply pressure is less than the tire's rated max, put an inline shut off valve on the end of the hose, connect that to the adapter, and fill the tire it until the water flow slows. Shut off the water, and unscrew the adapter from the valve stem, wait until the whoosh of air stops, reconnect and continue until the tire is as full as possible.
Completed about thirty minutes of using my rear blade to level out an existing trail on my property and the patch still looks like it did when I started. I will still get a replacement tire and use the repaired one as a spare.
The red circle is the approximate area of the tear/hole
I shopped around and the one replacement I found at any price was from a scumbag seller on Amazon who cancelled my order (clicking on 'cancelled by buyer' they did) saying the tire was not the right quality (or something like that). While continuing to shop I took the tire to a local independent truck tire repair and service shop and asked them to boot it. They said they didn't do boots, and were 'kind enough' to patch it, told me not to put water in it, offered me a same-size tire from a different brand for $800, and handed me the $50 bill for the repair. The patch was already bulging a bit through the torn hole when they loaded it into my buddy's truck. Thanks...
Back in college I installed tires and batteries at Montgomery Ward's. I knew I could do better. I had some basic HD tire irons but and they were able to get the outer bead off the rim, and having the wheel still on the tractor and that side of the axle on a jack stand made it fairly easy.
Without going through the entire shopping extravaganza, I ended up with a 9" 8-ply tire boot, a can of tire buffer, patch rubber cement, a rubber buffing wheel, and the grooved-wheel patch rollers. I use to race bicycles so know about patching; that was the easy part. I ground off their patch, properly prepared the inside surface and used the grinding tool to level the area (gringing off the molding ribs). But when I finished there was no way I could get the outer bead back on while the wheel was on the tractor. I pulled the wheel off (Hurrah for air tools!) and rolled all +/-140 pounds of the wheel and laid it on the slab and could still not get the bead on with the tire spoons I had, even with the assistance of my wife. I was the go-to guy for split rims at Ward's so I know my way around a tire. But this tire was 110 pounds of "I DARE YOU!"
I ended up with a Ken-Tool 35450 tire mounting tool, and two Ken-Tool 31710 Bead holding devices. My opinion of those? Don't even attempt to mount a bead without them! I was able to mount the outer bead in well under two minutes by myself (BTW- I am a fit, active 70 year old who weighs all of about 140 pounds). The bead holding devices are a bit of solid brass brilliance!
Now, with the wheel back on the tractor it was clear that even with the massive tire boot in place that I still had to deal with the tear through the tread side. This is the interesting part.. I used black Shoe-Goo and fibers. With the tractor still on the jackstand and the inflation valve open I cleaned the area with the tire buffing solvent, brushed it with a fiber brush, and cleaned out "the wound" with the air compressor. I used a 3" 80grit power sanding disc folded into an arch to manually roughen the area, cleaned it again with the buffing liquid, and applied a good amount of ShoeGoo into the torn area and pressed it all down. When that had cured I used a popsicle stick to lay down the first thin layer of ShoeGoo across the entire area, up to about 2 to 3" away from the wound. While it was still wet I had cut a 3" length or RIAA flat-tubular climbing webbing and pulled the long, fine strands out of it and, working quickly, I laid a parallel layer of them into the goo, applying more goo to make sure they were saturated as I went. When that fully cured, the next layer was much the same, but I used the strands perpendicular to the last layer. These fibers exhibit virtually zero stretch, so in essence, I created an external tire boot. I applied three more thin layers over a period of two or three days (can't remember the time frame) waiting for a full cure between applications. I let that rest for three days to fully cure
I then filled the tire with water using the TireSlime brand adapter. HINT: It has an air release valve, but don't bother. It is good just for checking if water instead of air comes out to know if the tire is full or not. So long as the water supply pressure is less than the tire's rated max, put an inline shut off valve on the end of the hose, connect that to the adapter, and fill the tire it until the water flow slows. Shut off the water, and unscrew the adapter from the valve stem, wait until the whoosh of air stops, reconnect and continue until the tire is as full as possible.
Completed about thirty minutes of using my rear blade to level out an existing trail on my property and the patch still looks like it did when I started. I will still get a replacement tire and use the repaired one as a spare.
The red circle is the approximate area of the tear/hole
