Flat Tire on my B7500

don716 · May 10, 2004

Well, I got my first flat on my tractor. It's on the front and I cannot figure out where it's comming from. I've looked and used soap and water and still no luck. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I found a small cut and checked it really good but no luck there either. Would a can of fix a flat work? It goes flat overnight.
Donny /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

SCB · May 10, 2004

Does your 7500 have tubes or tubeless?

garbageman · May 10, 2004

I had my first flat (nail) a few months, plugged it and off I went.

Junkman · May 10, 2004

The best way to find the leak is to take the tire off and submerge it in water if the leak is that small. I don't recommend putting anything into a tire until I know exactly what the problem is. It might just be a small rock or something like that that has the bead leaking in a place where you can't see it easily such as the in side of the wheel. Take it off and examine the tire and wheel carefully.

Bird · May 10, 2004

Donny, I agree with Junkman that the "best" method is to be able to submerge it in water, but if that's not possible, you can almost always find it with soapy water. The last one that I had trouble finding was a tubeless tire (car, not tractor) and I finally found the tiniest leak around the valve stem, but if the valve stem were flexed a tiny bit, it became a big leak. Personally, I would never use fix-a-flat; don't know whether they're still using LPG as a propellant or not, but if I were going to use anything like that, it would be Slime.

chrisjbell · May 11, 2004

I'm with Bird on not using Fix-A-Flat. I tried that once on a front tire and it didn't work, plus when I took the tire / rim in to have it fixed they charged me about $25 to clean it out. (This place generally charges about $12 to plug a tire.) So my $12 repair turned into something like $40.

I'm a big fan now of putting tubes into tires. I can get a piece of (insert thingie here) in my tire and will usually be able to pull it out with no harm done. I keep my tires filled, too, and since it doesn't freeze where I live I can just use water with no worries about corrosion of the rims.

I have heard many good things about Slime, but I really think the best thing for you to do is just pull the wheel assembly off (if you have an FEL you can use that as a jack - just make sure to use a good jack stand to hold the tractor while it is wheel-less) and take it to a tire place that knows ag tires. The fix should be pretty inexpensive and will be effective.

theboman · May 11, 2004

I had one last year or year before last. Never found the leak. Took it too a tire place and they couldn't find the leak. Over a week or so it'd just go flat.
One trip to the tractor dealership and the sales guy handed me a tube of New Holland leak sealer or something like that.
Just remove the valve core, put the tube in the caulk gun and fill the tire.... Then add air and drive around the tractor for a few minutes.... Well, the tire has never needed air since.
It was like $5 for a tube of the stuff.

Bird · May 11, 2004

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Never found the leak. Took it too a tire place and they couldn't find the leak. Over a week or so it'd just go flat. )</font>

Bo, one of the little tires on our little Craftsman chipper/shredder was like that; had to air it up each time I used it. I took it off and submerged it in water and I'll bet there were 20 very tiny leaks through the sidewall (I suspect that my brother or I overinflated it sometime and stretched it and those little tires may not have even had any cords in them /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif). So I put some of the stop leak in it and that solved the problem.