Get out of Split Rims

Submitted: Saturday, Mar 06, 2021 at 09:27

ThreadID: 141201 Views:8230 Replies:4 FollowUps:9

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Member - Chucklingwater

To date I've had no problem having punctures repaired in the country recently when traveling outback but a recent unexpected city puncture had me floored. No, sorry can't do it. Yes admittedly I'd been advised to change over a couple of years ago. Now told of just 2 places that would still do repairs within 50kms in Western Sydney/Blue Mountains.
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Reply By: Member - shane r1 - Saturday, Mar 06, 2021 at 09:52

Saturday, Mar 06, 2021 at 09:52

Away from country farming area’s the Tyre fitters would have no experience with split rims any more, my business dealt with all sorts of tyres/wheels . Whereas a metro dealership wouldn’t do much more than car and 4x4 tyres which are changed on machines. No need to learn how to “use” Tyre levers.
And changing them is a bit of an Art. Takes a while to teach a new fitter how to do them easily.
Cheers
Shane

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AnswerID: 635426

Reply By: Mikee5 - Saturday, Mar 06, 2021 at 13:58

Saturday, Mar 06, 2021 at 13:58

The main reason I persist with split rims is because I can fix my own punctures.

AnswerID: 635427

Follow Up By: RMD - Saturday, Mar 06, 2021 at 15:24

Saturday, Mar 06, 2021 at 15:24

Just going into Blinman I staked a near new Cooper st, straight through the tread with a thin piece of shale. Fixed it by removing the tyre and patching inside. It is a tubeless tyre and I carry the necessary gear to repair, unless destroyed. Gave away split rims long ago. Much safer tyres than tube type. Just stick a pin in an inflated balloon and see what happens to the tube inside the tube tyre. NO Thanks.

FollowupID: 913003

Reply By: Member - lyndon NT - Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 07:34

Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 07:34

I'm one of those dinosaurs with split rims also. Steel. Can't see myself changing anytime soon.
I've had the misfortune to completely loose a tyre on two occasions, thankfully both were on the rear.
Both times I was doing 80 - 100 km/hr. Pulled over, nothing wrong with the rim, Lol.
I can only imaging an alloy rim would be stuffed or maybe even explode. Both of these were new tyres.
Didn't have enough pressure, wall flex, up down, up down, overheated the wall, the side just fell out. Walked back, tyre looked like new, turned it over, no side wall, Lol.
But that was 20 years ago, now run higher pressure and don't have an issue.
I'll be sticking with my splits, I can fix them myself, albeit with skinned knuckles and a bit of cursing.
I think any dealer in the NT who didn't change splits would find a considerable drop in business.

How do you folks go getting a tubeless tyre to seat onto the bead with air dribbling out of a 12v compressor? Not easy, impossible for many I would imagine. Might be OK if you have one of the new duel tank compressors from ARB...?

Cheers

Lyndon

Now is the only time you own
Decide now what you will,
Place faith not in tomorrow
For the clock may then be still

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AnswerID: 635439

Follow Up By: mike39 - Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 09:07

Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 09:07

"How do you folks go getting a tubeless tyre to seat........"

A wee dribble of petrol inside the tyre and around the rim. Throw a burning match at it.
Seated, ready to inflate.

Old bush trick, but I have splits/LT tyres on both the cab chassis and van, no intention of changing either.
mike

FollowupID: 913012

Follow Up By: RMD - Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 14:50

Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 14:50

Lyndon,
To seat a tubeless tyre, most will seal if the tyre and rim are simply jiggled around a bit and the compressor takes over. Alternatively a small air cylinder, mine is a small fire extinguisher, which when charged via compressor is fired< by opening ball tap suddenly, into the rim/bead gap and the resulting air in the tyre blows it against the rim. It works. You can also place a tight band rope around the tread and that forced the beads outwards. OR, as Mick O and other use, a small puff of butane gas into valve or rim gap and with an ignition source it blows the bead into place. Used sparingly of course. The "wee dribble of petrol" used above won't hurt the tyre either.

FollowupID: 913020

Follow Up By: Member - Broodie H3 - Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 15:48

Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 15:48

I don't know about using inflammables to seat tyres mainly because I am afraid I would blow myself up, what i do is use a ratchet strap around the tyre do it up as tight as I can get it start the compressor and up it goes, so far I haven't blown myself up, and I haven't started and bushfires for people to put out ,lol. I have seen the petrol system a few times and I must say that the persons doing the fit with this system are extremely safety conscious.

Broodie H3
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FollowupID: 913022

Follow Up By: Peter_n_Margaret - Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 17:47

Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 17:47

I have used "Start ya bastard" (ether) to seal a bead on an 80 series. It works, but it can be harder to get the explosion sometimes.
On another vehicle which had run out of spares I used half a tube of silicone once. Would have been a real mess to clean up.
Never had a problem with the OKA.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

FollowupID: 913027

Follow Up By: Phil G - Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 20:22

Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 20:22

Plenty of other tricks you can use before bringing out the butane or startyabastard.
If you mount tyres onto a minimum size rim, you'll never have a problem. So 235's should go on a 6"rim, 265 on a 7"rim and 285 on a 8"rim. If you go for rims an inch wider, you will have problems.
I use plenty of detergent, and use another tyre as an airtank to get the big whoosh that seats the beads. Just need to make up a free flowing connection between the tyres and have the valves removed.

FollowupID: 913032

Follow Up By: Gbc.. - Tuesday, Mar 09, 2021 at 07:32

Tuesday, Mar 09, 2021 at 07:32

I’ve had the misfortune of doing it on numerous occasions. The bead naturally wants to seat. I just fire up the 20yo bush ranger compressor and gently move the tyre about. It has never taken more than 30 odd seconds. You can hear the compressor revs pick up as soon as it has a seal and starts pushing. No petrol, ether, flames or even soap lubricant. The time in the pic I’d lost both front and rear left hand side tyres - strictly driver error - tried to swap between tracks going uphill and off camber. The ‘fall’ was slightly higher than anticipated haha. Yes I winched it up a tree. Not a heap of options in sand and it beats digging for the same result.

2 blown beads

Tyre

FollowupID: 913046

Reply By: Phil G - Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 14:07

Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 14:07

Not really surprising as the numbers of vehicles with split rims has dropped right off.
Toyota and Nissan no longer use them. Toyota stopped in 2016 on the 70 series and a lot earlier on the Hilux. Same with most mining companies - been replacing splits with the white sunraysias for a long time.

I used splits for 10 years, but eventually enough was enough. I was repairing tyres every trip - not because of punctures, but because of tube leaks and failures. On a Kimberley trip in 1993 I had a rear tyre suddenly blow out on the highway on two occasions - nearly rolled the old troopy both times because it went down so quickly - thats a big safety issue. Thought I did all the right things - new tubes, talcum powder, kept the pressures up.

Just readMick Hutton's blog on Beadell Tours website. Recently had 20 flat tyres with split rims and only 4 were because of punctures. Trying all sorts of things to solve the problems. They do a lot of offtrack work - it seems the extra flex at low pressures is causing tube failures.

AnswerID: 635443

Follow Up By: Member - lyndon NT - Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 17:04

Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 17:04

Interesting, as I said I had two fail a long time ago, put it down to sidewall flex not tube, but maybe it was tube failure?
A lot of the tube failures mentioned above would be due to poor fitment, or (mainly), poor quality tubes.
Most new tubes are paper thin! It took me a LONG time to finally find the tubes I wanted. They are a Michelin tube, nice old fashioned thick quality rubber. Yet to have one fail. Finally got them from Bandag in Adelaide.

Cheers

Lyndon

Now is the only time you own
Decide now what you will,
Place faith not in tomorrow
For the clock may then be still

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FollowupID: 913024

Follow Up By: Phil G - Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 20:16

Sunday, Mar 07, 2021 at 20:16

Gday Lyndon,
Yeah need to get the best quality tubes but very hard to find.
In the old days we rejected the Korean tubes and went with Australian made Dunlop tubes from Beaurepaires (no longer) or used "brand new" tubes from Toyota vehicles that had been swapped out when new. (again no longer).
Interestingly Mick uses tubes from Toyo, Bridgestone, Sumitomo, Michelin and the like, and I think it was Toyo tubes he was mostly using. He wasn't using rubbish. I have mates who also like the Michelin tubes but like you say, they are hard to track down. And sure enough, many of them would have been fitted by inexperienced fitters but a lot of them weren't.
I admire your persistence in sticking by the splits, but the latest tubeless rims can be bought for next to nothing from newish vehicles - same 5 stud as your HDJ78.. Can get P20 offset from the new 70series or get a legally wider track with the zero offset from the older RV 105series. They take the 235/85R16.

FollowupID: 913030