Slime causing tire slipping on the rim.

[Redneck in training]

Few weeks ago my wife started to complain that right side of the ZTR mower had no power. I changed the drive belts, replaced broken tensioner pulley but the symptoms persisted. I called the dealer for advice and was told that the transaxles are very reliable but that the pump ring might be cracked. I pulled the transaxle out and took it apart. No obvious issues were found so I put it back and tried the mower again. When I pushed against a tree left side slipped the tire while the right side only tried. I also checked if the belts are slipping etc. All looked good. Therefore my wife ordered new transaxle. After I installed new one in the mower I found that the right side exhibited the same symptoms. In other words there was nothing wrong with the old transaxle. The problem was rim slipping inside the tire. We have a lot of thorny trees and bushes on our property causing flat tires. Therefore I pumped some Slime in the tires and apparently I pumped too much in the right side. The Slime softened the rubber and lubricated the bead causing slippage. When I removed the tire the rim was completely stripped of paint to clean metal (surprisingly there was no rust), the rim shoulder was polished to mirror finish and the tire bead was kind of soft. I painted the rim, bought new high pressure (22 psi) tires because they are much thicker than original low pressure tires (6 psi max). All works like new now. The misdiagnosis of the problem was quite costly as the new transaxle is $1800. I have good 1200 hour transaxle for sale now.
Installation of new tires on the rims posed another problem. I will describe it in another post.

 

[Sysop]

Deja Vu

I coulda swore I read this a few weeks ago...

 

[davesl708]

A tire at 6psi on any drive rim has a good chance of slipping. My JD had 20 in the drive tires and 8 in the front for steering.

 

[2458n]

Boss on one job came out with a spray paint can and proceeded to spray one solid line across tire and rim on the large earth movers. Wanted to look over job site and see how the equipment was moving. this would have detected your problem as well. Another reason not to use slime.

 

[crazyal]

I notice that in the winter my UTV tires will spin on the wheels if I do anything that requires plenty of power. Since it's a mower Have you thought about getting tricky? I would line the inside of the tire with the tread of a car tire and then put a tube in it to hold it in place. I would think that a thorn would have a hard time reaching the tube.

 

[Redneck in training]

I notice that in the winter my UTV tires will spin on the wheels if I do anything that requires plenty of power. Since it's a mower Have you thought about getting tricky? I would line the inside of the tire with the tread of a car tire and then put a tube in it to hold it in place. I would think that a thorn would have a hard time reaching the tube.

The thorns are hard, about 0.5 - 1" long and sharp. They will penetrate tires, work boots etc with ease. I think, while it will not completely eliminate the issue, it might eliminate it to reasonable degree. Future will show. As I am typing this one of the caster wheels on the mower is flat. I think it has quite few plugs in it already. Oh well. It will take me 10 min to fix it.
I tried to pick and dispose any dropped branches I could find but this effort is not always compeltely suchessful. The trees tend to drop dry thorny branches during freezing rain or heavy wet show.