Why are my front tires flat all the time!!!

[jgrreed]

Hi All,

Whenever it gets cold, really cold (below -20degC), when I get out to my machine the front tires are almost flat.

It never does it when it's warm, so I don't think there's a slow leak.

Is there something I'm missing here?? Can the beads be affected by the cold?? What can I do about it??

Thanks,

-Jer.

 

[rdbrumfield]

One thing is that cold air contracts so it doesn't fill the same space that it does warm.
I had problems with my tractor and tubeless front tires. I could not keep air in them when working the loader hard.
I finally put tubes in them, no more problems. My fronts are 12,50x24 and I was picking up over a ton and a half. don't know if that would be a problem on the smaller cuts.

 

[jgrreed]

One thing is that cold air contracts so it doesn't fill the same space that it does warm.
I had problems with my tractor and tubeless front tires. I could not keep air in them when working the loader hard.
I finally put tubes in them, no more problems. My fronts are 12,50x24 and I was picking up over a ton and a half. don't know if that would be a problem on the smaller cuts.

Thought about that too, but it's not just a little squishy, they're FLAT!!! It doesn't seem to be flat at all at lets say -5degC.

Maybe the tubes will be the way for me to go too.

Thanks for the response.

-Jer.

 

[Willl]

What does the pressure gauge say ?

I'm betting slow leak.

 

[pitt_md]

I have been fighting a battle with my wife's VW Jetta tires that seem to have the same problem. When it is real cold out I have to keep putting air in them and NO ONE can find anything wrong with them! The dealer tells me that I should expect to loose 1 lb. of preasure for every 10 deg F temp drop.
The only fix I have found is to have the tires dismounted and the bead cleaned and sealed. I hope you find a soultion to this fustrating problem.

 

[mwb]

Could also be your valve stems - either frost in them or they are faulty. A cheap fix to try is just remove the schrader and install a new one. Also, make sure the air you are filling with is dry - not warm shop air going into a frozen stem.

I would start with changing the valve packing, then rerim the tire with a new valve.

 

[studor]

I had the same problem for a while then went with tubes and solved the problem. I would follow MWB's suggestions but sometimes the rims just do not seem to want to seal right in the cold and once they start to leak they seem to just keep right on doing it. My logic was that since I needed to dismount the tires to clean the rim properly the additional expense of the tube was minimal. I seem to especially have problems with those small trailer tires and they have a habit of coming right off the rim
You could also try overfilling then letting air out as sometimes that helps with the seal.

 

[PILOON]

Big tire shops burnish the rims and add a tire rim lube that looks like grease.
That plus a new stems should do the trick.

I 'fixed' some slow leaks by using liquid rubber cement after burnishing the rim.

 

[jgrreed]

I'm on the phone right now with a tire shop.....just waiting for a price guess on foaming the fronts.

Still waiting...... this hold music sucks..... "Kaltire's commitment to customers is in it's technician training"....

Has to get back to me.... let me get back to you all later.

-Jer.

 

[IH3444]

Tubes, or do what I did once to tbeless tires. I silicone sealed them to the rims. They stayed up for years, and years after that. Really until they dry rotted so bad I decided to replace them. Getting them debeaded wasn't a problem either.

 

[knute_m]

I've put over $30 worth of Green Slime in my two front tires since early September. Yesterday, as I was piling firewood in my FEL, I noticed that one of the tires was again nearly flat.

I'd have been much better off putting tubes in them when I first started having problems last summer. I'm getting tubes put in on Friday. This tractor is only three years old, treated like a member of the royal family, but one of the front tires always seems to be flat.

Sheesh.

Everything I own seems to have flat tires. Both of my trailers, my rototiller, my snowblower, my log splitter, my lawn tractor -- and the lawn tractor's trailer, all have at least one flat tire right now.

I guess it is good that chain saws don't have tires.

 

[jgrreed]

I'm on the phone right now with a tire shop.....just waiting for a price guess on foaming the fronts.

Still waiting...... this hold music sucks..... "Kaltire's commitment to customers is in it's technician training"....

Has to get back to me.... let me get back to you all later.

-Jer.

There $250 per tire to foam them..... forget it!!! Interestingly they also said it'd add about 125lbs per tire. I'm getting tubes put in as soon as I can get the tires off the machine.

-Jer.

 

[jgrreed]

Everything I own seems to have flat tires. Both of my trailers, my rototiller, my snowblower, my log splitter, my lawn tractor -- and the lawn tractor's trailer, all have at least one flat tire right now.

I guess it is good that chain saws don't have tires.

Do you live on a reclaimed roofing nail factory???



-J.

 

[Matt_Jr]

At work I've had a lot of tires like that. Usually put in tubes or apply bead sealer.

 

[knute_m]

Do you live on a reclaimed roofing nail factory???



-J.

There certainly are times when I feel like that!

But, I never (well, seldom) find nails in the tires. In most cases it is leakage around the bead.

 

[jgrreed]

Tubes are $30 a piece. I'll take 'em.....

-J.

 

[gemini5362]

Actually if I was going to guess the problem I would guess that as it gets colder the metal shrinks affecting the bead. My wife bent a rim and it never went flat so she did not worry about it. The first morning it turned cold she went out and the tire was flat. I put slime in it so she could drive to work and it held air for over a year until she needed new tires and we bought a new rim to go with it.

The poster that had problems with slime and still leaking I have not had that problem. I have slime in all of my tires. I have run over a few locust limbs and get small holes in my tires the slime has cured all of that. Before I spent 30.00 dollars a piece on tubes I would slime them. If you get small leaks you are either going to have to slime the tubes or you are going to be taking those tires to have them fixed every time you get a puncture. With tubeless tires you can at least plug them yourself.

 

[PILOON]

I 'slimed' a few small tires without success, the went flat anyway.
When I pulled the tires the slime was frozen in clumps.
Looked to me as if the product was a latex or water based product.
Went with tubes!

(To be fair it was not Slime brand name.).

 

[J_J]

Add more air than is called for, and just spray those tires with a 90/10 mixture of water and soap. included stem. I can almost bet you have a slow leak somewhere. That air is going somewhere, and it will show up as bubbles. Replace the stem if you have to.

Slime or Multiseal will work. If you want to, put tubes in.

 

[Kfbeal]

I had a trailer tire do that once a few days after getting new tires mounted. I found it by submerging it in water. I took a small hammer and hit the bead of the rim and it sealed it back. It's been up for months now without any problems.

Until tomorrow of course, because I'm bragging on it.

I had my 4-wheeler tires factory sealed when I purchased it and yet to have a flat or low tire. Not sure what they used, but it wasn't the green slime.