Tires A little tire story

[EM_in_Ohio]

You may remember that a few weeks ago I had a valve stem dissolve because of the calcium filled tire. Well, today just as you would suspect, the other one did the same thing. This time I'm thinking that there is no way I'm paying 63 dollars to have an innertube installed. There has to be a cheaper place. Guess what! There was. The local Firestone dealer had one for 16 bucks. As a little side note I would like to say that I live real close to the original Firestone farms, and the agricultural tire test center is just down the road. This summer the farm was turned into a golf course. Ok, back to the story. The dealer had a tube, but their machine wasn't big enough to mount a 24" tire. They managed to break down one side, and then gave up. I took it home and played with it for a while. After a few tries I found the right bar and managed to peel the tire off the rim. It was surprisingly easy once I found the right bar. Well, I pulled the tube and slid the new one in. I even put some air to it to get all of the wrinkles out. It fit in there real nice. When I started to put the tire back in place, I noticed that I took too big of a bite with the pry bar. Part of the tube was pinched between the rim and pry bar. I was thinking, " If it leaks, I'll know where to look". It's amazing how intuitive I was. I filled that baby up, and the air was coming out faster than I was putting it in. I figured ok, that wasn't too difficult the first time, I'll just do it again. The only problem I realized, was the bead set itself nice and tight when I filled it up. Now what am I going to do? Being the bright boy that I am, I decided that I was going to run it over with my truck. ( The new truck with the caved in door, because my wife backed into it this morning.) Well I guess I'm not as bright as I thought. All it did was skid across the driveway. Even in four wheel drive. Ok, I need a real plan now. I start looking around, thinking about taking it to the guy that charged me $65, and then I spotted it. Sitting there on 3 wheels and a jack stand was my little Yanny with a front end loader just dying to squish that tire. Wow, that was easy. I put the front edge of the bucket down on the sidewall, and it popped off all the way around. Things are starting to look up. I rolled it back to the basement, worked some magic with the pry bar again, pulled the tube, and patched the hole in less than 10 minutes. That was surprisingly easy once I knew what I was doing. So easy in fact. Tomorrow on my way home from work I'm going to stop for another tire patch kit. Then, I'll squish the tire with my FEL again, just so I can fix the OTHER hole that I didn't see the first time. Oh well, I DID have fun, and I learned something too. Merry Christmas. E.M.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

A good story, how much is your $16 tube gonna end up costing in $'s and time?

Now we need a group of repair special experiences to add to the special operator experiences.

 

[kayssupply]

I used my Yanmar B22 track hoe to bust mine off the rim. I also learned you have to let ALL the air out before you try. A track hoe can really do some damage if the air isn't ALL the way out.

 

[rdbrumfield]

Loved your story, been there myself and came up with the same conclusion. The loader does work, but I did build myself a slide hammer out of a fence digging bar with a flat end. Used about 4' of it and slid a pipe over it with one end welded shut. Works ok. They can be tough at times.