Changing tires on a finish mower.

Rory_Rhodes · Feb 25, 2006

Any tricks to replacing a small tire - 5" rim - on a finish mower? These are tubeless tires, mounted on a used befco finish mower I just purchased. I plan to replace the stems too.. Is soapy water the liquid of choice?

RobJ · Feb 26, 2006

Sort of a general for all tires I guess. To break the bead you can run over the tire with your truck or car. Don't kill yourself with a hammer or tire tool. Get as close to the rim as possible. Move it around a couple times if needed. Flip it over and do the other side to. Use your tire tool to pull the bead over the rim. The real trick is to make sure the opposite side of the tire is in the center of the rim. If it's in the center then every tire is real easy to put on by hand. Also always good to wire brush clean the beads to get rid of any rust. When putting on the new tire, lube the tire and rim with soapy water and again make sure the tire bead is in the center of the rim when seating the last bead.

When filling with air, use as much pressure as possible to seat the bead. Also a little more soapy water will help the seal. If you have trouble seating the bead, use a rachet tie down strap around the middle of the tire to help press the bead out. An extra pair of hands is always helpful. If one part of the bead won't pop out then deflate, lube up the rim again re pressure. Sometimes you can get a 4# hammer and hit the tire near where it won't pop out. These wheels shouldn't be to hard, Smallest I've done are ATV tires. Those can be a booger.

Good Luck, My Woods FM has the solid tires and I'm glad. I bet they would be flat all the time as my mowing area isn't perfect turf grass.

Rob

RalphVa · Feb 27, 2006

RobJ gave you some good advice.

To inflate it, remove the valve core to get the air in faster. Once you've popped it up against the beads, let the air back out and put the valve core back in. If you have a strap around the tire to get it to seat, you may need 2 or 3 tries at it, because you can't fully enflate it as you risk busting the strap and sometimes the beads will pop back in.

The vinyl protectant (ArmourAll or similar) can be used in place of soapy water, too.

I sometimes think those little ones are harder than bigger tires, especially to get inflated.

Ralph

dbelisle · Feb 27, 2006

When I have a tire go down on the finnish mower,
I put a tube in it......... I think it is easier...

Dave in NH

PineRidge · Feb 27, 2006

Do yourself a favor, put tubes in the tires, and have them filled with foam. It really isn't that expensive and you'll never be troubled with flats on your finish mower again, period. It sured cured a major headache for us anyway.

Rory_Rhodes · Mar 4, 2006

Mike - This may sound silly, but who fills them with foam?

Nik · Mar 4, 2006

Maybe it would be easier taking the tires to a tire service center. They would have the right equipment to get the tires off the rims and perhaps they could put tubes and foam in as well. Had a Flat on a similar tire and only paid a small amount to fix it at a local tire shop. Saved me lots of aggravation.

jbrumberg · Mar 4, 2006

Rory:
Do the soap thing, but before you start to inflate the tire wrap your belt around the circumference of the tire and cinch it up as tight as possible. This trick really works at resetting the tire bead. Jay

PineRidge · Mar 5, 2006

Check in your area for large tire dealers and get prices. I checked a couple of local shops before I found one that foam filled tires pretty reasonable. The 4 finish mower tires were just a bit more than 40 bucks total. I was going through tubes that cost that much on a monthly basis.

The foam filled tires have worked very well on the mower. I'm now thinking about having a set on my gas welding cart filled as well, and who knows I might just do the air compressor while I'm on a roll.