Front tire slow leak bent rim - what to do?

[DWeinreich]

Must have hit a rock with the front wheel rim on my Kubota L3400. The rim is dented in a little (maybe 1/4") where it meets the tire, and a small amount of air is getting by. No damage to the tire. Tire size is 27x8.50-15 6PR. I'm thinking there are a couple of options, from too good to be true to so expensive it will surely work:
1) can of fix a flat.
2) take off the tire, pound out the dent, and have it re-seated.
3) same as 2, and add an inner tube.
4) buy a new rim.

Any advice is much appreciated.

 

[yooper1]

I would


skip the can of fix a flat........(you will hate the stuff later if you go to repair the tire again....messy)

but I would take the wheel off the tractor and try and straighten as much as possible and then try and re-seat the bead...


That is the cheapest way...and nothing to lose there


Then...if it does not seat....you could try the tube in the tire with the straightened out rim.

Lastly...the new rim....

 

[284 International]

I'd do just as yooper1 suggested. Here's how I would do it: (But you may remember from your 187D troubles that I don't always do things the easy way!:laughing This is my too-detailed, step by step, real-life procedure:


1. Call my local tire shop and order a tube. Nobody here has tractor stuff, so it takes a day or two to arrive.

2. Get a piece of string, some tape, and a permanent marker. Tape the string onto the hub, then pull it snug and tie it to something. Find the consistent, unbent portion of the rim as you slowly spin it, then mark it with a piece of tape on the string. Then, with the sharpie, mark where the dent begins and ends, and mark the deepest dent(s). I'd check by eye and see if the inside of the rim is off, too.

3. Pull the wheel and remove the tire. (I've done them with motorcycle tire irons very easily, they are actually easier than motorcycle tires!)

4. Put a 1x2 on the rim where it is bent, and whale on it with a hammer, working my way out from the deepest dent(s). When I'm too tired to whack it anymore, I would check it with a tape measure from the opposite edge, and compare it to the true side.

5. Repeat step 4 as necessary.

6. Stick it back on the hub and spin it, making sure it's true left to right as well as not too out of round, and correct as needed.

7. Put the tire back on the rim halfway, install my tube, reseat the tire, and reattach the inflated and tubed tire on the tractor.


I hope you are able to figure it out and resolve it without too much trouble!

 

[crazyal]

You may try something to seal the tire like silicone or automotive urethane after trying to straighten the wheel. If you take a 2x4 and cut it to match the curve of the wheel you can put a bottle jack on it and push up on the wheel in the bent spot while hitting on the high spots next to the dent. I would use a block of hard wood to hit on so you don't damage the wheel further with blows from the hammer.

 

[ragkar]

Funny that you should have this problem. This weeks episode of IRT, which aired three hours ago, has a trucker with a bent rim. The rim is bent about three inches and six inches wide.

The truck is 200 miles into the wilderness and carrying a 43 ton load. They have no jacks or spare rims. a far worse situation than yours.

Why don't you watch how they fixed it.

 

[Ken]

Remove from tractor and take to tire repair shop. They deal with this all the time and have a sledge hammer large enough that a one blow adjustment usually works. then install tube.
There is all ways to try to fix. less trouble to have it done correctly.
ken