Tires Tubes in front tires

[BobRip]

For the second time in two weeks I have had front tires go flat from leaks between the rim and tire. When this happens trash gets into the area and when you blow them back up the leak is continuous. The last time this happened I took the tire to the tire place and they broke it down and cleaed the rim and tire. It worked fine, but this is a nussiance. This seems to only happen on the front. My tires are 8 years old. I am thinking of putting inner tubes in the front tires. I would appreciate suggestions on this. Is it a good idea? Also what do you do with the hole for the second valve stem? Leave in a second "dummy" valve stem?
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[3238dpw]

I personally like to avoid putting tubes in until there just isn't a choice. If there is a tube in a tire and you get a flat it is a big deal to fix. If you get a flat in a tire without a tube all you have to do is plug it add air and you are off. Have you tried braking the beads without removing the tires. Then just clean the rim and tire bead area with a rag and soapy water in a spray bottle. If there is a lot of dirt in there you can try using a shop vac before the rag.

 

[MossRoad]

Bob,
While I have heard that you can tube them I have found that replacing them with solid tires on my brush hog was the best choice for me. I have the mower deck, the snow plow and the brush hog and they all take the same tire/wheel combo and the pin that they are mounted to are all identical, too. So I have one set of solids and two sets of pneumatics without tubes. I swap the solids between the snow plow and brush hog seasonally and keep two sets of pneumatics for the mower deck. I found that if I overinflate the pneumatics, they stay up for several seasons.

 

[DieselPower]

Why not use a tire sealant? You don't have to remove the tire, most work on holes 1/4 inch or smaller and it provides continued protection from flats in the future. Just a thought.

 

[3238dpw]

Why not use a tire sealant? You don't have to remove the tire, most work on holes 1/4 inch or smaller and it provides continued protection from flats in the future. Just a thought.

I find sealant doesn't workvery well for leaks at the bead. Works great for leaks in the tread.

 

[J_J]

Slime tire sealant, or the stuff from Gemplers does work even for the tire beads. I did lawn service for about 20 yrs. and I have plenty of experience. You have to put in the right amount, and for a large tire, it would be about 32 oz per tire. It coats the complete inside of the tire and rim.

 

[Bob999]

I have used tubes for years with good experience. I first tried sealer and found that it seemed to act as a lubricant and facilitated the tire bead slipping off the rim when I was working cross slope on a steep slope with the result that I got the equivalent of a blowout.

 

[BobRip]

Slime tire sealant, or the stuff from Gemplers does work even for the tire beads. I did lawn service for about 20 yrs. and I have plenty of experience. You have to put in the right amount, and for a large tire, it would be about 32 oz per tire. It coats the complete inside of the tire and rim.

Thanks to everyone for their responses.

Moss - This is the tires on the PT422 not the mowers. I do have inner tubes on my mower front tires and in 3 years had not even added air.

J_J - I talked to Gemplers yesterday and they did not feel that their tire sealant would work. Maybe they just did not want to commit to a guarantee for something that they aren't quite sure of. Your twenty years experience kinda over rides that. I was all set to get inner tubes, now I am not sure.

 

[Phils]

Another vote for tire sealant. I put the "bulletproof" stuff from Gemplers in all my tires and haven't had a problem since. I did this right after receiving my PT from Power Trac. The brush hog tires have stayed inflated for years without incident and I do some pretty rough forest work. They were delivered to me flat and twisted on the rim from the shipping company.

My right rear PT tire has a 1/2" slit in the sidewall that I got a couple of years ago. Two times I've parked where that slit was on the "bulge" of the tire and came out days later to find it flat again. Simply putting air back in is all it needed, and it's even been almost a year since I've done that. Odds are that I've parked with the slit on the bulge more times but it's been ok.

On the left front PT tire, I put a metal valve stem BACKWARDS in the inner hole after I got the not-surprising flat from brush hog waste ripping the rubber stem. I put a metal valve cap on it too.

Phil

 

[MossRoad]

Moss - This is the tires on the PT422 not the mowers. I do have inner tubes on my mower front tires and in 3 years had not even added air.

My apologies. I slimed my front tires and that did not work for one of them. I tubed that one and have never had a problem. I don't remember what I did with the second valve hole. I'll have to look. Either I left a valve in it or it is just there. Not sure. Hmmm....

 

[BobRip]

My apologies. I slimed my front tires and that did not work for one of them. I tubed that one and have never had a problem. I don't remember what I did with the second valve hole. I'll have to look. Either I left a valve in it or it is just there. Not sure. Hmmm....

An easy mistake to make.
I went to the tire place today and he did not want to use inner tubes for many of the above reasons. When I asked what to do about the second valve stem, he said that's another good reason not to use inner tubes except as a last resort. So, Moss, I need to know what you did.
What we did today was break down the tire, clean the rim and tire (lot's of stuff in there), put bead sealant on, and reinflate the tire. I am still tempted to order a gallon of Gempler's slime. Is there any chance this will corrode the rim?

OK for now and we will see how it goes. I probably need to be careful about driving so fast over rough fields. I think that was the initial cause.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[RobJ]

I find sealant doesn't workvery well for leaks at the bead. Works great for leaks in the tread.

I had the same expierence on my riding mower. On that one I tried everything, cleaned, polished, etc. Leak at the bead. For a while I would block it so when the tires went flat they wouldn't break the bead(weekend place mower, every 2 weeks it got used). I ended up gitting rid of it.

I do have tubes in my L fronts and rears.

Rob

 

[J_J]

I am thinking that a lot of people are using certain peoples advise about the best tire pressure, low pressure for a good ride. If used on level ground that might be OK. If working in the woods or hilly terrain, you had better put the recommended pressure on the side of the tire for obvious reasons, tire roll off, etc.

Tire bead sealant works, but you still have to have the correct air pressure.

I have tire sealant in mine, and i use 21 lbs of air in my 26X12X12 on my 1445. The foot print is good enough for this pressure, and I have never rolled a tire off the rim.

 

[Bob999]

I am thinking that a lot of people are using certain peoples advise about the best tire pressure, low pressure for a good ride. If used on level ground that might be OK. If working in the woods or hilly terrain, you had better put the recommended pressure on the side of the tire for obvious reasons, tire roll off, etc.

The factory supplied manual that came with my PT 1845 states:

IMPORTANT: FOR MAXIMUM TRACTION ON SLOPES, KEEP THE AIR IN ALL TIRES AT 5-6 LBS.

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

i was gonna put my money on using tubes.....it usually fixes anything

but, i've always had to run pretty good pressure to keep them on the rims...

The factory supplied manual that came with my PT 1845 states:

IMPORTANT: FOR MAXIMUM TRACTION ON SLOPES, KEEP THE AIR IN ALL TIRES AT 5-6 LBS.

 

[J_J]

The factory supplied manual that came with my PT 1845 states:

IMPORTANT: FOR MAXIMUM TRACTION ON SLOPES, KEEP THE AIR IN ALL TIRES AT 5-6 LBS.

Bob,

How about looking on the side of your tire and tell me what the recommend tire pressure is. Are you using lug/bar tires or turf tires, and what size tire and make?

The theory behind that low pressure is that it gives you more tire tread on the ground, and assuming that that is the safest process to achieve a workable solution.

As far as the factory says, just who is the factory. Is it Terry, or do they have a select group of individuals that run these PT in the ground to note the worthiness . or failures. I rather think that we as the owners /operators do most of the test and evaluations. It's hard to imagine that there is only one expert at PT. If there is, we never get to talk to him or them.

Are you using the pressures as stated in the manual for all your work?

 

[Bob999]

I run approximately 7 lbs in all 8 tires. They have tubes installed. Since I installed 6 ply tires to replace the 2 ply tires the machine came with from the factory I have had very satisfactory tire performance. As I posted above I originally tried sealer but found that unsatisfactory. I then changed to tubes.

The sidewall pressure (maximum), if I recall correctly, was about 12 lbs on the 2 ply tires and I think it is about 30 lbs for the 6 ply tires.

My experience is that traction on steep slopes is much better with low tire pressures.

There is no attribution to the author in the factory manual I have so I can't respond to your question as to who at the factory is responsible for the section of the manual I quoted.

 

[BobRip]

Just for the record, I have been running pressure in the middle teens. I have had this problem over the years and have raised the pressure from my old setting of 11 pounds. The tire is rated at 20 PSI max. I now run it at that. The rears I keep around 10. I have had little problems of this type with the rear. I did have a sidewall split and replaced that rear tire.

 

[Mighty Dodge]

Bought my tractor used. One front tire had a tube in it. The other had a very slow leak, had to pump it up every couple of weeks. I tried soapy water couldn't find it. Put a tube it that tire as well. No more leak down.

M.D.

 

[MossRoad]

...So, Moss, I need to know what you did.

I just went out and looked. The tube stem is on the outside of the rim. I could not see the inside tubeless stem, so I felt around and found it hanging on by a thread. Apparently, it was torn long ago. So it appears we left the inner stem in as a plug and now that the outside has torn off, the inside of the stem is still plugging the hole. Works fine. I may tube the other one if leaks continue on that tire.