Tyre Mats

[Rgillard]

Hi all,

Im looking into making tyre mats for my neighbours farm. Here is a link to what I am talking about

Unique Inventions Company Ltd, Ballyragget,Kilkenny, supplying labour saving devices for common farmyard and garden chores.

Each tyre mat consists of 45 fasteners and I believe the silage pit will require over 20 mats. If I can make this process fast and easy I will be able to do this job at home and maybe for a few more farmers if the idea works. Taking the tyres off a pit on a cold rainy day in Ireland is no fun so this eliminates getting soaked from the water built up inside the tyres, the possibility of getting infected by vermin urine and the dangers of wires sticking out of badly worn tyres. Id appreciate any suggestions people may have.


What Ive done so far:

I started out looking at drilling holes in the tyres with a hole saw which worked but it was slow and the wire in the tyre still remained in place which made pushing bolts through difficult. From there my idea moved to punching each tyre with a punch and press. It was then myself and a few colleagues thought of completely eliminating any drilling/punching process. We came up with the idea of pushing the bolt through the tyre like a nail. I machined up a small sleeve with an 8mm internal diameter so that the bolt slid up inside it. The tip was sharpened to 45 degrees (test angle). I made the following rig using some scrap steel and an old hydraulic bottle jack. I tried initially to push the bolt+sleeve through two tyres and found that the tip of the sleeve was not sharp enough to pierce the inside of the tyre. I tested pushing through a tyre starting on the outside and the bolt got pushed through as it got a good grip in the rubber. Therefore with some tuning I think this idea may work. My own thoughts is to make either a lever operated mechanism (bottle jack is a bit slow and to retract it its quite tricky) or use a spring returned single acting air cylinder on a similar rig.


Best Regards,
Ronan

 

[Egon]

That is a good idea. I was thinking of doing somewhat similar only two tires wide to make a road out into one of our swamps and building a little Gazebo on stilts for wildlife watching. Nothing has ever happened on this as the environment police would frown on such use of tires.

It sounds like you need a hydraulically operated hole punch of proper dimension and strength. Lay a tire on it , punch a hole, turn tire and punch another hole and so forth. The hydraulics should be faster than a bottle jack. Something like the setup for wood splitter. Keep the fixed portion of the punch inside the tire and have the hydraulic systems set up on the outside?? Have the tire set on a rotating plate that has stops at 90 degrees so the holes get punched on a very regular angular basis. No random holes off a few degrees.

Looking at Industrial punches may give you better ideas!

Apply for Government grants to get a small business going?

 

[jimmysisson]

Egon is onto something. Do you want to drill and bolt the tires as you go, or predrill/prepare a bunch of tires first then bolt them together? It must matter what size the tire is also as to whether they'd align with each other.
I keep thinking a self-drilling fastener would be quicker than a punch, and allow you to assemble as you go. In building we use air-drive fasteners a lot - maybe there's something along that line that's strong enough?
I imagine you're talking about moving the assembled mats with a loader or drag them with a tractor? You mentioned you'd do this job at home - how do you move the finished mat to the farm?
I agree about the rain water, etc. It's a sloppy job to move them.
Jim

 

[Rgillard]

Thanks Guys,

I am looking for a method that I can do on site. The mats would be too big to transport from my house. Sorry by at home I meant next door on the farm.. These mats would be lifted off one row at a time to allow the plastic covers to be pulled back. I was concentrating my efforts on M8 bolts with fender washers. Is there anything like a TEK screw that would be capable of holding a mat of tyres together. When being lifted the entire weight of 26 tyres will be hanging off 2-4 bolts. That is why I was pursuing with bolts. My whole idea is to minimise the amount of tasks needed and time required. So to eliminate the need to pre drill/punch is my goal. I want to be able to shoot the bolt (with the pointed sleeve) through the two tyres, remove the pointed sleeve and put a washer and nut. then just tighten the nuts. So for two people, 28 tyres would be laid out. 1 person would use the mechanism to insert the bolts and the other follow and tighten the nuts. The goal would be to be able to make 20 of these in one day for the average pit. Just a little side earner for a few weeks. I am probably a little late for this year as the grass is due to be cut in the next 3-6 weeks but I suppose if I developed a good working model I could start bolting the tyres that are coming off the pit in the spring next year. Each mat would have to consist of tyres that are similar in size. All R13s together, all r 14s together...

Thanks,
Ronan

 

[Egon]

Nothing saying you can't prepunch the tires at one location and move them to the assembly area.

Cables run through the sidewalls? They would puncture easily.

 

[drspiff]

You may be trying to make this harder than it has to be. You can get machine thread screws which already have a drill point on them. Over on this side of the pond, I found the following screws:

3/8-16 X 1 1/4 Type 1 TCS / Unslotted / Hex Head / Steel / Zinc - Fastener SuperStore, Inc.

Put a washer on the screw, drill it through the tires, put a washer and nut on the other side, and draw them up with the drill motor. You could probably do 26 tires in 30 minutes once you got the rhythm going.

Just a thought,
Dr. Spiff

 

[SPYDERLK]

Those arent drill points. Theyre thread cutting/cleaning screws. I imagine drill points are even more expensive.
larry

 

[MikeD74T]

Rgillard, Consider developing a way to cut the tires in half around the center of the tread. You get both halves to work with. Each half is easier to handle when punching holes - make a freestanding punch hydraulically powered with small electric snowplow or power steering pump. You can use a big ram cause it only has to move 1". Cut & punched tires stack togeather better for shipping which may lend it's self to your selling them kit style. i.e. a Pile of tire halves & a bag of bolts on a pallet. Assembly is lighter & thinner making it easier to handle & takes less room to store. The assembly made from 1/2 tire "cups" also makes a great land smoothing device behind a harrow. Best reason for cutting - when assembled they don't hold water.
Also if you develop a good way to cut the tires you may have other options to sell the cutting service -i.e. cut tires are allowed in many landfills. This sounds anti-green but there's tons more recycled rubber already than there's any market for.
Do a search for "hydraulic hole press" and you'll find C frame presses & dies that will pierce up to 1/2 steel that will punch your tires. MikeD74T

 

[alchemysa]

Is it possible to use lengths of galvanized cable or fencing wire threaded from side to side and top to bottom of the 'mat'? Then all you would need to do is thread the cable through holes drilled in the tyres. Might even be cheaper than bolts.

 

[Rgillard]

Hi Guys,

Is there anything commercially available like this? It would let me do this job very quickly and prevent me having to screw on washers etc. I have done extensive searching on the net and not had much joy. I did find a few plastic versions but I would doubt that they would be up to this task. Any info is muchly appreciated...

Regards,
Ronan

 

[Rgillard]

Hi Guys,

I was sitting eating my lunch thinking about this and trying to apply the KISS principle. The barb end bolts are difficult to source so I had a bit of a rethinkThe main criteria are that:

1. its cheap

2. the parts are readily available anywhere

3. the amount of handling is minimised. even slipping a pointed guide over a bolt will become tiresome after 1000 joints

4. Ideally it would be nice to be able to do it all from the seat of the skidsteer

5. The mats are moved twice a year, once to place on pit and once to remove.

One simple idea I came up with was to use galvanised steel nails. We all know that these will go through a tyre. If I could get one with a wider than average head so that it will act like a washer. On the other side of the implement there would be a steel block that would act like the plate on the bottom of a stapler. It would cause the nail to bend 90 degrees + thus preventing it from pulling back out?

Do you think this would work? Here are some simple sketches, 1000 words and all that. Id appreciate your thoughts....


Ron

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Hi Guys,

I was sitting eating my lunch thinking about this and trying to apply the KISS principle. The barb end bolts are difficult to source so I had a bit of a rethinkThe main criteria are that:

1. its cheap

2. the parts are readily available anywhere

3. the amount of handling is minimised. even slipping a pointed guide over a bolt will become tiresome after 1000 joints

4. Ideally it would be nice to be able to do it all from the seat of the skidsteer

5. The mats are moved twice a year, once to place on pit and once to remove.

One simple idea I came up with was to use galvanised steel nails. We all know that these will go through a tyre. If I could get one with a wider than average head so that it will act like a washer. On the other side of the implement there would be a steel block that would act like the plate on the bottom of a stapler. It would cause the nail to bend 90 degrees + thus preventing it from pulling back out?

Do you think this would work? Here are some simple sketches, 1000 words and all that. Id appreciate your thoughts....


Ron

IMHO - The size of nail you'd need to not rip through the tire will make it impractical to do the "bent nail" method. Keep in mind the the reason staples bend is because there are two sides that are being equally forced. A single nail will likely move before it bends. The solution to that problem will get very complicated very fast. You could try to rig something with fencing staples.

I really think you're going to come back to pre-punched holes and bolts tightened down with some kind of powered wrench.

 

[srjones]

Hi Guys,

One simple idea I came up with was to use galvanised steel nails. We all know that these will go through a tyre. If I could get one with a wider than average head so that it will act like a washer.


Ron

For more surface area, why not use smaller galvanized washers? (one on the head side, and then one on the side that will get folded)

Yeah, it will add some cost and complicate the process, but it will reduce the probability of tearout.

Also, if you didn't have the hydraulic press, this would be fun and fast way to git'er'dun:

Powder-actuated tool - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Though, I'm not sure how available or legal they are in your locale.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

For more surface area, why not use smaller galvanized washers? (one on the head side, and then one on the side that will get folded)

Yeah, it will add some cost and complicate the process, but it will reduce the probability of tearout.

Also, if you didn't have the hydraulic press, this would be fun and fast way to git'er'dun:

Powder-actuated tool - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Though, I'm not sure how available or legal they are in your locale.

We're almost there, folks. A few more posts and we'll have invented the rivet.

 

[srjones]

We're almost there, folks. A few more posts and we'll have invented the rivet.

Which is a pretty close to why they were first invented. (Temporary repairs of ship hulls during WWII)

The more I think on it, a powder nailer may be overkill (no pun intended). It may be possible with a regular pneumatic framing nailer and a clip of galv. nails. Certainly cheaper.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Which is a pretty close to why they were first invented. (Temporary repairs of ship hulls during WWII)

The more I think on it, a powder nailer may be overkill (no pun intended). It may be possible with a regular pneumatic framing nailer and a clip of galv. nails. Certainly cheaper.

I'm thinking a good hydraulic riveter.

 

[Scotty370]

I'm with MikeD on the tire splitting idea! You'd have half the weight, twice the coverage, and if placed 'cup-side-down', no water retention. Plus you'd only have the width of the tread to deal with, for the (yet to be developed) fastener placement. Thinking something like an old tire machine that would rotate the tire, while a hydro-knife (sharpened old lawn-edger blade?) would cut the tread. Yeah, I know there not on rims!! So another fabrication would be needed, such as a split-roller that would hold the tire against the knife for cutting! Hey, Just 'brain-storming' here! How 'bout a .22 caliber nail-setter for concrete anchors to poke the holes? Just don't have your hand...'down-range'.....

 

[Rgillard]

Hello guys,

Thanks so much for your input so far. Just to clarify a few things:

Scotty: splitting the tyres is not an option. The more weight on the plastic the better as it prevents air getting in and spoiling the feed. Water filling up in the tyres is a good thing as it increases weight but can be messy when removing. Also cutting 1000 of these tyres will not be good for man or machine. The toxic dust/fumes even when drilling would poison you very quickly.

Iplayfarmer:I think if it comes to pre-punching tyres and bolting them together it might not be worth doing. I would not particularly enjoy doing this and I think it would be very time consuming. For the price farmers here will pay for something like this it would not be a viable option (if you value your time). However to follow up another point from your post I'd like to explore the possibility of using U-nails. I agree that the nail may be unstable and not bend uniformly every time. 3 inch pointed u-nails with barbs may be the answer. I know for sure 2" ones are readily available as I spent many a day putting chainlink on ranch fencing.

Please have a look at the sketches and see what you think. The mechanism would work in two stages. First stage would be clamping the two sides together. Then the u-nail would be pushed through the tyres and hit a forming plate on the other side. The diagram explains it a lot better so please take a look.

Again I thank you all for taking the time to read this and give back your 2 cents. I know it is not a major interest to most but it is nice to get replies be it good or bad.

Regards,
Ron

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Have you thought of a way to auto feed the U-nails/staples?

 

[srjones]

Hi Ron, I can see where you're going with this and it makes sense to me.

Basically a large stapler, similar in concept to this:

http://www.kammarton.com/files/products/product_167_3.pdf


A few thoughts.

1. Bigger isn't necessarily better. If you get the process going quick and cheap, it may be better to drive two or more staples at the point the tires touch.

2. Rather than using a hydraulic ram, a long lever would make the process go faster.

3. You should be able to drive and fold the staple in one action, just like a desktop paper stapler.