Why are my front tires flat all the time!!!

[jgrreed]

Hi All,

Whenever it gets cold, really cold (below -20degC), when I get out to my machine the front tires are almost flat.

It never does it when it's warm, so I don't think there's a slow leak.

Is there something I'm missing here?? Can the beads be affected by the cold?? What can I do about it??

Thanks,

-Jer.

 

[rdbrumfield]

One thing is that cold air contracts so it doesn't fill the same space that it does warm.
I had problems with my tractor and tubeless front tires. I could not keep air in them when working the loader hard.
I finally put tubes in them, no more problems. My fronts are 12,50x24 and I was picking up over a ton and a half. don't know if that would be a problem on the smaller cuts.

 

[jgrreed]

One thing is that cold air contracts so it doesn't fill the same space that it does warm.
I had problems with my tractor and tubeless front tires. I could not keep air in them when working the loader hard.
I finally put tubes in them, no more problems. My fronts are 12,50x24 and I was picking up over a ton and a half. don't know if that would be a problem on the smaller cuts.

Thought about that too, but it's not just a little squishy, they're FLAT!!! It doesn't seem to be flat at all at lets say -5degC.

Maybe the tubes will be the way for me to go too.

Thanks for the response.

-Jer.

 

[Willl]

What does the pressure gauge say ?

I'm betting slow leak.

 

[pitt_md]

I have been fighting a battle with my wife's VW Jetta tires that seem to have the same problem. When it is real cold out I have to keep putting air in them and NO ONE can find anything wrong with them! The dealer tells me that I should expect to loose 1 lb. of preasure for every 10 deg F temp drop.
The only fix I have found is to have the tires dismounted and the bead cleaned and sealed. I hope you find a soultion to this fustrating problem.

 

[mwb]

Could also be your valve stems - either frost in them or they are faulty. A cheap fix to try is just remove the schrader and install a new one. Also, make sure the air you are filling with is dry - not warm shop air going into a frozen stem.

I would start with changing the valve packing, then rerim the tire with a new valve.

 

[studor]

I had the same problem for a while then went with tubes and solved the problem. I would follow MWB's suggestions but sometimes the rims just do not seem to want to seal right in the cold and once they start to leak they seem to just keep right on doing it. My logic was that since I needed to dismount the tires to clean the rim properly the additional expense of the tube was minimal. I seem to especially have problems with those small trailer tires and they have a habit of coming right off the rim
You could also try overfilling then letting air out as sometimes that helps with the seal.

 

[PILOON]

Big tire shops burnish the rims and add a tire rim lube that looks like grease.
That plus a new stems should do the trick.

I 'fixed' some slow leaks by using liquid rubber cement after burnishing the rim.

 

[jgrreed]

I'm on the phone right now with a tire shop.....just waiting for a price guess on foaming the fronts.

Still waiting...... this hold music sucks..... "Kaltire's commitment to customers is in it's technician training"....

Has to get back to me.... let me get back to you all later.

-Jer.

 

[IH3444]

Tubes, or do what I did once to tbeless tires. I silicone sealed them to the rims. They stayed up for years, and years after that. Really until they dry rotted so bad I decided to replace them. Getting them debeaded wasn't a problem either.