Skid Steer tires

Bruno of NH · December 16, 2020, 03:58:19 PM

What do I need for tools to mount and dismount skid steer tires.
Spent all day on the road today at 5 tire shops till one could help me get it back on the beads.
I tried the trucker juice and it wouldn't work.
I found 4 more rims and like new tires , the tires are weather cracked. Can tubes be put in ?
I lost a day and I'm to busy for this.
Any advice and direction please.
I'm willing to learn and invest in tools to do in myself.
I can't afford new rubber at this point.
Thanks Bruno

mike_belben · December 16, 2020, 04:11:10 PM

Call the matco mac or snappy truck and have him bring you some good tire spoons. 2 if youre good, 3 if you arent. All different styles, not duplicates. The long one with the big knob is the workhorse od the bunch.

I use 2 spoons, a vicegrip, dawn on the beads and a ratchet strap looped over the center of the tread like a band on a bulls nuts to make the bead flare. Those big tires will probably still need some boom sauce to seat.

Youll need to make up a coreless air chuck tool for fast fill to seat.. When theres 10-20 psi you pop that off and screw in the core valve without launching in hopefully. Need a core tool. A 3/8 hose stub will slip over the valve stem OD and you can wither rig up a ballvalve or pinch your hose so air doesnt blow out when you plug this hose stub into your chuck.

Any tire can be tubed. If youre gonna try tubeless make sure the tire bead isnt ripped, that the rim seating area is clean and not pitted. You can grind it clean if needed. If its leaky, liberally coat the bead area with DAP weldwood, works great.

Stiff tires are extra hard to do when cold. If you can bring them in a heated space itll help. If the beads are curled in close together prop each tire on a bucket with some wood so that gravity spreads the beads. Skidsteer tires are some of the worst to seat actually. Youll be good at it by the time yer done.

Harbor freight tire irons suck. Oh and youll need a good size stubby hammer to beat the sidewall slack down into the rim trough to provide slack as you go. The rim trough is closer to one side than the other. You feed the tire on and off by the close side. Wont go the other way. Soap the heck out of the beads. And use new valvestems. Theres 2 sizes, so bring one with you to walmart for stems and either. .453 and .625. These MUST be pulled through the hole by the cap thread so youll need that tool also. Soap the flares.

dnash · December 16, 2020, 04:12:44 PM

We always put tubes in ours. Never had problems popping the bead after that.

Bruno of NH · December 16, 2020, 04:18:09 PM

How do you like up the tube with the valve stem hole in the rim ?
Remember I'm dumb on this stuff.

chevytaHOE5674 · December 16, 2020, 04:20:42 PM

Of all the tires I change from big tractors to trucks and cars, skid steer tires are my worst enemy. The stiff short sidewalls can be a bear to get onto the rim and seating the beads can be a chore even with a strap, bead cheeta, and lotsa "boom sauce" as Mike calls it. Lol

mike_belben · December 16, 2020, 04:43:23 PM

mike_belben · December 16, 2020, 04:51:18 PM

For tubing you got the tire loose on the rim. Fish a wire string or rubber hose through the hole and wrap it around or over the stem. Use that to fishtape it.

Youll have to feed the tube in and inflate deflate a few times to get it sorted maybe. If your rims and tires are good tube is just extra work and expense. Contact cement will seal really crappy beads.

In my pic the 3 gray bars are good. Chrome is indian junk from HF. Last resort/light duty. Not pictured is a 2" ratchet strap that youll wrap around the center of the tread and clasp hook to hook in a continuous loop to squeeze the beads outward so theyll contact the rim. Dribble the thing like a basketball if needed to get contact. Beat down on the tread with a maul, whatever it takes. Skidsteer tires will make you work for it.

When you finally get the thing seated do not inflate too much before taking off the ratchet strap or itll explode. And dont trust your hand in the handle.. Itll crush your fingers. I open the handle to the last click then knock it to release position with a hammer. Not my hand.

Bruno of NH · December 16, 2020, 05:26:46 PM

I'm going to pickup 4 rims and almost new tires on Sunday.
My brother in law says the tires are weather cracked.
Should I be worried if I clean up the rims and just try and reseal the beads.
I just want to have spares so I don't lose a day sawing like today.
It was also the coldest day of the season so far. 0° this morning.

Haleiwa · December 16, 2020, 05:38:20 PM

If the tires are cracked, don't waste your time trying to mount them tubeless; they will just leak. Get a "valve fish" from NAPA, or make your own. Take a valve cap and drill a small hole in the end of it. Run a piece of baler twine (for round bales, not square bales) through the hole from the outside and tie a big enough knot in the string that it won't pull back through the hole. Mount one side of the tire. Thread the string through the rim and screw the cap onto the tube. Position the tube inside the tire. Make sure the valve is pointing the correct way. Mount the other side of the tire. Draw the valve stem through the hole with the string. Put vice grips on the valve stem to hold it in place until you get some air into the tube. The hard part of putting a tube into a tubeless rim is the valve side of the tire has to go on first, and there isn't room for your hand to push the valve stem in place.

If you are mounting new tubeless tires on good rims, the easiest way to get them to seat is to pack the space between the tire and the rim with tire soap. Get it in a five gallon bucket and use lots. You will get most of it back once the tire seats, so a bucket will last a good while. Take the valve core out so the tire will fill fast. Use a clip on chuck and have a hammer ready to hit the tread of the tire any place the has too much of a gap; it will flex the tire and help it seat.

ehp · December 16, 2020, 05:40:20 PM

I'm like Dnash , I have tubes in my skidsteer tires , this new one I bought they brought out for me to test and I told them to take it back and put tubes in all 4 tires , in this sand with stuff like 30 ft white oak timber logs the skid skid steer sinks into the sand and when you turn off goes the bead , with tubes in them I never have problems

Corley5 · December 16, 2020, 06:32:08 PM

My 753 has one tire left without a tube. I've taken them to a shop to have them fixed as needed and they won't put them back together tubeless.

A-z farmer · December 16, 2020, 06:56:31 PM

Bruno
There is a lot of good information here in the posts but I have found out that buying the rock tires for the skid loaders last twice as long .But they also cost over 300 each and we have always had to find a tire shop to mount and dismount them .In 2004 I had a super single tubless tires on our tandem axle spreader and one of them went flat hitting a frozen rut in the field.The next day a neighbor helped me get it seated which we did but while I was checking the amount of air pressure it exploded and the rim left the tire with my arm with it .it was only at 60 pounds pressure and I was going to 100 .The tire shop told me the rim failed and I should of warmed the tire up first .
So just be careful because I am reminded every day of that experience.
Zeke

thecfarm · December 16, 2020, 07:08:50 PM

I don't do nothing with tires. I have a small shop I go to and they do it all. They come to the house to do my loaded tractor tires. Place looks like a dump, the trucks looks like they are all set to break in two. But they know tires!!! I had two guys here to do tires for me, and each guy is doing something all the time.

Brian_Rhoad · December 16, 2020, 07:14:35 PM

Most skid steer wheels aren't made for tubeless tires. The bead on the wheel isn't big enough to keep the tire from popping off the bead and deflating. I had to put tubes in new tires on our Bobcat. I've seen wheels that don't have any bead. The wheel actually is tapered all the way to the outer lip.

alan gage · December 16, 2020, 07:29:56 PM

I'm pretty handy. I had a good tire shop put new tires on my Bobcat a few years ago. They really struggled to get one of the tires to seat. Certainly not something I'd want to tackle myself. Not saying you couldn't do it but, especially if you're not familiar with working with tires, I don't think it's the thing to be learning on.

It's always a hard call. I know you said you can't afford new tires but you also can't afford to lose sawing time by messing with tire issues. How much time and money spent chasing and mounting used tires while losing sawing time vs. just having a tire shop put on a new set and be done with it? Tough question we all have to deal with now and again.

A new set cost me $1k on my 873

Alan

jmouton · December 16, 2020, 07:44:42 PM

i do alot of things to save money doing myself, tires are not one of them,,,, between 3 skidsteers 2 tandem axle trucks and your standard pickup tires , nope wont do them,,, way easier and less frustrating just to have a local tire shop do them,,,,,,did i say waaaaaay easier,,and in my opinion cheaper too,

RangeSawing · December 16, 2020, 07:50:06 PM

I give anyone willing to change their own skidsteer tires a ton of respect. (Physically removing the tire from the rim) I just broke a valve stem this weekend logging and no way no how could I pop that bead. Sorry I couldn't be more help, best of luck.

mike_belben · December 16, 2020, 08:22:44 PM

Drive on it and steer around until it just rolls off. As was said, skidsteers have no safety bead whatsoever which is why they roll off so easy.

Fyi, half size rims do not utilize a safety bead at all. So 14.5, 17.5, 19.5, 22.5, 24.5

Just let the air out, give a wack and get the levers. I can often do the tire with rim still on the truck.

An exploding rim is scary. I dont let the wife keep pace next to semis for that reason. 120psi at a 24.5 piston area is some serious boom.

Hank the mechanic at one of my driving jobs had a tire actually chunk apart and wack him from the ether. Hasnt happened to me yet and ive done a lot ofm. Be careful guys. Stand in the tread path when airing, not the sidewall.

barbender · December 16, 2020, 09:07:11 PM

I've only had my skid steer tires come off the bead when I had one that would go flat over night. It was cold and it came off the bead on it's own. Other than that, I've never had one come off mine and I work the snot out of it. I was trained on skid steers on an asphalt paving crew, where you quickly learned to make 3 point turns and such so that you don't tear the gravel base up or you'd have people screaming at you. So I think I have a little different operating style...just because you can spin in a circle with the machine doesn't always mean that you should. It really makes a difference. One CTL we had, every time we got on a prep job with large rocks in the subgrade, the young fella running it would knock a hydraulic line of the drive motor. He blamed the machine. The tracks would pick up a rock, carry it around and break the hydraulic fitting. He ended up quitting, and I got back in that machine. I had never broke one of those fittings previously, and I ran it for 2 seasons before I finally broke one. He would do it 4-5 times a summer- it wasn't a small deal either. Half a day down and about 15 gallons of oil. But he would work that loose sand with large rocks in it, and just spin and circles. The side of your track getting turned into the material loaded it up just like a bucket. Watching him it wasn't hard to see why he had problems, IMO.

chevytaHOE5674 · December 16, 2020, 10:07:31 PM

Keep them inflated properly and you shouldn't be knocking any beads off tubeless. Tubes are fine but just another expense and step in mounting and make future repairs more work. I try to mount everything tubeless so I can plug tires and be back on my way in no time.

If you have your tires off the rims take the time to weld some protection over the valve stems if there isn't already something.

trapper · December 16, 2020, 10:20:26 PM

I am no tire man but I have used the edge of the tractor bucket to break beads. Tilt bucket so front edge is vertical and lower bucket on tire as close to rim as possible.

brianJ · December 17, 2020, 07:12:28 AM

I go thru a set of tires every year due to turning on concrete. Rims get wire brushed and painted every other year.

mike_belben · March 23, 2021, 03:23:33 PM

ive wanted to make a video for a while to help guys stay away from the ether and acetylene etc for seating beads whenever possible. had reason to do so this week and got it all edited other day. had a friend get hurt from ether last year, and knew of a guy who got decapitated about a mile from my house as a kid.

Seating Difficult Tire Beads - YouTube