By Bill Entringer (Billyboy) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I was checking the air in my tires today (regular Rawhides) and noticed the bead on one of the tires about to un-seat (there was about a 1/4 in. gap between the rim and bead). I tried airing up the tire to the maximum of 15psi but it wouldn't seat. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Bill

By Eddie Beddingfield on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Bill, Things to do are 1. Unseat bead,use soap and water as lubricant, reair tire. 2. Make sure tire is warm, beads stretch better when warm. 3. Rawhides and RH3's are a pain to get to seat. The tire say,s 30 psi max to seat bead,but i have had to go high as 50psi before. 4. Leave tire on machine if higher pressure is needed,and be ready for bead to pop loudly. 5. Tires can be dangerous use cages if possible. Hope this helps.

By Don Abernathey (Dla) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Take a piece of rope and a bar/pipe/baseball bat etc. Put the rope around the middle of the tire and use the lever to twist it tight. Need to drop the air pressure way down first - almost flat. As squeeze the center of the tire in it will flex the beads out.

By the amazing roadwolf on Unrecorded Date: Edit

hey billyboy, you can try usin a tie down wrachet around tha circumference of the tire. if that fails you can sumerge tha whole tire in water and seat it that way. juss rememba tha let all tha water out.

By liflod (Liflod) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Clean the beads and rim with acetone or some type of cleaner and use black silicone for lubricant and it will also keep the bead seated once it sets up.

By Jon on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Hi, I had the same problem with rawhide3s tried most of the above techniques. The max pressure stated on the tire is 15psi to seat bead. I was wondering how much above the max presure you can go safely?? I had up to 25psi & still wouldn't bead on the deep side of rim. thanks

By Russell Lee (Bigkodiak) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Jon,
Put the full 15 psi in then set the tire in a sunny place on a warm day. It will seat.

By Tom Pike on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Friend of mine pumps them up to 30 psi and puts them in the hot sun to seat his. I haven't had the guts to pump them up that much.

By Eddie Beddingfield on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Jon, The way I went to 50 psi is. 1- bled my compressor to 0 psi. 2-Locked air chuck on valve stem. 3-Turned compressor on at compressor watching gauge and keeping as for away as possible. 4- Be ready for loud bang and turn compressor off. Rawhides will not seat on wheels with a beadlock rolled into them very easily. 15 psi would probably seat them on regular golf cart rims. This is only a way I have seated tire beads, it sure isnt recomended by me. Tires can be dangerous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By argogeru on Unrecorded Date: Edit

JOn,
I have ran mine up to 45 lb. before to get them to seat. Make sure to put some soapy water on the bead so it pops on better. On the trail when a bead comes off i wipe the mud off the bead and use a portable air tank to reseat the tire, normally their is still a little mud and water on the bead but that seems to help it seat. but be aware if you do this on the trail that when it does seat it will spit mud and dirt out of the bead and go all over you, so protect your eyes, I almost learned the hard way. good luck.

By John Martin on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I like to use a little soapy water to act as a lube to help the tire pop over the safety bead on the rim. I have had to pressure up the tire more than I would have liked to more than a couple of times, but haven't had one blow-up yet, knock on wood! To be safe if you just can't get it, take it to a tire shop where they can at least use a tire cage to keep it from hurting somebody. Goodluck and be careful.

By David Keeso (Argomag) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

As someone who tends to go very hard on tires, what is the bead that you are talking about. I should know, but I don't. Help Please!

By david berger (Davidrrrd) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

DAVID KEESO, THE BEAD IS THE PART OF THE TIRE THAT TOUTCHES THE RIM, PART OF WITCH WIL LOCK INSIDE OF A RING INSIDE OF THE RIM DESIGNED TO HOLD THE TIRE BEAD, AND IF THATS NOT CONFUSING ENOPH THAT RAISED PORTION OF THE RIM I HAVE DESCRIBED AS A RING IS CALED A BEAD BY SOME FOLKS, BEADLOCK BY OTHERS, ??RIGHT GUYS

By Eddie Beddingfield on Unrecorded Date: Edit

David, some wheels have a bead rolled into both halves . Argo wheels have this and maybe Max also.Cheaper golf cart wheels usually dont ,and these seat very easily.Unfortunatly they roll off just as easily.To see the bead rolled into the rim look at where the tire and wheel meet when aired up ,now move in toward the center of rim about 3/4 of an inch.This hump is what the tire bead must slide over to seat. FYI a few years ago Bassett wheel made extreme bead wheels , they took over 120 psi to seat beads professional tire shops had people killed seating beads. Always take precautions Eddie

By Ted S. on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Use starting fluid. Wipe the bead clean,shoot a little in and flick a lit match at it. There is a whoosh pop and you are back running. The fire inside will burn out in about 2 seconds and doesnt get hot enough to hurt the tire.

By Pete Cagle (Petec) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

never seen it work have tried it dont use unless it is a last resort

By argogeru on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I did all of my tires with starting fluid to seat them on the bead because the tire shop couldnt do it because they were off the rim for 2 years and the beads were to close together. Needless to say I agree with pete, last resort. one good thing though about the starting fluid is if you have any holes in the tires, the flames shooting out will show you exzacly were you need a plug or patch!

By david berger (Davidrrrd) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

i'd say don't try it, i did it before and one of the tires blew off the rim and the tire and rim sailed high enoph into the air that when i found it was gon and for some reason i looked up it was still aprox 30 feet up and burning! it hit my car and dented the hood, and all my naybors where running too see what the "BOOM" was!
i still feal like an ideot for that one,
seriosly, try somthin els,

By John Martin on Unrecorded Date: Edit

They don't call it an ether bomb for nothing!! You have to be really careful and not use to much ether or you will have too big-a-bomb. Takes a little practice to get the hang of it and I don't recommend it. If you use somekind of lube (soapy water) to help to tire slide on the rim you should be able to get it with air psi. Be careful whatever way you try.

By Don Abernathey (Dla) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I guess I don't understand why this appears to be rocket science to some of you. You don't need explosives. All you need is a means of constricting the center of the tire. I've done this before with nothing more than a piece of cheesy rope and short chunk of rebar. I then proceeded to pump up the tire with a hand pump. Its really not that hard folks.

By Eddie Beddingfield on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Don , I'll send you a ARGO rim and a 22" Rawhide III tire ,knock yourself out.

By Bknight (Bknight) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Beading a tire, everyone has a different method of doing it. I agree, trying to seat a tire bead is a pain. I've found that using some sort of lube, whether it's soap and water or some of that blue goop from a garage that changes tires all the time is a key. I've found that when changing tires on my Max that after pumping 15 psi into them that bouncing them from mid body level like a ball while spinning them around helps set a bead. What I did was set one side then let the pressure out..put some more soap on that side that didn't set all the way..pump them up again and keep on bouncing. Within 5 minutes for each tire and everything was seated properly. I did have one tire that just wouldn't seat so I took it to a tire shop, and they placed it in a tire cage, hooked the air chuck to it and then a cone type device that blasted it with air and pow! seated both beads almost instantaneously.

By argogeru on Unrecorded Date: Edit

don,
I would half to see that to believe it, A HAND PUMP?! come on.

By matt435 on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Guy's this string is getting almost as good as the "creeking in a max" hee... hee....

By Al on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Don,
ATV tires are thicker and wider, and more difficult to seat than any other tire, maybe you did it on a trailer tire, or a lawn tractor tire. Even car tires are easier than ATV tires.

Under nothing but ideal conditions could you do it with a hand pump. Sometimes the beads on the tire are nearly touching each other, so even when you put a rope or ratchet strap around the center, the tire will just not spread. Or, sometimes it just wrinkles up around the spot where you are twisting the turnicate, or ratchet strap. In these cases, a hand pump would do nothing. You have to have a high speed, high volume of air to get the tire to swell up and catch both sides of the rim. One thing that helps is a tire chuck that holds itself on the valve stem so you can try to use your hands to persuade the beads to seal, of course you don't put your fingers between the tire and the rim!

In addition, it sounds like most of these people
had the beads started: where they were holding air. At this point you remove the rope, and overinflate them, but in many cases, the beads, even when lubed, will not seat.

I have put WAY over 15 pounds in these tires to seat them. I always do what BKnight said, bounce them like a basketball (while they are overinflated), and eventually, they all surrender.

Al

By mr. tinker on Unrecorded Date: Edit

just a note. if you remove valve core you will get larger quantity of air through valve stem.