Putting Tubes in tubeless lawn tractor tires

[blue06van]

Thank you all

What are slime filled tubes? Are they worth the extra dollors?

 

[reynoldston]

Absolutely correct. You can get tire bead sealer at an auto supply like NAPA.
Make up a solution of dish soap 1 part to 3 or 4 parts of water and brush it around the rims. With the tire under pressure, the bubbles will appear,but not right away. Give it some time and air it up a little strong to 15 or 20 PSI and the leaks will show up.
With all the aluminum wheels [just give me steel,please] on autos these days,sealing a tire with bead sealer is a skill worth learning.

I agree with this, but the only thing missing clean the wheel its self where the tire bead goes real good with a steel brush. I use a brush in a hand grinder.

 

[blue06van]

I should also state that once this tractor is back up and running , it will be located at my girl friends parents lake house 3.5 hours away and 1 hour from closest town.
I need this to be rock solid with the ablity to worked on with limited resources: ie tools and parts.
The property is 1.5acres on a hill leading to lake that normally only gets visited once a month, some times more.
I dont have a trailer so bringing it back and forth to house to work on is difficult.

 

[wjjones]

If you clean the bead area of the wheel off, rust, dirt, etc, and shoot some paint on it will usually do the trick. Have you considered 4 ply tires instead of 2 ply? But as mentioned if you put the slime in there it should seal itself as long as the hole is not to big.

 

[Kenneth]

If you clean the bead area of the wheel off, rust, dirt, etc, and shoot some paint on it will usually do the trick. Have you considered 4 ply tires instead of 2 ply? But as mentioned if you put the slime in there it should seal itself as long as the hole is not to big.

I've not had any luck with slime. It left little green spots on my floor as it continued to leak, didn't hardly slow the leak. More plies is my thought. It's what worked for me. But mounting new tires on a mower wheel is not for everyone. Being financially challenged, I had no choice. But there are options. A friend who is an old tire guy wanted me to use latex paint. Said it works better than slime. Then there's foam filled, they also make a liner, goes between the tire an tube. It was me, I'd look for 6 ply online, unless the thorns are really bad that ought a do it. If you do decide to mount the tires yourself you're in for a heap o fun. But don't take my word for it, check you tube. Mounting mower tires. Spoiler alert, it involves either expensive equipment and or fire. You probly wasn't using them eye brows fer nuthin nohow! Good luck! :drink:

 

[Ralph]

Tubes are pretty expensive now-uh-days. I know it has been a few years since I bought an inner tube, but I know they were less than $5 each then. Now they are around $20 a piece. That's almost half the price of a new tire pre mounted on a new rim. :confused2:
Make sure to clean up any sharp areas inside the tire and rim so they can't poke a hole in your new tube. One of those valve stem tools only costs a couple of bucks and is pretty handy. And be careful not to poke or pinch the tube when you are trying to get the tire back over the rim.

My interest in using a tube in a tubeless tire is saving money and time. I just finished mounting a tubeless Carlisle 20X10-8 for which I paid nearly $70 and which arrived in such a malformed condition that I couldn't set the bead myself. I had to take it 20 miles into town where the repairman had to use a "bead blaster" to make it happen.
Except for a hole in the sidewall of the tire which was too big to patch and which Slime wouldn't fill, the tread was fine. Call me ignorant, but I didn't realize that I could use an inner tube on a tubeless tire. We go and grow, right?
I see that I can get the right size Slime inner tube for under $20 on Amazon and that's what I intend to do, next time. I can set the bead with my compressor and have done with it.

 

[Harry Stottle]

Putting Tubes in tubeless lawn tractor tires, has anyone done this to help with flats?

I got 2 tires one front and one rear, I have tried fixing and have taken to tire place to have fixed and still leak.

I reckon I am looking for if anyone has done it and where you could get tubes at?

I've found the cheapest permanent solution is to get one of those foam canisters from the local car accessory retailer and squirt the foam in. Lots of car manufacturers supply a canister instead of a spare wheel & tyre, they are intended only as a "get you home" solution for cars, but it's OK to leave the foam in for low speed work like mowing.

 

[navy1]

I have had excellent service from Gemplers (check on the internet) with anything to do with tires, tubes, and tire repair tools, and many other things. They have an excellent tech staff to answer questions about tires, tubes, wheels and etc. They ship as soon as the order is received, and sometimes I get my order next day. They are in Wisconsin, and I am in Michigan. I am very pleased with their parts and service.

 

[jekjr]

We put tubes in the front tires on our ZG326 Kubota. We have still had to patch then regularly. I am seriously considering going back to tubeless with about a half gallon of slime in each tire. At least if it starts to show a leak it will be easy to find and plug.

 

[Tombstonebilly]

I went to harbor freight(online and brick stores ) and got a small tire changer to put tubes in all my mower tires,:smile: they have tubes also, it works good with a little dish soap on the beads you can get the tire to shapen up by putting 2x4s between the beads for a day or two just cut the wood a little bigger then the width of the wheel and use a strap around the tire when putting tire on:thumbsup: