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The rear tires aged out and began leaking, so I put tubes in them.

The front tires are now leaking throught the sidewalls, but has anyone installed tubes in these little POS tires?

jack vines

I haven't, but should be do-able. Just some wrangling imo.. .

Just be careful to get bent stem tubes
Personally down here a tube cost $ 20 and a tyre costs $ 65
I charge $ 15 to instal a tube but fit tyres for free as that is easier to do
Tubes will get flats , requiring patching and eventually the rim or the tyre will get wrecked
A patch costs $ 20 for the first one + $ 5 for each additional one done at the same time .
Where as tubeless tyres just get plugs in them

Personally I prefer the straight TR13 stems myself but most shops just want to stock the TR87P stem tubes. Post the tire size then I can look up the Carlisle inner tube PN. And you don't want to go with the cheap Chinese inner tubes either.

When it comes tire plugs most around wants to use automotive plugs which are not meant for off road use. Solid rubber mushroom plugs works a better than string plugs as the string requires road heat to cure properly.

StarTech said:

Personally I prefer the straight TR13 stems myself but most shops just want to stock the TR87P stem tubes. Post the tire size then I can look up the Carlisle inner tube PN. And you don't want to go with the cheap Chinese inner tubes either.

When it comes tire plugs most around wants to use automotive plugs which are not meant for off road use. Solid rubber mushroom plugs works a better than string plugs as the string requires road heat to cure properly.

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The problem PackardV8 is having with front tires is that the tires are dry rotted. Plugs are obviously for on puncture not dry rot. Yes, you can install tubes in small tires. They are very difficult to install. As soon as you hit a nail, etc. it is over. The cost of tube plus labor if done by a shop is not worth the cost. Option two is to install tire sealant such as Berrymans which often works. Most run mower around with sealant in it enough to disperse sealant inside tire to be effective.

Yes, the leak is through the sidewall of the tire.

Agree, installing tubes in those little tires would be a PITA. Getting the tire on and off the wheel is a huge hassle itself. If I must do it again, I'm going to make bar to go through the hub which can then be clamped in a bench vise. Having the "third hand" holding the wheel in place would be a help. Anyone else tried this?

A neighbor who works with larger equipment says they fill all their tires with foam. Has anyone tried this. My experience with foam in other applications is it inevitably deteriorates.

And then there's the numbnuts who designed a fork to mount a captive air tire with a valve stem which cannot be reached with an air chuck.

jack vines

grab a jug of tire sealant, It can fill the tires completely. Giving longer life outta those dry rotted tires.

Some of the top-rated tire sealants for lawn mower tires are

• TireJect Lawn Mower tire sealant
• FlatOut 20120 Tire Sealant
• Slime 10009 32 Ounce Automotive Accessories
• Briggs & Stratton 100033R Tire Sealant
• Gempler’s Ultraseal Extreme Heavy-Duty Grade Tire Sealant

All of the tyre sealants are based on Lattex which is water soluble so eventually fails
To get the sealant into cracks in the sidewalls you have to lay the tyre on one side. Over fill with air the do the other side
New tyres are the way to go
I use American labs plugs that are specifically designed for tractors and they work quite fine
Thee is even a real tractor size plug that you make a sort of knot with by twirling it inside that will do quite big holes

bertsmobile1 said:

All of the tyre sealants are based on Lattex which is water soluble so eventually fails

New tyres are the way to go

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Agree. Not only are sealants water based/soluble but that plus the chemicals will rust-to-ruin the steel wheels if left in there to failure. BTDTNA

FWIW, I just used my 50+year-old Simplicity snowblower. The tires on it are still holding air. When I say the tires used on today's machines are junk, it's from experience of how good tires last.

jack vines

Goes like this
Good rubber is very expensive
The synthetic chemicals are very expensive
Natural lattex is very cheap because we steal it from 3rd world countries
So compounders use as much lattes in their mixes as possible so you get the cheapest tyres possible
Down side is if you do not apply UV protectant tyre dressing they will often fail the day after warranty runs out

Next synthetic rubber is flexible because it is chockers with compounds called plasticisers.
Now plasticisers are air & temperature sensitive which is why car tyres get sticky when hot , the plasticisers get activated inside the tyre to replace the hard oxidises or UV deteriorated plasticisers near the surface
This is why a tyre that is on your car that gets used daily remains good till the tread wears down yet the exact same tyre fitted to a trailer or caravan that only gets used a couple of times a year go hard & the side walls crack well before the tread wears down despite them being fitted on the same day .
Tyres have a finite life which is why the sidewalls have a date code on them
Often when high quality tyres are sold cheap it is because they are old .

My favorite is when folks bring me a mower with a crap ton of sealer in the tires and now the tires are so bad the tires have to be replaced and now I have to clean up the mess and deal with the rusted rims. Then they question what I want to charge to fit new tires. Let's see, clean up the mess the sealer made. Wire brush all the rust off the rim. Sand the bead seat smooth. Paint the rim. THEN mount the tire. Takes about an hour so $40 a wheel PLUS the cost of the tire. Just fitting new tires would have been cheaper than the sealer route.

Hammermechanicman said:

My favorite is when folks bring me a mower with a crap ton of sealer in the tires and now the tires are so bad the tires have to be replaced and now I have to clean up the mess and deal with the rusted rims. Then they question what I want to charge to fit new tires. Let's see, clean up the mess the sealer made. Wire brush all the rust off the rim. Sand the bead seat smooth. Paint the rim. THEN mount the tire. Takes about an hour so $40 a wheel PLUS the cost of the tire. Just fitting new tires would have been cheaper than the sealer route.

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For true. I'll never install that cat-piss in anything ever again.

Same but different, I spent two days chiseling, soaking, rodding out the coolant passages in a Packard V8 block after someone years past had filled the radiator with an unknown witches brew to stop a leak.

jack vines

As Einstein said, "One definition of idiocy is continuing to do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

That's why I don't want to spend $30 apiece for Cheng Shin tires which we know to be failure-prone.

Are there any tires which you know from personal experience to last longer than the Cheng Shin?

jack vines

Edit - "A man's got to know his limitations."

Following hours of searching, including flat-free, I gave up and ordered a pair of Cheng Shin. Every other option, including flat-free, cost twice as much or in the case of inner tubes, was likely to be too difficult, or wasn't a direct replacement.

I'm going to try wiping down the new tires with ArmorAll inside and out (outside regularly) to learn if that in fact offers any protection against UV degredation of the sidewalls.

packardv8 said:

As Einstein said, "One definition of idiocy is continuing to do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

That's why I don't want to spend $30 apiece for Cheng Shin tires which we know to be failure-prone.

Are there any tires which you know from personal experience to last longer than the Cheng Shin?

jack vines

Edit - "A man's got to know his limitations."

Following hours of searching, including flat-free, I gave up and ordered a pair of Cheng Shin. Every other option, including flat-free, cost twice as much or in the case of inner tubes, was likely to be too difficult, or wasn't a direct replacement.

I'm going to try wiping down the new tires with ArmorAll inside and out (outside regularly) to learn if that in fact offers any protection against UV degredation of the sidewalls.

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Armor All won’t help that much. If you are storing the mower outside and the sun is beating down on it all day, the tires will suffer long term, as a result.

Thanks. The mower is stored inside most of the year, but it has occasionally sat outside for some of the summer.

jack vines

The new tires came today and I got them mounted. As some of you know, those little buggers are a PITA to mount. Since I had two to do, I made a small tire machine, sorta. If I get ambitious enough, I'll try to post some photos.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Cheng Shin knows how to make better tires and sure enough, the replacement tires are four-ply rating, where the OEM tires were two-ply rating. Only time will tell if they last longer.

BTW, the Toro Owners Manual sucks and swallows. In the tire section, there is no spec for front tire pressure; "Consult the tire sidewall." On the sidewall is a "Max pressure 44 PSI." Can you imagine running 44 PSI in a lawn mower tire? That's just nuts. And just wrong not to give a recommended spec.

jack vines

packardv8 said:

Can you imagine running 44 PSI in a lawn mower tire? That's just nuts. And just wrong not to give a recommended spec.

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That's what the owners manual is for.

And Armor-all has petroleum distillates in it & that actually dries out rubber.. I use a water based oil dressing.