All tied up

To those of you who don’t know, getting me to the regular Wednesday night monthly club meeting is always a bit difficult due to other commitments.  However I did manage to make it to the mammoth July meeting that swamped us with so much fantastic information it took me till 3am that night to settle down and go to sleep.  Even then I still dreamt about it.  Martin and Roger gave a great report on their trip up to the Kimberly’s but there was one thing that really stuck in my mind and had me talking about it to everyone I meet for the next week.  No prizes for guessing what got me dribbling like a tap.  It was the innovative (I think that is the word for it) way that they reseated a tyre onto a rim.

To refresh everyone’s memory (hope I get this right Roger and Matin), a problem arose after performing a repair to a deflated tyre where by the standard 12v car compressor just did not have enough grunt to push the sidewalls of the tyre out so they would seal onto the bead of the rim and thus inflate the tyre.  It was then suggested by a bystander that a method they had seen used to overcome this problem was to pour half a cup of petrol into the tyre and light it.  The resultant explosion pushed the sidewalls out sealing them against the rim and allowed the tyre to be inflated with the compressor. 

The comment was made at the meeting that you would never see a method for reseating a tyre in this manner published anywhere because of the obvious danger involved but at the time it got the convey out of a difficult situation and moving again.  I know I’d love to see this done one day, (on a tyre not mine) as I’m sure any bush mechanic would.  My only concern, apart from burning the shirt off your back, would be if there was any residual fuel or vapour left in the tyre what affect this would have on the rubber of the tyre in the long run.  I’m not sure if this tyre is still in use or not but if it is it might be a good exercise to take it off the rim in 6 months time and have a look to see if there is any damage.  Whose ever tyre it was, I’d be willing to do this at a club meeting down the track.  If nothing else it would be a good lesson for others to see how to remove and refit a tyre to a rim.

Well after that very long introduction I’m now ready to start this months Trev’s Tip.  The topic is refitting tyres to rims of course.  I too have had a few occasions where I have found it hard to reseat the tyre onto the rim but I have another method to overcome this problem that doesn’t involve fuel and has worked faultlessly to date.  I’m not sure how common this knowledge is so perhaps I’m telling everyone something they already know but here goes any way.

You don’t need to get the tyre to seal completely onto the rim before the compressor will pump it up, you just need to make sure that enough of it is sealed so that the air escaping from the leaks is less than that being pumped in.  It might take a bit of time but eventually there will be enough pressure inside the tyre to push the sidewalls out and get a perfect seal on the rim.  So how do I get the tyre to seal initially?  I run a rope around the centre of the tyre and tie a knot in it so that it has a small amount of slack.  I then use a long stick (or what ever else is available such as a wheel brace, large screw driver etc but the longer the better for leverage) which goes under the rope (ie between the rope and the tyre).  You then turn the stick round on itself so that the rope starts to twist up.  This winds the knot up tighter and tighter which will cause the rope to crush the centre line of the tyre.  As the centre line of the tyre is compressed the sidewalls are forced outwards which pushes them onto the rim and usually seals it enough to allow inflation to begin.  A small amount of soapy water on the rim can also help the tyre to seal better because it slides on easier.

So there it is.  I haven’t had to change a lot of tyres in my time but so far this method has worked well and maybe a good first alternative before creating a petrol bomb.  Of course you could always put a tube in the tyre as well if there is one available, just make sure that you have cleaned out the inside of the tyre properly so any debris will not cause the tube to puncture.

One final thought before I depart for another month.  I have a few other repair tips that are awaiting publication that could potentially safe big dollars.  However rather than waiting for months for me to get these down on paper which could mean that you end up footing a big repair bill paying someone else to do the jobs in the interim, I thought it would be a good idea if I was to list some of the repairs I know about here.  That way if you have a problem and see it listed as an up coming story in this column then you could always get in touch with me first and get the inside story before publication.

Also if you have a repair hint (or anything to do with 4wd products etc) that you would like mentioned here for everyone else to know about let me know and I’ll type it up for all.  Perfect example of this was the story that Jeff told in the August meeting of replacing one of the bearings in his Patrol.  It would be great to have this published for everyone.

Trevor

(Don’t follow me.  You won’t make it.)