Track Tac

solution for tires that wont hold air?

W

W5R

New member
Just wondering if any of you guys might have a solution or something that works for you when you have a tire or tires that simply won't hold air because of the bead itself being a little chewed up or torn? IV tried black rtv silicone around the bead itself before mounting the tire, and have tried it on the wheel where the bead seats, but neither one seems to work. The rtv silicone slowed down the leak in some spots but still didn't stop the leak. I have a couple older sets of Burris SS33A's that are giving me this problem, they have plenty of good rubber left on them and are good tires besides the beads being chewed up in spots, id like to be able to use them for the local Friday and Saturday night tracks, mainly as goat pee tires that I don't have to worry about turning to junk on me. If I can make them hold air and keep their stagger size enough to get a few races out of them, thats good enough for me cuz it keeps me from having to use up my new sets. Old tires are usually faster at these tracks, and nothing makes them take off like goat does, so I'm trying to make them work. Any ideas or solutions is helpful! Would tire slime or fix-a-flat work for this without throwing off the balance too badly? These are 1/5 mile or smaller tracks, none of them are momentum tracks or neccesarily smooth tracks either, just your regular run of the mill Friday night racetracks, low to medium bite farm dirt and clay mix.
 
How long are you waiting for the RTV to set up. I had this problem before, I did it at night then next day remount tire on rim. Good luck
 
I have had to work the RTV into the cut places on the tire bead and then put some on the wheel to get leaks to stop.
I'm doing this as I seat the tire.
Didn't wait for the RTV to set.
I let the air out after the bead set and let the RTV cure.
These were take off tires from someone else.
My tires don't get the bead all chewed up for some reason.
 
I did the same as bumpy, and these were also take off tires from someone else. I remove and mount my tires by hand, so the beads dont really get chewed up. I have tried several ways, putting the rtv on the bead and working it into cracks then letting it set overnight to cure before trying to mount and applying rtv to the wheel while mounting as well, then tried just putting the rtv on the bead and wheel while mounting and neither worked. I also let the air out immediately after the bead seats and let the tires sit overnight to cure before airing up to check for leaks. I'm temped to try the tire slime or fix-a-flat stuff since the rtv isn't working. Any other ideas?
 
I bought an outrageously expensive tire tool (for me) to mount and take off tires after half-killing myself, yelling and screaming while trying to mount Vegas.
I've gotten a few tires from some uptown mega-racers and the beads looked terrible. 3 of 4 sealed.
Didn't know that beads needed to be looked at until it was too late. I just looked for amount of tread and durometer/tire treatment.
Lesson learned.
 
Bumpy said:
I bought an outrageously expensive tire tool (for me) to mount and take off tires after half-killing myself, yelling and screaming while trying to mount Vegas.
I've gotten a few tires from some uptown mega-racers and the beads looked terrible. 3 of 4 sealed.
Didn't know that beads needed to be looked at until it was too late. I just looked for amount of tread and durometer/tire treatment.
Lesson learned.
Click to expand...
what would one look for when inspecting the bead?
 
Bumpy, i did the same thing lol just wasnt thinking about looking at the beads as i was only concerned with duro and tread mainly. LooksLikeFun, you would examine the inside bead of the tire for cracks, wire showing and broken pieces of bead. A good tire with a good bead will have a smooth bead all the way around on both sides and will look new, that tire likely wont have any issues holding air unless you damage the bead while installing it, which can happen if your rim has sharp edges from making contact with walls or something like that, it will slice right thru a bead. Most damage to the beads comes from guys who use a screwdriver, prybar or whatever else is laying around and allows them to get the tire on and off the wheel when changing tires, i avoid getting tires from guys who i know do things this way. I use my hands mostly, but occasionally i have to break out the dismount tool that came with my rebel fab tire machine, which is basically a bead breaker and dismount machine both built into one and has a part at the top where you sit the wheel on and use a bar with a rolled edge to spin around the bead and pop it off the wheel. Thats the best i can explain it anyways. Ill probably just toss these tires and say lesson learned, i could have bought new tires for the amount of time and energy iv wasted just trying to get these 2 sets to mount up and hold air.
 
Same problem here kinda my leaks where the burris is stamped in the side of the tire. It leaks around them little tits. I put some silicone on them so far so good.
 
I have used bead sealer with some success
silicone also

the best one yet was on a tire that had a missing chunk of bead, I took a tire plug file and filed the rubber so it was round, I positioned tire over a tire plug and beaded tire up, then cut the plug with a razor blade, it held air great
 
Bmsracin32 said:
Same problem here kinda my leaks where the burris is stamped in the side of the tire. It leaks around them little tits. I put some silicone on them so far so good.
Click to expand...

About every burris tire i have had will eventually start leaking around those "tits" as you call them, i believe part of this is caused by us having to stretch the tire to size them up for stagger. Have seen some that leaked around the entire sidewall, they were a few years old though. Little silicone gets put on all of mine in the spots your talking about, helps prevent the leaks in the future if they were to start leaking.
 
Coty Morrow said:
I have used bead sealer with some success
silicone also

the best one yet was on a tire that had a missing chunk of bead, I took a tire plug file and filed the rubber so it was round, I positioned tire over a tire plug and beaded tire up, then cut the plug with a razor blade, it held air great
Click to expand...

Thats a pretty cool idea. i think im gonna try the bead sealer. Iv finally managed to get a couple to seal by using black silicone around both sides of the tire along the bead and rub it in, let it sit for 2 days, then apply silicone to the wheel bead seat before airing up the tire. That has worked for most of them but still have a couple of right sides that are being stubborn as heck and just wont hold air or seal up. Bead sealer is the last resort i guess. If the tires werent pretty much full rubber tires like they are, i would have tossed them when i first had problems, but since they look new as far as the rubber, i had to try at least.
 
I've never had this issue, but if I did I'd use some red RTV or similar around the inside lip of the rim with no tire installed, build it up to around 1/8" and 1/2" wide and smooth with a plastic baggie, then let cure overnight...then I'd carefully mount the tire as normal and rely on the squish seal of the side of the bead rather than trying to cure imperfections on the inner dia. of the bead...
 
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