How to seat the bead?
 

Hello all, i'm having a problem seating the bead on one of my tires. I recently got some 40" Ground Hawgs for cheap ($150), they have good tread and good rims. One of them was compleatly flat, and when I rolled it out of the truck the bead broke from the rim as it hit the ground. I tried to seat the bead with my compressor isn't powerfull enough (I even tried putting a ratchet strap around the tire and sinching it down to get the beads to the out side of the rim). I also tried the ether trick, but that just resulted in me catching myself and the tire on fire. Any suggestions on how to get this tire inflated...without having to pay someone? I know it would not cost that much, but I'm cheap. Thanks

What works for me is to put the tire & wheel flat on the floor but with the wheel raised up on another wheel or block so the tire will "hang" down on the lower bead. soap up a bike inner tube, put it under the rim's bead that is now facing up & inflate it to fill the gap between the wheel & tire. Remove the schrader valve from the stem to increase airflow & air it up. The trick is to get the tube to slip up & out without getting pinched in the bead. With a little experience, it will become very easy to do. :flag:

OK, I'll try that. I know if I could get my hands on some tire soap (it's like a thick jelly) I could inflate it no problem.

Jeffspower hit most of the tricks. Since you've tried the ether, I'll suggest propane. As Jeff noted remove the valve, spray the bead with a little 409, add a little propane into the tire and then add flame. Start with a small amount of propane, and work up until you find the right amount. The tire will pop onto the bead and any excess pressure will escape out the valve. I used this trick to mount kart tires, some of the most difficult little tires to get to seat. Remember, start small and work your way up.

LJ

Well I got the bead seated, used the ether. When I put air into it, it slowly leaked out around the valve stem. So looks like I'm going to have to dismount the tire and reseat the bead. Thanks for the replies.

Re-Bead ?
 

By the time I saw this thread, you'd already solved the problem. But I wanted to add another fixed that I recently had to use. I had a trailor tire go flat and the bead popped. I tried attaching the air hose and lifting the tire on the rim, nothing worked. I decided to try a tie-down strap, the type that has the crank built in not the pull tight type. Anyway, I wrapped it around the circumference of the tire. I pored a little dish soap around the bead and rim then cranked down tight on the strap. The tire flexed a little and pushed the bead tight to the rim. I then pumped the air and that was all she wrote. :D

Re: How to seat the bead?
 

jwhitfield
He tried it too.( Don't you just love that trick.) Used the ether trick also to seat dune buggy tires in the desert. Cool at night. Left the valve stem in (tubeless) so it had some pressure when it popped into place.

70 cst 4x4

70 CST 4X4

Your right! I missed that part of his post. Oh well, so I was re-iterating. ;)