Leaking Tires

Finally got tired of airing up the tubeless ( rear ) tires on my mower . Broke down and spent the $40.00 for a pair of 8x20x8 tubes .
I had to do this last year to my other mower also. Before doing so .. I put the entire wheel & tire assy. first @ 10 then @ 15 p.s.i. in a large storage container of water and weighted it down ... flipped it over & over over the course of about 2 hours... no telltale air bubbles ANYWHERE ... not @ the valve stem ,in the valve stem, around the valve stem, and NOTHING around either bead side of tire. tires still have a good deal of "meat" left on them but they're old and appear to be dry rotting ( those tell-tale cracks ) I guess they're leaking like ...(" OSMOSIS " ) ( LOL ) .

I'm just curious as to how many other people on this site also go the inner-tube route .... or do they just opt for new tubeless tires...?? ..:anyone::frown:

This has got to be a problem for those in the lawn-service biz !!! How bout it you guys .. whats your solution .... SLIME...Fix a Flat ..??

I tend to go with slime. I have slime in 3 out of 4 of my ztrs. I did buy a new set of tires for a older ztr last year. They had several plugs in them and the sidewalls were getting thin. Since its my ditch mower I changed up and got a little bit better tire with more grip.

We have a rule, "When in doubt, tube it". If we have to work on a tire with "Slime, etc." you will be billed an extra $10.00. It may work, but is a real pain to work on, most of the time it must be removed, so the labor time also goes up. 90% of the repair shops and dealers around here charge extra, plus if you don't tell us about it, it may go up more.

My tire guy so far has never cared to much yet. I do know its a pain in the as* . Of course now that I said it. Lol next trip to the tire store will be double.

I plug my own tires or use slime. If the tire is dry rotted I get a new tire. Tubes work but they get punctured too.

You mentioned soaking your tire in water to find a leak. I think it would be very hard to pinpoint the problem. I use Windex or similar to find leaks. It only foams at the site of the leak. Large bubbles = big problem. Small bubbles= thorn puncture, etc .

Rivets said:

We have a rule, "When in doubt, tube it". If we have to work on a tire with "Slime, etc." you will be billed an extra $10.00. It may work, but is a real pain to work on, most of the time it must be removed, so the labor time also goes up. 90% of the repair shops and dealers around here charge extra, plus if you don't tell us about it, it may go up more.

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As a rule I find that tires with slime or tire sealer aren't that bad to repair. I will rinse them out with water. In repairing tires in my shop I leave that up to customer as to how much they want to spend. I have used all the method's, plugs, tire sealer, patches, tubes or replacement. I have found on real bad rusted and bent wheels tubes are the only thing that will work. As for airing up a mower tire I will shoot for 8 PSI.

Took a front to Farmer's Co-Op for a patch and was informed these tires from a 2009 john deere were so sorry they can't patch them because of a cloth material inner lining. I like tubes but that prevents me from installing a pan head sheet metal screw as a plug like I do in tubeless.

SeniorCitizen said:

Took a front to Farmer's Co-Op for a patch and was informed these tires from a 2009 john deere were so sorry they can't patch them because of a cloth material inner lining. I like tubes but that prevents me from installing a pan head sheet metal screw as a plug like I do in tubeless.

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Never heard of it but, why not if it doesn't leak. Its a slow speed tire that spends most of its time on a lawn. It really sounds like a good ide that I may try but I would use a pan head screw and nut.