Bead Breaking

[Moike]

OK, so I am out on the trail riding with two four wheeler friends.
have my wife with me in my Max II with Goodyear 21 Rawhides.
When I left I had tracks on it. When I returned, both tracks are on the roof of my cab, and two flat front tires.
Several times through out the day I had to reinstall the tracks. Aired up the tire and off I would go again.
I pulled off the tire from the Max. Went to a water hole to check for leaks. No bubbles at all. I put in some green slime hoping this would help. Well all it was able to do was make a mess when the bead broke again. I was running 3.5 lbs of air, I tried 4 lbs as well. Still each of the front tires would break the seal.
Is there such a possibility that a tire will leak only when running?
Confused I am,
Mike

[micmac]

Mike,

Welcome to the wonderful world of loosing beads. This is a constant problem with these machines due to the low pressure and the forces put onto the tire during skid steering. You most likely have the older Max rims with less of an inner bead combined with older tires resulting in your problem.

Here are some suggestions:
1 ditch the slime it will act like a lubricant making it easier to throw a bead

2 clean the area around the bead make sure they are free of rust etc. Repaint them if necessary

Now I tried all of this and even bought a new set of tires and rims and still slipped a bead.

I recommend the tube a screw method I finally settled on. This is the David Berger mod from the Route 6 x 6 board. Essentially you make your rims bead lock rims by screwing in 8 #10 1/2 inch self tapping screws to the machine side of the bead on the rim. Then you use a tube in each tire.

Pros: I have yet to lose a bead after running like this. You have double protection if you rip a sidewall. My first time out with new tires and rims I ripped the sidewall on 4 of them, talk about frustrating!

Cons: you can't go back to normal after this, so I did it on my old rims. The tire may still spin slightly causing the stem to rip out of the tube. I carry an extra tube for this. I think the metal stem tubes a worse than the rubber stem ones. The rubber ones will give move if the tire spins. Now every so often when I have the machine off the ground I take the cores out of the tubes to relax them in the tires.

Hope this helps

Mike

[Moike]

Good Idea

Now I have been speaking with a local bike and ATV shop. I asked about new Rawhide III at 22" and he suggested a tire I have not heard of.
Tire name is Jackles????????
At $40 each sounds like a deal untill they don't work. The Goodyear Rahides are $90 each.......This equates to $615.60 vs $239.40 I could have a couple spares and still be in money.........I Think

Suggestions
Mike S

[Mike]

Get you a set of the newer "K" rims. I'm running 1psi and haven't lost a bead yet. The only downside is that it makes it more difficult to actually seat the bead to start with but once it's on, it's on!