Redneck tire seating didn't work...

...so what am i doing wrong?

I got the HF tire changer and put new tires on my tow-dolly's wheels. Then i needed to seat the beads. The redneck way involved pouring/spraying some sort of flammable accelerant into the tire and throwing a match at it. The resultant explosion is supposed to pop the beads onto the rim. I tried it w/ about a 1/4 cup of gasoline, and tried again w/ some spray throttle body cleaner. With both instances, there was no "pop", the chemicals just sort of lazily caught fire. There was no "explosion" to pop the beads on... Am i not using enough flammables?

i'm running out of time, so today i'll just go to a shop and have them seated, but i'm wondering what i'm doing wrong. Not using enough flammables?

Just curious,

Mike

i can't help you, but i can predict that you're going to end up in "heard on our message board"....

low-riders use butane to get a 175 tire to seat on a 7" rim. what you're talking about could probably be accomplished with the extra blast of air that a real tire machine can provide.

I think the Icelandic mechanics I saw do it on Top Gear used propane to seat mondo-gigantic off-road tires on the Arctic exploration special. Have to go back and check the details, but it worked. Scary, too, but then where's the fun in working on your car if you're not afraid of burning off your 70's porn star mustache?

Yeah, I've done that with big-tire Jeeps that popped a bead on the trail.

First, REMOVE THE VALVE STEM INSERT! Use Zippo lighter fluid. Go around the bead of the tire twice with it - making sure some of it gets inside the bead, stand back and throw a match at it. It's also a good idea to tie the tire down to something as the resulting explosion has caused them to jump several feet off of the ground as the tire expands.

FWIW, if I were where I could get to a tire store and have them seat the bead, I'd do that. The whole lighter fluid/tire/explosion thing is pretty dangerous although it makes for good youtube videos.

Please be careful, seating a tire is not worth getting hurt over. Having said that, I have seated a few smaller tires in the past using a heavy duty ratchet strap wrapped around the circumference of the tire. As you tighten the strap, the sidewalls will bulge forcing itself to seat. Usually, this is enough to allow you to pump up the tire (assuming a decent size compressor) using the resulting pressure to fully seat the tire on the rim. A little soap and water mixture sprayed on the rim will help as well. Not sure if this method will work on the tire you are trying to seat though. Good Luck!

The proper petro-chemical is starting fluid.

Lots of the little trailer rims do not have safety beads on their rims so they just don't seal well until they are inflated. I've had good luck in the past with setting the tire with only one side mounted out in the sun to let it sag open a bit and then using a soft-inflated bicycle inner tube as a spacer between the tire and rim while I inflate it.

Your runnin' a little rich thar, boy.

You need something much more volatile, and the fuel-air mixture has to be right.

Starting fluid is the standard propellant for the hillbilly bead-seat methodology. Hunter S. Thompson's beloved ether:

"Raoul Duke: We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, laughers, screamers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get into locked a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon."

Put the tire on, spray a generous shot of starting fluid in, let it mix with the air in the tire for a few seconds, then hit it w/ a match, or better, a propane torch.

Kaboom!

To do it with air, put a ratchet tie-down around the tread of the tire and snug it pretty tight. This will get the bead against the rim. Take the valve core out, hit it with your air chuck til' it's popped on. Reinstall valve core, air to taste.

Save the ether for huffing parties with those teenage girls what live down the street.

Never have understood the theatrics of that method.

Got a ratchet strap? Put it on the tire, around the tread. Cinch it up. The bead gets pressed against the rim and the tire holds air.

Caution! Release the strap before you really air up, or you'll blow the strap.

Redneck version, use a rope and a branch to twist it up with.

I use to use hair spray AQUA-NET just a tinny puff inside then quick once around the bead and toss a match BOOM up it seats but get ready with air cause some times they fall off the bead. If you haveent got it to pop your likely to rich on the mixture you want it on the lean side. Starting fuild works best but don't get the one with upper cyl lube it's not ether based.

Now i use a 5 gallon tank with a hose and funell sqished and pointed at the bead while flowing max air in the stem snap open vavle on the thinder can and POP.

44

Ether (starting fluid) and have someon else with an air line on the valve stem (no core). As soon as it's lit, open the air valve.

CoryB wrote: ...The whole lighter fluid/tire/explosion thing is pretty dangerous although it makes for good youtube videos.

youtube you say?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M0GNLvPmAg&feature=related

Thanks guys! Took it to a shop, they did it for free I should have thought of the ratchet strap method. I'll try that next time.