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Tubeless tires

IH Cub Cadet Tractor Forum

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Tubes are cheap insurance against bead leaks and better than "Green Slime"
 
tube type tires are not actually air tight. the bead and the inner lining of a tube type tire is not designed to hold air or create a seal against the rim. a tube type tire can hold air (with a good tube) with a very rusty wheel or with a very poor condition tire. (this is not advised for road going vehicles or heavy load vehicles)

a tubeless tire has an extra layer of air tight rubber that is designed to seal at the rim and act as the air tight tube. the extra layer extends around the bead sealing it to the rim. of course tubeless tires require a valve stem, either rubber or metal with a seal. the inside of the rim needs to be clear of rust to seal properly on a tubeless tire. tubeless tires typically develop slow leaks from a nail through the tread and a tube type tire experiences a rapid deflation. tubeless tires can be fixed on the rim usually. remove the object and install a plug. If you cannot plug the tire you can install a tube.

tubeless type tires can be used with a tube with no issue. a tube type tire requires a tube.
 
Great explanation about tubeless vs. tube type tires. Thank you! What is best choice for a Cub Cadet 100 mowing lawns and garden tilling?
 
What size are your wheels? I have skinny wheels on my 122 and have Deestone tri ribs on it. My 1250 has wide wheels and have Vredestein V61 tires on it. Love both tires. Both are tube type tires.
 
Oh, something like this: :errrr:

Carlisle Tru Powers, and V61"s
wheels one.jpg


On the tractor:

wheels two.jpg
 
Whether you choose to run "tubeless" tires tubeless or with tubes totally depends how high your tolerance to airing up constantly low tires is.
I was tire rim & wheel material scheduler at FARMALL for 2-1/2 years. All our frt tires were tubeless, or at least tubeless enough to get them out of our lot. Now I had two sizes of rears that all variations were tubeless, 15.5x38 and 18.4x34, all R1 and R2-0, and 6 ply and 8 ply were tubeless. Those two sizes amounted to about 75% of the flat rear tires we had in our lot at the plant, typical fix was to pull the tractor up to the plant and air the tire up.
My #70 and #72 CC both had 6-12 tube type GY rears and 4.00x8 GY tube type frts. My 982 had all tubeless tires when new, thank goodness I didn't own it then. It had Carlisle tubeless turf tires front & back plus a set of unmounted Calisle lugged tubeless rear. I put tubes in the brand new Firestone 26-12.00×12 I put on the rear and about a year later tubed up both fronts that were leaking down over night.
My TANK, CC LZ54 zero turn has 24-12.00x12 tubeless turf tires on the back. I started mowing after it had been off the trailer less than 15 minutes. Next morning the right rear tire was flat. I let it sit flat till I mowed the next time, aired it up,, mowed, next morning a flat tire again. Now after 5 years where ever the leak is, it's slowed enough I can mow 2-3 times between airing it up. I bought a new tube for it but haven't taken the time to install it.
I've got three air compressors, I keep one everywhere I may need it. Yes, my work on the tire desk at FARMALL had about 5 to 7-8% flat tubeless tires with brand new tires and brand new rims/wheels. Tube type tires were less than 1%. About every 2-3 months the tire room supervisor would give me a laundry list of inner tubes he wanted to replace the infrequent pinched tube. I'd order 25-30 inner tubes. Keep in mind we mounted around 500 large rear farm tires with tubes daily. Tubeless fronts, from 7.5Lx15 to 14Lx16.1 we mounted around 200 per day. I had one steel disk rear wheel, think direct axle mount dual wheel, but it was the wheel 16.9x34 and 18.4x34 tires were mounted on for 686 & H86, that wheel had two valve stem holes. One got a normal tubeless tractor tire water stem, other one got a rubber plug Electric Wheel gave us for free. The plug was not effective at making a leak free seal. I showed Engineering and the tire room Supervisor the Schrader plug that was machined brass with rubber washers to seal the hole. Tire room didn't want to mess with tools to tighten the plug. They sat the flats out in the corner of the west yard, hidden out of site, save them to repair on weekend overtime. But if a big important plant tour came up first they would line the floor of a 30 cubic yard trash dumpster with them to get them out of the plant. So I could go from several months supply to "Out now! Need more!" with a supplier that this wheel was the ONLY thing I bought from them. Yep, I use inner tubes in EVERY tire I own that runs less than 25 mph.
 
dfrisk,good article.I agree with you--tubes in all tires that run at low speed.
Air pressure is, I think, up to you.What works best for your task is what you should run.
This applies to lawn/garden tires not road tires.
 
Great article Dennis. Also tells me how to fix my pesky periodically-flat wheelbarrow tire once and for all.
 
For me, one bottle of Slime for about $9 or the cost of one tube will fix rim and tire leaks in a dozen tires. Once in a great while it don't work and only then if I really need or want that tire does it get a tube.
 
For me, one bottle of Slime for about $9 or the cost of one tube will fix rim and tire leaks in a dozen tires. Once in a great while it don't work and only then if I really need or want that tire does it get a tube.

That stuff is a great way to make a rim so pitted and rusty you'll never get a tire on it to hold air without a tube.
 
I am not a fan of tubes or slime but I would not try to talk anyone out of them.
tubes don't stop a puncture anymore than a tubeless tire and they are ALOT more work to repair than a tubeless tire. but if you have continued slow leaks and cannot refurb your rims, tubes are a viable solution. Slime works but the directions say it is a short term fix and should not be left in the tire long term ( i recall it saying to remove the slime and fix the leak as soon as possible) Slime should not be used with aluminum rims per the instructions. I know plenty of people will say it destroys rims. I have never experienced this but it only makes sense - it is water based. I'll deal with slime 1000 times over fix a flat.
When I get a nail or puncture on a tubeless tire I don't have to pull the tire off the vehicle or break a bead to use a plug. I would have to do that with a tube. When I change tires I media blast or wire brush the wheels and respray them. Rough count I have 28 tires running under 10 psi and not one of them leaks. ATV's, ZTR rear tires (fronts run 40 psi otherwise they come off the bead jumping curbs), two cub cadet GT's, the front of the farmall cub (rears have calcium in them so they run tubes) and two garden trailers.
If you refurb your rims and change your valves stems everytime you change your tires you should not have leaks. mount and dismount with tire spoons so you don't damage the beads. Use tire bead lube - 3 dollars at napa or soapy water to mount the tires. Lastly almost every garden tractor rim I have seen recently has a side dedicated to mounting/dismounting - the edge of the rim is rolled over much further to ease the process and reduce risk of damage to the bead.
 
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