[Cloxxki]

The just showed a moon exploring vehicle. It didn't have air tires, as those would only explode in vacume. Is that true? I would just guess that they'd need less air molecules to be inflated sufficiently...

On some polar 4x4 trip, they had a cool trick to seat tires onto rims. They sprayed the beads with lighter fuel...and lit it! The air in the tire, which was quite loose on the rim, heated up instantaniously, expanded, and seat the tire at probably very low psi. I take they then just aired up the seated tire.

Don't try this at home folks! ...but I just might, with an old rim and tire...in the middle of a sandpit, extinguisher ready :-D

 

[Chief Bulging Calves]

I don't know where but I've seen that done before. I think it might be a backwoods standard for tire installation. It's got the makings of a perfect night of fun - flammable liquids, automobile parts, fire, lots of busch beer and the potential for disaster.

 

[RobW]

Years ago I worked at a place where we maintained a fleet of big trucks, and we used ether to seat all the tires on the split ring rims. A little too much and they go airborne!

 

[Mtc]

There was a show where they took two modified Toyota landcruisers across one of the poles. They ran the air pressure very low to drive on the ice and snow. When they would pull a tire off the rim(accidientally) they would use the earlier mentioned technique to remount the tire. They didn't add air.

 

[SpinWheelz]

Cloxxki, you can't throw out a story about lighter fluid and making fires and not expect us to try it out at home.

 

[Cloxxki]

Mtc, that's the one I saw probably. It was only a few minutes item in a show on 4WD'd.

It does sound like loads of fun and a great reason to whreck an old wheel+tire, right?

 

[toones]

I used to run an auto repair shop where we did lots of tire installs, in our training manuals sent from corporate they mention doing that for car tires. In the mandatory "never-do-this-because-we-don't-want-you-to-blow-yourself-up" section risk management included. I guess the shrapnel from a car tire exploding wouldn't be too fun to be standing next to, I don't know about bike tires though.

Sounds like a weekend project next time I need tires mounted. Definitely a "hey y'all, watch this!" kind of moment.

 

[Chief Bulging Calves]

Years ago I worked at a place where we maintained a fleet of big trucks, and we used ether to seat all the tires on the split ring rims. A little too much and they go airborne!

That's where I thought I had seen it. It was some really big industrial tires, like a dumptruck or earth moving equipment.

 

[Mr.Moto]

More on those moon vehicles...

The lunar rover tires were a design of weight, durability, and reliability. The tires are made of a mesh steel design on an aluminum rim. The tires had to survive the rough terrain of the moon for a limited period of time while being light enough to be shipped all the way to the moon. Since the moon has 1/6 the gravity of earth they only had to support an equivalent of about 120 kg max. An inflatable tire would mean more weight and potential problems while non-inflatable tires = 0 maintenance. Comfort was secondary, especially since the didn't go very fast.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo_lrv.html

The rover was ahead of its time....they skipped right over 29ers and went right for the 32 inch by a whopping 9 inch wide tire!

 

[Cloxxki]

If any fire fighter is watching this thread...gear up and make this happen with an mtb tire for, pretty please? It's probably smart to throw a rope throught the wheel locked to the ground to prevent any attemps front he tire to reach orbit.

I wonder, how long would the tire stay seated after the flames die out? I would say there would be fewer air molecules in the tire than at 0 psi/outdoor temperature?