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Mysterious flat tire

RenoHuskerDu

RenoHuskerDu

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2018
Messages
359
Location
Texas
I suspect that some idiot was trying to steal one of my pickups and they got scared off the other night. I found some things disturbed. The foot of my gooseneck was uncoupled, and the toolbox on the front of my dovetail was opened, the one where I stow chain binders. But the pickup alarm went off and I came out about a minute later with a weapon-mounted light. I didn't look too hard cuz I never suspected anybody way out here in the country trying to steal a pickup. But the next morning I also found one of the tires on my maintainer almost completely flat. It has a slow leak but I just filled it a few days before. Is that something that these big old R4 tires will do? IMG_20200504_104052.jpg
 
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Ronsii

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2011
Messages
3,464
Location
Western Washington
Occupation
s/e Heavy equipment operator
You're not hinting that they stole the air because they couldn't get anything else are you???


;)

Air under pressure always wants out... sooner or later tires just let do it's thing :) but yeah... like BLS says check it with some sudsy water. -- no not beer....
 
T

Tenwheeler

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
870
Location
Georgia
I have been told " Sometimes they just go flat like that for no reason at all ".
First thing in the morning trailer was backed up to the door. It always parked in the lot there. Checked it, broke it down, then checked the tube and found nothing wrong. Then that bit of wisdom was shared with me. I put it back together and he left.
Later an old timer explained that to me. "He was late for work. Let the air out of the tire and waited for the shop to open. That way he was not written up for being late." No phones and such back then.
Glad all you are missing is some air.
 
RenoHuskerDu

RenoHuskerDu

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2018
Messages
359
Location
Texas
Ronsii said:
You're not hinting that they stole the air because they couldn't get anything else are you???
;)
Air under pressure always wants out... sooner or later tires just let do it's thing :) but yeah... like BLS says check it with some sudsy water. -- no not beer....
Click to expand...

Dayam! They stole my air! And that was factory air from a fully factory equipped air conditioned factory...
 
D

DIYDAVE

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
Messages
2,419
Location
MD
I see some dry rot in that tire, them kinda leaks can come and go, dependin on which side of the tire has weight on it, when parked... If it leaks down, with the valve at say 12:00, mark, rotate a quarter turn, and let set a couple days, repeat as nec, to narrow down which 1/4 of the tire has the leak. Or just tube it, and be done with it...;)
 
RenoHuskerDu

RenoHuskerDu

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2018
Messages
359
Location
Texas
DIYDAVE said:
I see some dry rot in that tire, them kinda leaks can come and go, dependin on which side of the tire has weight on it, when parked... If it leaks down, with the valve at say 12:00, mark, rotate a quarter turn, and let set a couple days, repeat as nec, to narrow down which 1/4 of the tire has the leak. Or just tube it, and be done with it...;)
Click to expand...

I was thinking about Sliming it, but Tractor Supply is out of the big gallon bottles. Thanks for the other tip to try. Those suckers have 9 lugs, never seen that before. My 1 ton dually has 8 lugs and my F550 has 10 lugs.
 
RenoHuskerDu

RenoHuskerDu

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2018
Messages
359
Location
Texas
hosspuller said:
Darn thing about tubes in tires. The valve stem hole gets rusty and pitted. Then when a new tire is purchased, the air gets out around the valve. Of course, my backhoe is about 30 years old.
Click to expand...

I have a similar issue with chrome wheels. Sooner or later that chrome flakes around the valve stem. I have one truck with Chinese flashy chrome wheels, the previous owner PO put them on. The tire store had to slather some sealing stuff around every darn valve stem. Bet that would work on our machines too.
 
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Delmer

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
8,891
Location
WI
hosspuller said:
Darn thing about tubes in tires. The valve stem hole gets rusty and pitted. Then when a new tire is purchased, the air gets out around the valve. Of course, my backhoe is about 30 years old.
Click to expand...

Put some silicone around the stem if you're that worried. A little rust around the valve stem hole is pretty minor in the world of things that can go bad on tires like this.

If you go with tubes, spend a little extra and get Firestones or similar. I've stopped using Asian tubes, even Korean. It's either reuse the old one from good old US of A, even if it's red rubber, or pay the extra $10 to get a firestone.
 
H

hosspuller

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2014
Messages
1,872
Location
North Carolina
Delmer said:
Put some silicone around the stem if you're that worried. A little rust around the valve stem hole is pretty minor in the world of things that can go bad on tires like this.
Click to expand...

If I were the person doing the work... silicone is easy to do. But, the tire place refuses to do anything besides replace the wheel.

Lawyers and liability are the death of repair. :( They have made our legal system into a lottery. :mad:

So I took the wheel home, used epoxy to build up the area, shaped the hole smooth & painted it. Tire place then remounted wheel and valve.
 
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Bill Edwards

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2019
Messages
58
Location
UK
I hate slime, horrible messy stuff that makes it darn near impossible to do future repairs.
Never seems to do much to stop air escaping.

Put tubes in, until the point that the tyre isn't safe/legal.

Rusty valve holes are treated with grinders, wire wheels to make them smooth and use bead sealant on the valve. Can be built up with weld if badly pitted then dressed smooth.
Tyres, wheel rims etc aren't the most challenging repairs.
 
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