I have had mixed results replacing the rubber tires on my Laguna LT18 450. This model was manufactured in Italy; mine was made in 1994. The urethane tire that I had lying around forever would not stay on the top wheel.
The first rubber tire would not take a crown using 80 grit stearate treated sand paper glued to a board. The tire remained flat in the center even though I spent hours spinning the wheel by hand. So I moved on to the lower wheel. While it was spinning under power, the sand paper also would not remove material except a slight amount from the very edge which appeared polished. I saw elsewhere that some have used a lathe chisel to cut away the surface. This did work but the chisel grabbed several times and took some small divots.
I ordered a new pair of tires and began again and had the same problem using the sand paper. It just would not cut the rubber even though I kept replacing it with fresh stock. Finally, I tried a rasp. It was the cat’s meow and cut away the rubber in a matter of minutes. I used an inexpensive one that I have had for over 30 years and kept it moving slightly as it cut in order to avoid tracks in the rubber which can be a problem with machine made rasps. Maybe others have used this technique. I would highly recommend it.
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