What do you think of this wheelbarrow hack idea

[Jim Koepke]

Often with a tubeless tire that has gone flat the bead is broken and it is a bit of a pain to get the bead to reset to pump in air.

One trick that can work is to tie a loop of rope around the tire with a good piece of wood under the rope. Twist the stick around to sinch up the rope and this will usually squash the tire all around the rim so the bead sets and allows the air to be pumped in to inflate the tire. Unwind the rope and remove it as the tire inflates.

jtk

[Tom M King]

That's the same method I've always used too for small tires. With a tube in one, it doesn't matter if the bead has come unseated.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Small tire wrestling would be an interesting sport. The things are tough to work on. An 8 inch 9 ply is a formidable enemy. I have some 10 inch 10 ply's. I can't work on them.

[Tom M King]

Proper tire irons make it pretty easy. The center part of the rim is smaller diameter for a reason. Get the bead in that small diameter area on one side, and the other side will come over the edge of the rim easily. Once you get that side over the edge of the rim with a tire iron, slide the tire irons around to bring the rest of it over. To put it back on, just do the opposite. It’s pretty easy after you do it a couple of times.

Many have been done with just a screwdriver, but the flat spoon part of a tire iron works so much easier. Tire irons come in a bunch of different sizes.

[Tom M King]

10” 10 plys do sound pretty tough. You probably need to be heavy with small feet to stand on one. Soft wheelbarrow tires are easy.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

This thread has me realizing how much the bicycle and the wheel barrow have in common... How to move a fairly big load with a very limited supply of watts. Getting dropped on a bike ride is almost as humiliating as dropping your loaded wheel barrow while trying to run up a plank. Having the right tire on often makes the difference between success and failure.

[Warren Lake]

years ago I on one visit to the tool and die makes shop I noticed his mower and thought odd it has air wheels. He lived on 16 acres, long winding driveway through forest till up to the home he built. Lots of long grass around and no real lawn he put air wheels on his mower and pushing it I got it right away. i asked him to make bolts for mine and put air wheels smaller but still air on mine,. The difference was huge

Years later a friend bought me a Toro personal Pace. Good mower took me four years to burn it out. The personal pace compared to set a speed was a great thing but it never a perfect mower, A perfect mower would have air wheels Plastic wheels suck and I never knew how bad till trying that mower with air tires. First one ive ever seen.

Do have one of a neighbours I use and the wheels are much wider and round and it moves decent. It also has personal pace but tis fairly worn and check in and out as it pleases. still not as good as air wheels

I get that it would be extra work and cost and reliability issues to make air wheels on a walk behind mower but air wheels would make it better than any competitors product.


Just replaced the air tire on my neighbours really old wheel barrow that has lots of history on it. They gave it to me years back. At the store I asked and thankfully got a guy who past life had been a car mechanic and self employed till he retired. He said right away customers buy the solid wheels and are fine on concrete then are unhappy when they go across a lawn. Will see how long this air wheel lasts. Not sure if it has a tube or not, this post was just after I bought the wheel but think Tom said he has inner tubes in his air tires. Ill take the old one apart and see if it had an inner tube or not think it did

[glenn bradley]

Like Jim, I went with a soft, non-pneumatic tire on the wheel barrow years ago. Well worth it.

[Terry Wawro]

Are tubeless tires glued to the rim? I just had to buy a new 16 inch tire/rim combo for my wheelbarrow. Was going to insert a a tube but gave up because I could not break the bead, even using a vise.

[Tom M King]

They're not glued. It's just stuck from whatever is on the rubber when they are new. I use a big C-clamp and blocks of wood if standing on it won't pop the bead loose if the big dead blow hammer is not handy. Once it comes off in one place, the rest will come on off. You can slip a tube inside the tire with just one side broken loose, but for the tiny tires it's easier to get one side over the outside of the rim.

Do check the rim to see if there is weld spatter around the inside from where the manufacturer welding the two halves together. Older ones didn't have this problem, but I guess they don't care so much any more and the last new ones I opened up I took the tire all the way off and ground down the spatter with a flap wheel on a side grinder. The last several new ones I've opened up had weld spatter just painted over. I didn't bother to paint the inside since the only rusted out wheelbarrow wheels I've ever had rusted from the outside in.

The tubeless stem can just be sliced off with a utility knife, but I like to get the nub out of the inside too.

When pouring concrete, the rule was if you spill it you clean it up. No one would use the non-pneumatic tired one after one use, so I just gave it away to one of the guys to move firewood with at his house.

[Alex Zeller]

If you decide to put a tube in it remove the tire first and check the wheel. Wheelbarrow wheels are very poorly made. It's not uncommon for them to have poor welds holding the two halves together. I poor weld can puncture the tube. My father went through this for years.

If you go the flat proof route make sure you get the correct size, not just tire size but axle as well. My father tried going that route but couldn't get the bearings off the wheel. That's when he came to me. I have the proper tools (bearing separator and hydraulic press). If I was going this route I would look into one of the dual wheel conversion kits. I've seen them on Amazon for less than $50. I don't know how strong the axle is though. It could bend if you tend to load the wheelbarrow up.

The real answer is to buy a Kubota, lol, and not struggle with a wheelbarrow.

[Bill George]

I got tired of WB tire going flat and purchased a new wheel with mounted solid soft no air tire. Had it for 20 years or so, no complaints.

[George Yetka]

When it comes to labor never short yourself. I would pick up a premium wheel.

When I bought my current property I bought a utility quad after the first time I weeded and had to pull a gorilla cart 1000' uphill to the back woods 20 times. I bought it the day after I finished everything hurt. Now air in the tires is pretty irrelevant. I financed it for 2 years at less than 1% so it didnt hurt too bad.

[George Yetka]

As far as the hack goes. If you are moving garden clipping and other light stuff it may work fine. but fillit with dirt/stone/concrete and I think it will flatten pretty quickly. you can pretty easily flatten it by hand when its solid.

[Bill George]

I purchased the solid tire on the new wheel 20 years ago for use down to our lake place. Its moved a lot of dirt and gravel where my ATV or tractor could not get in with my trailer. The was the same WB my dad had on the farm back in the 1960’s.