This has never happened before and I do not even know where to start? Figures it happens during the first major snow for the north east in a couple yrs,lol. Here is a LINK to the pic, anyone ever had this happen or seen this happen? Its a Cat 966B. All of a sudden the tire went flat, and it appears the hub is no linger together with the rim? Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance, Peter
That's a standard tubeless earthmover tyre. What you see that has moved are 2 pieces known respectively as the flange and the bead seat band. Whenever a tyre deflates those 2 pieces will often move away from the lock ring just as your photo shows. If you're not confident in doing the job yourself then get the complete wheel and tyre off the machine and take it to a company specializing in off-road tires, or have them come to you if they do a mobile service. your call, but I'd recommend to check how much they are going to charge for a site visit first .......... it might just make you take a deep breath.
Exactly what Nige said, but I would add the heartfelt caution that if you don't know what you are doing, find out. If you still have doubts, get someone who does to do it. If you get it wrong and the rim blows apart when being inflated, you will go into orbit, albeit as a nasty red blob. Tyres and rims are a very serious business on trucks and machinery. If I have scared you a little, that's good. Respect for such items is important. To cut down on costs, perhaps you have the ability to remove the wheel and take it to a tyre fitter?
Thanks for the response to my cat 966 tire issue. What would cause this to happen? thanks, Peter
An air leak
It looks like you have sidewall damage at the top of the picture. Perhaps someone hit something or an older injury finally let go? It's tough to say with just one pic.
Peter, what is shown in the photo in your link is the result of the tyre deflating, not the cause. Find the reason why the tyre deflated and you're half-way to fixing the problem. It could be something as simple as the fact that the tyre itself is old (you mention it's a 966B, a fairly old machine) and the rubber has perished. It could be that the rubber o-ring seal has failed, you can check that easily because it's in a groove right behind the lock ring and the fact the flange/bead seat band assembly has moved inwards should have exposed it to view. A screwdriver should be able to dig it out, if it's all perished and cracked that might be your culprit, other than that it's the tyre that has damage somewhere that has caused it to leak. Was there any noise like a pop/bang or similar when the tyre deflated or did it just go down slowly and if the latter how long a time did it take to deflate..?
Dont even waste your time trying to fix it yourself. Call a company like petes tire barn or city tire. They do flat repairs just like that for me for around 225 bucks, you cant beat their prices..
Hopefully you have a bad o-ring , if so , replace it then air it back up. Just check the lock ring and make sure its setted good still. We go thru this when a operator lets a tire get slack on a pull pan and then gets on a steep side slope. If it doesnt want to air up and leaks , get a tube of grease and spread it thick and it will come right back on.
Peter - The 966B is fitted with 20.5 x 25 tires from memory, and you won't be able to repair it without some form of mechanical handler, they are one heavy ** of a tire and wheel. I can just handle repairing a 17.5 x 25 with something like a small forklift and some physical grunt, but a 20.5 x 25 requires all handling - even just of the bare tire - by mechanical means. What you can do initially, is strap a "tourniquet" around the center of the tire. Use a ratchet-type 2" load restraint strap, or a load chain and chain tightener. The tire beads pull in towards the center of the tire when the tire is deflated. Tighten the strap or chain once it's centred, and this will pop the beads outwards and make them seal on the rims flanges. You need to remove the valve core and pump in some serious volume of air to try and get the beads to seat. If the beads won't seat, or you find air coming from a hole in the tyre, you will have to remove the tire from the rim and find the problem - which will be either a damaged tire or a damaged o-ring seal. The inner bead is probably seated very firmly on the rim flange, and this is assisting in the outer bead pulling away from the outer rim flange once the tire has deflated. The tire beads usually seat VERY firmly on the flanges, and often a hydraulic bead breaker is needed to remove the tire beads from the rim. http://www.direct-mining.com/under-...yre-changing/earthmover-bead-breaker-imt-1000
thanks for everyones help! The o ring was pretty flat and was no longer working. Peter
So a replacement O-Ring fixed it then..? If the other 3 tyres are of a similar age then perhaps it might be an idea to look at them before they let go as well. Glad to hear it was a (relatively) cheap fix.
If whoever put the new o-ring in didn't take a wire brush to the bead seat band where it slides up and seats on the o-ring, then you most likely still have a leak. Take an empty dish soap bottle and fill it with water, then add a few drops of dish soap(Dawn works best, IMO) and squirt on the wheel where the bead band meets the lock ring.No bubbles means no leaks. Do the same to the other 3, as well as all 4 vales stems (where they are attached to the wheel) and the valve cores.
Fair advise Oz, but you forgot to mention that as soon as it starts to take air you have got to release the strap or get the hell out of Dodge FAST!! Also, that only works on bias ply tires, because they aren't made to flex. Urinating into a stiff breeze trying that on a radial tire.Break out the Murphy's.With a situation like this where only the o-ring seal is broken, all it takes is to pull the wheel parts back together because the beads are still seated to the wheel.But, proper protocol would be to disassemble and clean the wheel parts before re-assembling and inflating.In my younger days(up to age 30) I could manhandle 20.5R25 tire wheel combos no problem, but I was a stout youngster(5'11" 215lbs and no table muscle). I used to put mounted 14.00-24's(Reynolds pan spares) up onto the bed of my service truck by lifting them a few inches and bouncing them like a basketball to toss them on instead of taking the time to drop an outrigger and swing the boom around.
Tireman - Yes, I should have mentioned not to keep inflating with the strap or chain attached, after the bead has seated. We also forgot to mention how you can use an air tank bead blaster to pop the beads back on - but we won't talk about about the redneck method of filling the tire with ether and igniting it, will we? Yep, we all used to bust a gut handling earthmover tires by hand - installing big track rollers by hand - and handling fuel in 200L (55 U.S. gall) drums by lifting and rolling them around with a smooth technique. However, I'd like to think we've got past that phase - I call it my "poor & dumb" days - when I was too poor to afford handling equipment, and too young and dumb to realise there was always a smarter way of doing things.
Yeah, some numbnuts would blow himself sky high then his family would try to sue everyone. 10-4 on the young and dumb(regardless of what we were full of).:cool2