• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

#@$!!*! ATV tires

henzilla

not so retired
Staff member
Spent good part of day changing our Kawa Mule tires out...figure the Dunlops were done after 12 seasons :brow
Two recent flats had me finally getting around to them.

Had purchased ATV adapter bead breaker to fit our NoMar as the regular foot just laughed at me the other day when I first tried. It helped, but the tires after that long were a little stubborn, well very stubborn. Got three done with some fine language, the fourth needed some convincing with a Sawzall,chisel and wire cutters on the bead. I'm not enjoyng my day at this point.

After mounting the new tires, setting the bead on cold stiff tires was not happening easily either. Found the starting fluid and my safety glasses and scared the dogs on the first WHOOM...never saw them the rest of afternoon. No matter how many times you do or see that method, it gets your attention:rofl

Have made the decision I will not be volunteering to change any more ATV tires and maybe move the Mule up on tire changeout list in the future.

Pictures would have helped, but no one needed to see any of that :banghead
 
A few years ago I volunteered to swap out some ATV tires. I gave up! I couldn't break the beads with my tire changer and the soft side walls.

Later I was told to put 1-2 PSI in them and then break the bead. When you get the first side done, the second can be tricky as you want to put air in it again, but not set the bead you just popped of.
 
At the moment I do not have an ATV. I do have, of all stupid things in the desert, a garden tractor. It has two-piece wheels that bolt together in the center. Other than some rust it is OK wheel wise.

If I did have an ATV I would put the whole thing up on blocks, take off all the wheels, and take the 4 wheels to the tire store. I would then say "I'll be back when these have 4 new tires."

I am now 74 years old and not interested in a lot of this stuff any more. I am positive YMMV!
 
I tried the 3 psi and it helped, and gave up trying to reset the bead to do the flip side. These worn out tires just did not cooperate. Kind of like a very worn rear tire that collapses in the center when trying to demount on the NoMar...aggravating.

I looked at the bead buster as well and wanted to try the NoMar bead adapter first as it was cheaper. I might add that to my gear though as I still have a lot of stuff around here with smaller wheels and that was not fun.
I remember that older thread and your rusty rim!
 
At the moment I do not have an ATV. I do have, of all stupid things in the desert, a garden tractor. It has two-piece wheels that bolt together in the center. Other than some rust it is OK wheel wise.

If I did have an ATV I would put the whole thing up on blocks, take off all the wheels, and take the 4 wheels to the tire store. I would then say "I'll be back when these have 4 new tires."

I am now 74 years old and not interested in a lot of this stuff any more. I am positive YMMV!

I get that and almost did it on wheel #2. My local tire guy would laugh as he knows I do a lot of bike tires...and he would enjoy taking my money! I did that on the RV tires recently...I have a breaking point now.
This ATV/Mule is our wheelbarrow most of the time and has paid for itself time and time again
 
When my ATV needs tires I will probably take them to a shop. I changed one a long time ago and it was ugly. Ours is used primarily as a snow plow and general utility vehicle. Getting a big workout in the snow pushing business. After a mild winter up thru January, February saw over 800% the average snowfall and temperatures uniformly 25-40 degrees below average.
 
I also had sticker shock on a set of tires...anywhere from $140+ to $65ish EACH. Thinking about the folks who run Razor type four wheelers hard and going thru tires regularly. Bad enough with our cluster of two wheelers, but used to that common expense

Settled on a set for around $250. The local tire shop had a set for a skid steer/Bobcat sitting on the floor... $900 , so no complaints here!
 
If you do these yourself you have the opportunity to scrape some knuckles, exercise some technical language, remember why you don't really like to do this yourself.....and.....check and see how the rims are, scrape or wire-brush the rims, change the valve stems and know how the job was done. Some of the tires With some of the tires I have done lately, the supplier was happy with the sale but when I asked about them doing it the response was not favorable. It's the tube-type that really wear me down. Having to be so careful....It's such a good feeling when I haven't pinched a tube :dance :dance
OM
 
:scratch
The winter I picked up a barely used 2005 Honda Rancher 400 is wearing the stock tires. It's got about 2500 miles on it and I know the tires are due for changing at some time in the near future, as our cabin is right on a ATV trail that we can ride to town, 5 miles away, for groceries, or more importantly, BEER. It's mostly asphalt, so I know it's going to eat these up pretty fast.

Normally I change my own tires, and I guess I'd forgotten how much I swore at changing the tires on my old Honda EX300 years ago.. Thank you all for reminding me.. I think I'll swallow my pride and just take it to the local shop and let them swear at them.. They've been on for 14 years, so I'm betting the beads are damn near glued to the rim..:thumb
 
Yeah, that 2007 of ours still had tread, but, the sidewalls had some serious cracking and I should have changed sooner from age. That stuck one was seriously stuck in place.I probably spent nearly two hours removing and installing on that ONE rim:banghead

I don't mind doing the emergency repair and would help a neighbor...but geez that was a serious chore this time and do not plan on repeating.
 
Thought I was going to explode the other morning after replacing tires and needing the Mule...a FLAT tire:banghead It had a load of limestone rocks in it of course, so pushing it to the compressor wasn't happening. Find portable tank, air it up and head back to Mule parking spot.

Aired it up and used it for chores, parked and came out to it sitting on rim again the next morning..WTF:scratch
Aired up, sprayed soap solution around bead, pulled wheel and sprayed backside, put in pool to find slow leak( a chore in itself with an ATV balloon tire)..nothing...Now holding air. Can only think the bead wasn't completely set and my soap solution and over-inflating got it set fully. Lifes mysteries.

It held the last two days...but after posting this I am surely jinxing myself.
 
Thought I was going to explode the other morning after replacing tires and needing the Mule...a FLAT tire:banghead It had a load of limestone rocks in it of course, so pushing it to the compressor wasn't happening. Find portable tank, air it up and head back to Mule parking spot.

Aired it up and used it for chores, parked and came out to it sitting on rim again the next morning..WTF:scratch
Aired up, sprayed soap solution around bead, pulled wheel and sprayed backside, put in pool to find slow leak( a chore in itself with an ATV balloon tire)..nothing...Now holding air. Can only think the bead wasn't completely set and my soap solution and over-inflating got it set fully. Lifes mysteries.

It held the last two days...but after posting this I am surely jinxing myself.

You don't live in Shorty's neighborhood do you?
 
Thought I was going to explode the other morning after replacing tires and needing the Mule...a FLAT tire:banghead It had a load of limestone rocks in it of course, so pushing it to the compressor wasn't happening. Find portable tank, air it up and head back to Mule parking spot.

Aired it up and used it for chores, parked and came out to it sitting on rim again the next morning..WTF:scratch
Aired up, sprayed soap solution around bead, pulled wheel and sprayed backside, put in pool to find slow leak( a chore in itself with an ATV balloon tire)..nothing...Now holding air. Can only think the bead wasn't completely set and my soap solution and over-inflating got it set fully. Lifes mysteries.

It held the last two days...but after posting this I am surely jinxing myself.

Have you irritated H? I mean more than the normal not insignificant amount of irritation. Has she disappeared for a few minutes each evening for no apparent reason? Check for footprints around the mule.
 
Her response was asking what did I do to tire or rim :stick

Her sideline coaching is usually very..."helpful" :banghead

Holding air still
 
Back
Top