road and workshop
Page 48
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by Handyman
Tyre bills — polythene sheeting will protect covers
• Always give the remoulder a dry casing • Watch your repairer at work • Buy a tyre inflation cage WHEN removed tyres are being handled from a stack in the open in a transport yard, to be sorted for remould or repair, one may sometimes see the collecting driver take avoiding action as several gallons of water spills out towards him as the tyres are pulled down! Water, of course, will damage the tyre casings and can result in the remould suffering a bad "take", early failure, or rejection. All casings stored in the open should be safeguarded, an easy job in these days of polythene sheeting available often at nil cost.
It is important to hand over dry casings at all times and give the remoulder the best possible chance for a sound remould. If obliged to store tyres in the open, select the higher side of the yard, if there is one, and not that low, dead ground that floods, collects oil, spilled anti-freeze, snow, etc, and is generally of no use to anyone else. Remember you are storing potentially valuable stock and it should not take second or third place to discarded oil drums, old timber dunnage or scrap; make certain that your tyre storage point is as good as it should be, even if it must be out in the open. If a damp place is unavoidable, then at least obtain or make up suitable duckboards that will lift the casings clear of the ground and let air underneath.
A further point sometimes overlooked or not considered of particular importance is the safety factor in tyre repair. Have a look at your tyre fitter at work. Is he working safely, or taking risks when inflating newly built-up wheels? Serious or even fatal injuries have occurred just because safety measures were either not provided or ignored as time wasting.
The danger lies in rushed assemblies, often against the clock, where inflation is started with the locking rim facing the operator. Whereas most commercial tyres will seat correctly on the rim, it is, however, a matter of critical importance that the locking rim should also drop correctly into its seating and lock evenly as pressure is applied. A mistake often made is to mount the tyre and lock rim, then turn the wheel with the rim away from the operator and inflate from the opposite side. This appears a safe move, but in fact the rim can fail to bed fully and is a potential danger, either at that moment when being mounted on the vehicle or later on the road.
No safe side A point to remember is that there is no safe side to stand when inflating a newly built-up wheel standing vertically, as in the event of the lock rim blowing out through malfitting the wheel itself can be propelled out of the tyre with considerable force should it be a free fit, coated with chalk or rubber lubricant.
Buy a good, solid tyre inflation cage, and secure it to a wall or girder, so that the fitter can have the rim in full view as the first few pounds of air take up the slack — he can then give the rim a tap as required to ensure that it is hard home, and watch the inflation up to full pressure in complete safety and as a result is more likely to do a better job.
Danger lies in rushed tyre changes where the lock rim and its seating in the wheel centre is not cleansed of rust and scale, as the rim will invariably be placed in a new position and unable to click into place owing to the debris. But once the cage has been provided it must be used, not just be left for the benefit of a visiting Ectory or safety inspector. The hardest task will be to guarantee the full use of the tyre cage, and it may need the introduction of one or two of those rather horrific accident posters to get the message across.
If building up wheels for stock, inflate tyres to full pressure and allow to stand overnight; check the following day to ensure air tightness and if the tyre is to be stored reduce the pressure 30 per cent or so for the duration of storage. The tubeless tyre scores hands down on safety, as there are no separate rims and flanges to line up or go shooting into space; thus there will be no damage from misdirected hammer blows, etc. Wheel balancing is made all that easier without the loose rims, flap and tube, and my information is that wheels remain in balance for longer periods with the tubeless tyre.