This is driving me crazy. One of my snowthrower's tires has a _really_ slo w leak. I've pumped it up to like 70lbs and put it under water and there a re no bubbles. However, if I wait a few weeks sure enough the thing is los ing air. Nothing like snowthrowing in 10 degree weather with one low tire pulling to the left, might work well for a Nascar track, not so much for a straight driveway :-) Any debugging ideas?
Could be porosity in the wheel or tire, not enough to show a bubble, but enough to seep over time.
I had a wheelbarrow tire in a similar situation. I finally just tossed it and bought a new wheel and tire at Tractor Supply.
Had that with a car tire.
Two weeks to notice slight deflation. No air bubble when tested.
Had a mechanic replace the valve stem and no more leak!
Today 90%+ of snow blower tires are tubeless. A leak around the stem is VERY common. The rubber hardens with age, and the rim rusts. Pop out the stem, clean up the rim around the hole, and install a new stem. Leaking at the bead is also common. Break the bead (you need to do this on at least one side to replace the stem anyway), clean the bead with course sandbaler and coat with bead sealer.
I solved the problem for good ( for me) when I bought a track-drive blower. Solved the problem with the friction drive slipping when it gets wet too, when I bought that track-drive blower with Hydrostatic drive!!
Don't know but mine went flat a couple of years ago and I had to remove it to inflate it. When I went to use it several months later, it would not move and taking apart I discovered that little disk that transfers motion from gears to wheels had fallen off and got lost. Took half day to fix the damn thing.
+1 on the valve stem/core. The lazy approach is to put in a few ounces of Slime if you have some way of spinning the tire to distribute it.
Not much good on a smowblower tire as it all settles at the bottom and freezes - - -
The idea is to be proactive and get it to seal the nooks and crannies before the snow flies.
Someone had tried it on my old snowblower - the tires kept going flat so I took them off to fix - they were loaded with tire sealer and were leaking at the stem. I replaced the stems AND the tires (with deep lug tires so I didn't need to use chains any more) - about 5 years before I got rid of it. I then used a small trackdrive Noma for a few years until I bought my Yamaha Hydro Track drive.
tires has a _really_ slow leak. I've pumped it up to like 70lbs and put it under water and there are no bubbles. However, if I wait a few weeks sure enough the thing is losing air. Nothing like snowthrowing in 10 degree weather with one low tire pulling to the left, might work well for a Nascar track, not so much for a straight driveway :-) Any debugging ideas?
Try less than 70. If it's a rim leak, the 70 may be sealing the rim.
I'm out of my league here; my snowblower is about 3' long and has a handle on one end. Well, some of them do. Those nolded plastic handles they use now just don't hold up.
If spare wheels are cheaply available ($5 top $10 here) the simplest solution is to buy one, fit it as needed, and keep the leaky wheel in the back of the car until you next get to a gas station and fill it to 70 psi.
I had a car tire losing perhaps 5 pounds a week. If I laid it flat and applied soapy water, I could find slow leaks, not always at the same place.
After fooling with it for years, I got "Autoguard Quick Flat Fix" at the corner store. I'd read that the new stuff is better: doesn't cause explosions, doesn't damage rubber, doesn't harden. I had the car jacked up. To distribute the sealer around the bead, I'd rotate the wheel 180 degrees every few minutes. It worked.
Then I got an old mower with a front tire that had been leaking for years. I couldn't stop it, so I bought another can of Flat Fix. This time, it was the can with the clear hose to allow me to apply what I needed. I'd weigh the can, squirt some in the tire, and weigh it again.
I think I applied an ounce. I applied another ounce when the leak recurred. No more trouble. When the opposite tire began to leak, an ounce fixed it. I guess it's been a year with no problems. The can is ready.
The flat is at the bottom, six o'clock.
I had much the same problem. While I pride myself on my ability to analyze and fix pretty much anything (I'm a Dad - it's what we do!), I'm just not inclined to spend the time or energy to fix every damn thing in sight anymore. So I bought an inner tube at Harbor Freight for $2.99. Problem solved!
It probably doesn't make a lot of difference on a snowthrower, but did you drill the tire? If not, monitor the pressure for a while. You can wind up with air in the tube, and air within the tubeless tire if the bead seals while you're inflating the tube. The air within the tire will still slowly leak out so the pressure within the tube will drop. Sooner or later it will stabilize.
Drill the tire?? That's foolishness. you need to break the bead to install the tube. The tube will force 99%+ of the "trapped air" out before the bead seats. Anyone who says you eed to "drill" a tire to let the trapped air out has found some pretty good "shit" to smoke!!!
There must have beem a lot of good shit back in the day.
"Problem solved!" means exactly that. The problem was solved for $2.99 and about 10 minutes to install the tube. Sometimes, if it seems too good to be true, it's still true. ;)
I'll admit, I was also wondering. The once or twice I've been aware of inner tubes, nothing like that was needed.
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