Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I have a snowblower with 1 tire that is cracked on the side-wall.  I can see bubbles coming from the cracks. This is a small tubeless 4.10 tire with a plastic rim. The bolt that holds the rim is sized in the axel and the rim is plastic no way of applying heat to the bolt.  What would be the best way to collapse the tire so I can stuff an inner tube?  I am assuming I can do this with-out breaking the rim. Or should I use that slime and hope for the best.

I've used stuff similar to Slime.  It's called EZ Seal sold at CTC.   It works well on sealing the bead and small holes.   However, with leaking side walls, you will have to put the machine on it's side to allow the Slime to make contact with the sidewalls inside the the tire.   Put three or four oz. into the tire, put the core back into the valve and pressurize.  Lean the machine on it's side and spin the wheel to spread the slime.  Lean machine to the other side and repeat.  It will work if you can get the Slime into the cracks/pinholes. 

It has been 5 years since I gave the tires on my mower the treatment - no problems since.  My problems were with small punctures.  As Borat sas, you gotta make sure it coats the problem areas.  With cracked sidwalls I'm not sure it would work cause of the continual flexing but it is worth a try.

I had some dry-rotting tires on my sears tractor leaking air, so here's how I fixed it in about 15 minutes.

1) Get a bicycle tube repair kit, and use the patch over the outside of the tire. Each works a little differently, but all basically the same. When you're done, you'll have a patch on the outside of the tire.

2) Then use the stuff you get at the auto store, the quick leak stuff. Shake it up. On older tires, you make have an issue with the valve; I had to replace mine.

3) Run the unit around to let the "stuff" get all over the inside of the tire.

Now before anybody criticizes my method, keep in mind the impact of a blow-out on a tractor going 5 MPH or a snow thrower going 1-2 MPH will likely not be catastrophic, so there's almost no down side to this. Oh, and I've coaxed another 3 years of life out of the tire as well.

l would highly recommend installing tubes, u dont half to remove the rim just let the air out un bead the tire by pushing the bead inward from the rim, push the tube under the tire but make sure u dont pinch the tube with anything SHARPE. thats what l do with leaky tires when the rim cant be removed, in my experience with using "stop leak products" is they work maybe at best 50% of time so in my opinion not a very reliable repair.