GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

mm[_1_] · 18-12-2008, 04:22 AM posted to alt.home.lawn.garden

On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:31:22 -0500, (Herb and Eneva)
wrote:

I have an old (1990) riding mower that still performs very well. The
only problem is with the tubeless tires. They are the original ones and
are cracked and leak real bad and go flat in about 1 week.
Which would be best? A new tire for $ 40.00 or a tube for $20.00 . What
do the rest of y`all do? TIA Herb

I got a friend's motorcycle, from 1976 iirc, which he stopped riding
in 1979, and left in his parents' garage until 2006. The tires were
flat, but not that cracked. Small cracks all over the sidewall, but
not deep afaict, and nowhere else. I inflated them, and a year later
they still had the right pressure. (Just about, at least. I sort of
forgot exactly what I put in them.) Two years later they still look
the right shape.

If I get this fixed enough to ride, I'll replace the tires, but it's
still pretty good that it holds air after 29 years, including 10 or 20
resting on the sidewall.

In your case, maybe take the wheels off, inflate them and put them
under water, to see where the air is coming from. If only the border
between the rim and rubber, I guess you can keep using the tires, but
you'll have to take them and clean the rust or something from the
wheel's edge. And maybe you'll see that the tires really need
replacing when you do this. Look inside the tire and see what that
looks like.

I don't suppose your wheels have dents in the rim, but with steel (not
alloy) car rims, a few hits with the hammer in the right place can
often straighten dents. Sometimes that is where tires leak but maybe
a lawnmower can't go fast enough for that to happen.