THSCC Forums

First:
I am totally willing to donate for a THSCC RallyX airtank for the bus if it is seen as a needed item.

Now:
- Should we consider a small electric refillable airtank for the bus to help rebead tires?

I just bring this up as we look for new sites (or anywhere that isnt Bret's farm), there will be a need to help people re-bead their tires. I have a 10 gallon electric compressor I am going to be bringing this weekend as the Legacy debeaded 3 times at the last RallyX.

Just looking for some quick/realistic feedback from the group. For those who DRIVE their rallyX machine to events, that could be a real crippling thing if you debead away from 'home', or in a more 'remote' location.

- dow

Tubes are your friend. The General has yet to de-bead a tire.

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

hmmm... never thought about that.

- dow

I don't think that a tank/compressor is the key thing here. More useful would be a bead braker to get the bead open to clean out the dirt.

Anders

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Lina Racing: As Seen On Radio

Hey, you must have done this before.

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

I agree to a point. Still, trying to repump a tire to 50 psi in any decent amount of time after flattening it (especially if it happens more than once) is just highly time consuming.

I guess I should just look at better 'prep' to avoid the problem.

Thanks for all the input!

- dow

At any rallycross there will probably be 3-4 air tanks and 4-5 small 12v pumps. Someone will have one. I agree that it might be slow on occasion.

But there are zero bead breakers.

I used to have a manual one, I must have given it away, as I have it no longer. I was thinking about bolting it to the trailer. *That* would be handy.

Anders

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Lina Racing: As Seen On Radio

What he said ^


As the official tire re-beader at the BMW farm- I can tell you from experience that if you get dirt in between the bead of the tire and the rim, you need to break the bead- then blow or brush out all of that dirt before you will be able to get the tire to hold air again.

I fixed several tires at the last rally cross where it seemed like the tire must have rolled over enough to allow dirt to get packed in there on one of the turns (check out Kevin's pics....), then when it rolled back to "normal", the dirt was trapped, thus allowing air to leak out. We tried simply re-inflating the tire, but that did not work until we broke the bead, got the dirt out and re-inflated.

At least a couple of the guys who had trouble stated that they were running ~40 psi in the tires before the trouble. Installing tubes is probably a good idea for a Rally beater....Wonder if some of that sticky "bead sealer" would help???

Bret.

I bring a spare tire. I've also got the donut spare I could get home on if I debeaded the primary spare too.

You POS class drivers might want to look into onboard air:
http://www.jedi.com/obiwan/jeep/yorkair.html

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

The only problem with tubes is if the bead lets go on the wheel then you could easily rip the valve stem out of the tube when the tire spins on the wheel. I speak from experience. That is my only reason for not wanting tubes.

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2010 Honda Fit Sport
Couple of bicycles

Tubes are probably your friend, but they are not bullit proof. The Dirtmaster had tubes, but sufered decompression at the yump in our last PM course.

If a tube goes flat it can only mean that there is a hole in it so refilling is not an option. The only way air gets out of an inner tube is by a hole.
Having said that, the second tire that went down on the Dirtmaster was our commuter car's spare. When we tried to reinflate that tire we found that it had been punctured, so there must have been at least one sharp, pointy thing out in the pasture. Once the tire was a little low on air, the yump finished it off.
We were lucky enough to get a valve stem installed in the original wheel after working the leaky tube out. Thanks Bret.
Charlie Guthrie
DirtMaster 1600

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1998 BMW Z3
1987 BMW 325is
2000 BMW
1996 F250 Turbo Diesel

Wow Charlie, you MUST be an engineer to arrive at that conclusion!

PS. The only way air escapes from ANYTHING is a through a hole!

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Vincent Keene
'06 Ford Mustang GT (track rat)
'15 Dodge Charger R/T (yeah, it's got a HEMI!)
'07 Ford Fusion SE (205,000 miles and counting)
'98 Chevy Z-24 (retired)
'93 Acura Integra (Team SWB 24HOL Car)

I disagree. Please explain your definition of "hole"....the way I see it, air could also escape through a cut, crack, split, slit or a leaky valve stem.

Maybe Rich could quote some DOT studies, and then Mike could post up a few links to help explain.......

Ooh, so tempting! But, in keeping with this wisdom, I'm going to keep mine shut!

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

Maybe what we need is a rallyx school, so that all you yahoos will quit debeading your tires.