Changing Garden Tractor Rear Tires | This was harder than I thought

Here's round 2 of changing a pair of lawn tractor tires. This time its the rear tires of my lawn tractor. Getting the old tires off wasn't all that hard but when it came time to put the new ones on, thats when I ran into trouble. I couldn't get the new tires on and ended up having to have the local tire shop finish the job for me. I guess the lesson here is that sometimes we need to call for help, and it is OK for us to do that.

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#changingtires #lawnmowertires #callforbackup

[kellyb]

Mirror image of my day trying to put new tires on. Nice to see someone else who had as much trouble as I did.

[tomgoffnett]

There's no telling how many people you saved from an emergency room visit, be it a back injury, slipping and falling, getting cut etc. I'm watching this video because I'm exactly where you were at before deciding to take it to the tire shop. I'LL PAY 20-30 dollars to avoid injury all day long. Thank you for making this video and being honest with everyone. I appreciate you. Liked, subscribed, hit the notification bell.

[dougluoma]

It's all about the tools and equipment my friend, don't beat yourself up. I pay no one to do anything, if possible. Great effort and killer tires!

[eggbertfarnsworth]

As soon as I saw those new tires, I thought this will be interesting. Yet, I didn't expect defeat. You're a good and honest man to have posted this.

[James_Hough]

You push the tire that is already over the wheel down off of and past where the bead seats to where the wheel is narrower, stand on it with 1 foot or get someone else to holding it way down there. Then you will have the space to pull the other side over the rim. If the opposite side in on the bead, you will never get the other side over.

[kurtnowak]

I’m about to buy Chevron tires for my lawn tractor and wanted to know tips and tricks to do it myself. This video was very helpful. I will now take them to my local tire shop “myself”.

[rickmullins]

Same thing with me today those sidewalls are thick and firm, going to the tire shop tomorrow. Thanks.

[rbar]

A tire hammer is a life saver for mounting along with tire irons that are at least a couple feet long. Mounting the second bead is easily done with tire irons until the last bit then use the rubber headed tire hammer and pound it home.

[redflamechris]

I wish I found this sooner. I had the same exact problem and mutilated the bead. Now I have to get tubes to keep air. Gonna fold em and go to the shop. Thanks for sharing your experience. I thought it was me.

[adubs.]

Appreciate this video. It helped me get my mothers mower back in action. She had 4 dry rotted tires that would never hold air.

[logmeindangit]

It looks like the reason the second bead would not go on (at 9:10) was due to the "on" portion sitting at the wheel outer diameter. It needs to be pushed down to the smaller diameter to allow the far side to be pried over the rim. The bead has a fixed diameter, and is reinforced with steel wire, so no stretching can be done to mount it. That's the "trick" - push the far side of bead #2 farther down to give more of that tire bead diameter to the not-yet-pried-over region.

You had the right idea using a clamp to push the bead down, but the far side of the clamp should have been placed on the steel lip of the wheel, not against the tire. Had you done that, I think you might have been able to "git-'er-done."

I'm 73, and wrestling with mounting new tires on my JD 300X series, and with 3 spoony chopsticks am able to R&R the tires, I just can't get the tires spread wide enough to touch both rims, so I can get air in and SEAT them.

In the late '60s I worked at a gas station, and we had these rings that would sit down on one side of the wheel and tire, and fill the gap so you could fill the tire, spread it, and get it to seal on the rims. It was like a tuna can with no ends, just a ring, about 6-8" tall, sheet steel with a rubber inner liner. We'd slick it up with the green juice, slip it on to fit the rim diameter, and seal against the tire just outside the bead.

Then, we'd fill air into the tire, and the ring would slide up the rim as the tire ballooned to touch the rim.

They worked, but were dangerous, which is probably why they aren't around today.

But I have straps on the middle of the tread, pulled as tight as I can get them, and that STILL leaves the bead an inch from the rim.

I know the starter fluid trick, but don't want to do that except as a last resort.

[Jocitbutryit]

Been in this predicament before. I too don’t like to fold especially when the cost for simple things to be fixed. The machine literally has the capacity to apply the pressure onto the rubber tire that muscles just can’t. Also I hate having to spend ridiculous amounts to have a machine do something simple in a couple seconds. I understand shops are there to make a profit but considering it’s a machine doing simple tasks such as this one the price is hard for me to swallow sometimes because it not a hard job for machine to complete. It’s literally worth $5-10 bucks even with today’s inflation. Of course, this is my opinion on certain issues not everything we have to over pay for. Thanks for sharing your video.

[philliphunt]

I was yesterday and today in your spot. Saw a guy that made a tire rim holder from an all thread and a vise. he bolted the hub to the vise putting the all thread thru the hub to keep it from moving. Then he used vise grips to help guide the tire towards the center of the rim. The vise grips also kept it from slipping back off. I fought with 2 tires yesterday and using a vise and an all thread bolt was able to put both tires on in a few minutes, I had spent HOURS trying yesterday and this morning and would get almost half way on then something would slip. All thread to hold the hub stationery and a push on the tire to force it to sit in the center of the hub allowed it to work easily

[ernestanderson]

Oh yeah.. “Game Over” for me. With watching your video I thought there was a glimmer of hope. The 2 ply’s came off somewhat easy. HOWEVER….. trying to get the 4 ply’s on was a real challenge. So off to the Lawn & Power Equipment shop to let them mount them.

[tvs]

I feel your pain, brother, as I wrestled with putting a tube in a rear, lawn tractor tire today. I did buy the Harbor Freight mini tire changer kit but with limited space around my vice I ended up using a carpenter's flat bar-nail puller tool to get the tire down inside the rim. All was looking good and I was quite pleased as I pumped in the air and it got hard. As I reached for the valve cap, something very odd and unexpected happened. As I reached down to screw the valve cap on, the valve stem slowly receeded inside the rim and disappeared. It's gone down under, mate. But on the bright side, I'll never have to worry about adding air to it if it develops a slow leak. When it goes flat, I'll get to do this all over again but next time with a new tire.

[camgere]

I just did the rear tires on my John Deere Z335E this week. I used a "modded" Harbor Freight Manual Tire Changer (lots of videos on this). Even so, I got stuck in the same place you did. The tire bead was starting to get torn up. I took a deep breath and readjusted the "duckbill" carefully. It went on fairly easily, the second time. It was a minor change from complete failure to easy success. I used an "air blaster" to seat the bead. Yes, it can be very frustrating.

[tomtom]

Those ag tread tires are stiff as all get out when new! My hat’s off to you! Great video, though!

[cphank]

Clamp a vertical steel rod into your bench vise to make a little tire machine. Put the tire over the vertical rod and use the rod as a fulcrum for two tire irons. Steve's Small Engine Saloon has a good video on this method.

[rintintim]

My neighbor & I got one 20x10x8 on in a little over an hour, but the second proved too much of a challenge. A third guy made all the difference - took us 15 minutes with 3 sets of hands!

[steves_garage]

I just did a tire change on all four on my LT160. By the third tire I got pretty good at handling getting them on and off. It does take a lot of force to get the new tire around the second half. The tires you have probably made it even harder. In any case, it was a bone crushing job.