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Tubes in your tires... pros and cons?

crashandburn

crashandburn

1/2 ton status
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Dec 6, 2007
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Colorado Springs, CO
Hey guys,
I'm about to pull the trigger on some new Iroks, 39.5/13.5/15. I'm running beadlocks on my current TSL Swampers and they leak. Not fast, just enough to be annoying. So I am thinking about tossing in some tubes since they will be apart anyway.
A lot of mountain bike guys go tubeless because of "pinch flats", meaning if you hit a rock too hard with low tire pressure, you can pinch the tube and get a flat.
Is that something to worry about in off-road tires?
You probably can't just throw a plug in if you get a pinhole I assume.
What else is there to consider?
Or should I just deal with my leaky DIY beadlocks and stop complaining?
 
bias ply get bias or radial tube .

radial only gets radial tube .

and have you priced tubes that big yet ? . last i knew they were NOT cheep .

find out were they leak and fix them would be my opinion unless its major rework then maybe new rims .
 
I've often wondered if tubes would help keep 16.5s from popping off bead. Since they wouldn't lose all air if the bead moved a bit
 
You can use radial tubes in bias tires,they are much thicker..
Tubes aren't cheap like they used to be--a tube for a stupid lawn tractor tire (12" rim) now costs nearly as much as a new tire--last tube I saw at Pep Boys was $17.99 for a 15" tire!..a decent used tire at the salvage yard is cheaper..

Overall I'd say off road your better off staying tubeless--you can shove a plug in if you get a puncture,or add slime and air it back up and keep on trucking...maybe on 16.5" tires tubes would be a plus for the bead problems they are noted for..
 
I bet a tube would get trashed if a tire slipped on the bead off road with low air pressure. The concept is no different than the bike tires. There are motorcycle tubes for dirt bikes that are actually two separate tubes that fix this issue. One tube is a bead lock mechanism to keep the bead seated properly and the second tube can be aired down for offroad traction.
 
From my experience tubes don't hold up well to low pressure off-roading, and I assume if you bother running bead locks you probably run low pressure. Puncture a tube or get a pinch flat and it's a PITA to fix a tubed tire. A good alternative is Tireject tire sealant as it will seal up leaks around the bead area and has none of the downsides of a tube. While not beadlocks, I have always had trouble with beads leaking on my 40" TSL's because of dirt and mud getting shoved between the rim and tire. All 4 tires would leak at different rates with one going flat within a couple of days of just sitting in the garage with another taking several weeks to go flat. I put Tireject in the tires about 6 months ago and haven't added air yet to any of them. Not super cheap as I think it was around $100 for the sealant, but you would probably spend more than that on tubes.
 
I only use tubes in my garden tractor tires,that are loaded with ballast (calcium chloride or windshield washer fluid,used anti-freeze),so the rims wont rust to hell inside,or on other tires like the front ones that are all dried out and cracking and will lose air over time,ditto for things like hand trucks and wheelbarrows...

Been many years since I tubed a car or truck tire..
In my late teens I found an illegal tire dumping spot in the woods in another town,near a friends house--this was when the Firestone 721 radials were recalled,and there was piles of them that had been replaced by the tire dealers there ,the only problem was they stabbed the sidewall with an ice pick before discarding them..many other tires were on rims,including some 15" 6 lug ones that would fit my truck..
I took all I could get of those so I could have the rims too..

I put tire patches on the inside over the hole and put tubes in them--I had 4 sets of like new tires for my '56 Chevy pickup that were "risky",but safer than the old dry rotted ones on split rims it came with...funny thing was I never had one go flat or blow apart like they were rumored to..

Guys on the tractor forum like Tireject too,but not the cost..
Some claim they use liquid laundry starch in their tires and it works as good as Slime to seal up punctures and slow leaks,and it works on dry rotted cracked tires too...its not that costly and most supermarkets have it..I'm tempted to try some myself..
 
Great, thank you! I'll look into that stuff. Have a link I can click for it?


6.2Blazer said:
From my experience tubes don't hold up well to low pressure off-roading, and I assume if you bother running bead locks you probably run low pressure. Puncture a tube or get a pinch flat and it's a PITA to fix a tubed tire. A good alternative is Tireject tire sealant as it will seal up leaks around the bead area and has none of the downsides of a tube. While not beadlocks, I have always had trouble with beads leaking on my 40" TSL's because of dirt and mud getting shoved between the rim and tire. All 4 tires would leak at different rates with one going flat within a couple of days of just sitting in the garage with another taking several weeks to go flat. I put Tireject in the tires about 6 months ago and haven't added air yet to any of them. Not super cheap as I think it was around $100 for the sealant, but you would probably spend more than that on tubes.
Click to expand...
 
crashandburn said:
Great, thank you! I'll look into that stuff. Have a link I can click for it?
Click to expand...

Tireject.com
They sell it on Amazon. I just broke the bead on one side of each tire and poured in the proper amount versus spending the time to pump it through the valve stem.
 
I've run tubes on 18.4 & 21.5 x16.1 implement tires, normally 4-6 psi for more than 40 years and I can count on 1 hand the number of times that I have had to do trail repairs.

Gus
 
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