progress or not
 

Yes I do know a guy with a crane truck, it has the stabilizer legs . Hmmm interesting idea but these tyres have the spacer between the 2 beads and pushing the bead inwards may not have any effect ?

Anyway I got this far and my body gave up. I managed to get some wood between the split rims but the beads are stuck . I poured ATF on the beads

explain ?
 

What is a madick ???????

I failed English so the spelling could be wrong.
Like a pick but with flat cutting edges, one like a hoe and the other at ninety degrees for cutting roots in the side of the trench as you dig.

Mattock
 

Hi

Maybe it is a mattock ? Thanks for that .

But I am not sure how a mattock can cut into a old thick rubber tyre ?

Mike

You could attempt a rendition of Monty Python's 'Lumberjack Song' with an axe?

The conversation seems to revolve around doing whatever is necessary to overcome 75 yrs of hardened rubber, by cutting, chiselling, prying and general brute force. Even the wartime picture posted earlier shows how much force was required on in-service wheels and tires.

Are you trying to save the tires?
 

On the harder dry rubber a chain saw does a nice job...... take a section off so you can get close to the bead area...... finish with a hand grinder and cold chisel to cut the steel bead cord....... and yes the grinder will smoke and stink.

Once the bead gets broken the remaining section will pell off with the chisel.

Careful not to attack the rim.

Good luck

Cheers

Thanks for the spelling, the root cutting side cut in fairly easily, the hard part was aiming consistently.

A random wild thought on this tyre removal problem with CMP rims.

I think I might have read somewhere that during the war, when natural rubber sources dried up, synthetic rubber development got a huge boost. The story goes that a number of serious problems with the synthetic rubber quickly became evident, to the point that all synthetic tyres had a red patch added to the sidewall to identify them to be be inspected regularly.

If there is any truth to that story, has anyone ever noticed if it is these old synthetic tyres that are giving removal problems today, old natural rubber tyres, or does it make no difference at all?

David

yes
 

I believe these tyres are synthetic , they have the "s" marking above the WD logo. Somebody suggested wrapping a locking chain around the rim and inflating the inner tube .

The 'S' mark, where burned in post-production, was a disposals sign to indicate the tyre had been disposed of legally. It was often accompanied by a broad arrow, or two broad arrows, point to point.

Mike

Tyre remover
 

I had a few Morris Commercial 16" wheels to do so I made up this tool from bits of steel and pipe etc. one Saturday morning.
Mk.1 worked but needed some improvements.
Mk.2 Had a reinforced jaw and a chain with a long bolt to pull the toe of the jack hard into the wheel under the rim.
The jig can be moved around the rim depending on how the tyre is coming off.
I had 9 wheels to do with 2 commercial 8.25 x 16 and 2 run flats but they all came off without a lot of effort.
Regards to all.
Terry

saw
 

I have been thinking along the same lines. I have a small electric chain saw , I find stuff like that in the Warragul op shop .

The old rubber is very crumbly in nature, I had a go with a hand saw and it cuts into the tyre relatively easily . Either the chain saw or a reciprocating saw should be effective. Once the bead is expose , then a small grinder will break the wire.

re: the " S " mark, interesting . Yes the two arrows above/below , I have seen them as well.

After driving around the WOT2 to events years ago, one day we discovered one of the old RF tyres on the back , had no air in it !

BTW Terry, nice idea the device for breaking the bead. Did you discover the Whitworth size nuts !

sawing
 

The chainsaw was effective , if anyone passing by noticed what I was doing :confused The bead lock is in there, I can see it . There is no hope of removing these tyres with a conventional bead breaker .

Now what to do next . I need to cut the last inch or so of rubber to gain access to the wire . The angle grinder .

hard work
 

This is hard work and not the sort of thing to be undertaken by the faint hearted disciples out there. I am in need of a weeks rest before I tackle the next one.

Removing rusted on tyres
 

Hi Mike,

Nice work. I must admit I felt a bit squeamish reading about the use of a chain saw to remove tyres here on the forum but after seeing the wall thickness of your RF tyres compared to conventional 9.00 x 16" I can see the advantage over a reciprocating saw. See attached photo for comparison. I could only envision the disaster if chain accidentally meets steel rim, or if it kicks back, hence my concern.

I can only vouch for my standard military tyres but my Ryobi reciprocating saw goes through the tyre carcass like a hot knife through butter. I Used a medium pitch wood cutting blade in it. It still does the job on standard tyres and a lot safer and easier to control than an angle grinder or chain saw in my humble opinion. Just drill the four 3/8" or bigger starting holes as I mentioned in a post last year on the subject.

I used a hand chisel to cut the bead wires but to do it again I would use an air chisel. It would sure speed up the process, save the knuckles, and they are cheap to buy now.
As always, I bought an air chisel after I had removed 10 tyres. Some people learn slowly!

Cheers,

https://stevejsstuff.shutterfly.com/pictures/36

found this in a 1944 construction magazine. :)

tire removal
 

For shear brute force and ignorance a 50 ton press is real handy for pressing original run flats off rims.

The Hammond Barn had looked at the 20 ton press but it isn't wide enough to fit the wheel/tire assembly far enough in to achieve much. It might be possible to create wider fame members. Do you have a feeling whether the 50 ton the press was working hard or way below capacity in removing the tire? Is that a 20" rim being used as the load spreader or did you have to go to a larger size to clear the (assumed) CMP 16" rim.

Rim size
 

Grant

I had a rim from an M135 ( 20 inch tire size) and it has a one inch greater inside diameter than the outside diameter of the 16 inch CMP rim. The greatest pressure I saw was 15 tons and the tires were dated 1941, 1942 run flats. I assumed they had never been replaced.
When I was looking for a shop press the bang for buck seems to improve quickly with increased tons, as does the working width. I have made a set of dies and can form 32 inch wide 16 gauge steel. Maybe not as pretty a job for some instances but for an old CMP it is good enough.

Gord

Thank you. Based on your experience I think some investigation will need to be done to see if it is practical/economic to build/modify to get a larger gap for the 20 ton press. With respect to whether your runflats had ever been removed, my only indicator would be that absence of the bead spacer might suggest that at some time in the (distant?) past some work was probably done.