Bead sealing?

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endobear

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Bought used sand tire setup for my sons Raptor 250. They were all leaking at the beads. Some valve stems leaking also.. Had all the valve stems replaced and the beads glued.

After one trip, 3 of the 4 tires are leaking again. 

Do I pull the tires off the wheels,  try to clean the tires and wheels  real good at the bead and reglue the beads? 

Or just put tubes in them?

 
Make sure you confirm where it is leaking from.  I have seen rims leak as well, and pretty much nothing will stop that.  Throw some berrymans in there, don't use slim.

 
One thing I noticed on a buddy's quad is it kept leaking air until we read the tire. It clearly said seat bead at 40psi which he never did. That thing looked like the good year blimp but sure enough a super loud pop that he'd never heard before. Brought the psi back down to 10 or was it 8 and never leaked again. YMMV good luck. 

 
Go to a seal shop like parker or something like that and buy some orings and put one on each side. 10 inch wheel get about a 7 or 8 inch diameter oring and stretch it a little. 8" wheels maybe get like a 5 or 6" diameter oring.

👍 on the sta flo also

 
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Cookie said:
Make sure you confirm where it is leaking from.  I have seen rims leak as well, and pretty much nothing will stop that.  Throw some berrymans in there, don't use slim.
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Rims look ok. Pumped them up and tested with some soppy water. Definitely leaking at the besds

 
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Clean the tires edge very well and inspect, clean the bead on the rim very well with some brillo pad or even light sand paper with water and try again.

 
Rorschach said:
Go to a seal shop like parker or something like that and buy some orings and put one on each side. 10 inch wheel get about a 7 or 8 inch diameter oring and stretch it a little. 8" wheels maybe get like a 5 or 6" diameter oring.

👍 on the sta flo also
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that is a good idea ive used windshield adhesive on small equipment tires we were having troubles with bad leaks

 
Jersey_Jeff73 said:
that is a good idea ive used windshield adhesive on small equipment tires we were having troubles with bad leaks
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Oh yeah, that reminds me... one of the tire shops I used in the past for my buggy wheels had used some gooey black silicone crap around the tires bead, I hated it and then learned to love it! Never had to air up ever again. I remember seeing him use one of those ball sponge aplyer things and seemed to be somewhat runny substance. I wonder what it is. 

 
Chingon619 said:
Oh yeah, that reminds me... one of the tire shops I used in the past for my buggy wheels had used some gooey black silicone crap around the tires bead, I hated it and then learned to love it! Never had to air up ever again. I remember seeing him use one of those ball sponge aplyer things and seemed to be somewhat runny substance. I wonder what it is. 
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https://www.amazon.com/Xtra-14-101-Seal-Bead-Sealer/dp/B000GKD722/ref=asc_df_B000GKD722?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=79989588515103&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583589114852595&psc=1 bead sealer its like black rubber cement i've used it doesn't seem to work well with tires with low air pressure

 
Jersey_Jeff73 said:
that is a good idea ive used windshield adhesive on small equipment tires we were having troubles with bad leaks
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I've done the silicone thing and it works but I started doing the o-rings because there's no mess. I've only ever done it on quad tires and sometimes with some bead sealing paste

 
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the thread above is the one I started about the leaks in this set of paddles.  the last time I had them apart I cleaned the beads up & got all of the lose flaky stuff off & scrubbed the wheels nice & clean.  I then put more of the Berrymans in it & it kept squeezing it out of the beads.  as long as there was Berrymans in it, it held pressure.  as soon as it was all squeezed out, it started losing air pressure. 

I bought 4 tubes of 100% clear RTV & was going to just "glue" them on, but never got around to it. 

IMO, its the tires.  Ive had a number of STU's & none have been this bad.  the bead is just coming apart & its creating leaks.  its pretty clear in the pictures. 

FWIW, I tried that XTRA bead sealer, & that did not get it done.  IMO, it was not fluid enough to flow into all of the cracks and crevasses to seal up all of the bazillion little leaks. 

 
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Rorschach said:
Go to a seal shop like parker or something like that and buy some orings and put one on each side. 10 inch wheel get about a 7 or 8 inch diameter oring and stretch it a little. 8" wheels maybe get like a 5 or 6" diameter oring.
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Where does the oring go?  Ive never heard of an oring... 

 
Rorschach said:
I've done the silicone thing and it works but I started doing the o-rings because there's no mess. I've only ever done it on quad tires and sometimes with some bead sealing paste
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windshield adhesive is urethane base alot stronger than silicone and real messy doesn't come off anything you get it on

 
Bobalos said:
Where does the oring go?  Ive never heard of an oring... 
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I put it around the bead on the wheel (1 on each side so 2 per wheel) where the bead of the tire seals against the wheel. The bead of the tire squishes the oring into the corner and the oring conforms to any imperfections in the tire's bead to create a better contact seal against the wheel helping to prevent any leaks from the bead area

 
Thanks for the tips guys. The sta flo seems to be working. I did order some orings to have just in case it doesn't.  Great idea...

Once I got everything sealed up and mounted to the machine I noticed that the previous owner had one of the front tires mounted backwards. Lol.

Can't believe I missed it. 😪 

 
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