I did that once, never again,. Took a couple days but once you start you hate to admit defeat. Then you have to find a disposal site for the heavy foam. You do save the cost of new rims though,
One tire took three hours to strip. I cleaned up the residue with a vibrating scraper. That wheel was also pretty bent up so another couple of hours with a torch, hammer and grinder. It's straight, clean and repainted. When I get fresh rubber I post some photos. Best price I've found so far is $640 includes shipping.
WOW!!! Thanks for sharing with pictures. I've always wondered what stripping them would entail, and at some point in the near future I will probably end up with a machine that has them, and I'm wayy to cheap to pay a tire shop to install new tires let alone buy new rims! Thanks again.
Man, what a nightmare! I'm cheap too but I kind of wonder about removing foam filled tires at 3 hours apiece. Thanks for the pictures.
Ouch, that's why some people throw them in a fire to clean them up, slight issue about the polution!
I have a set of foam filled tires on wheels sitting around that I took off several years ago. I've thought about throwing them in when I burn storm clean up debris but I'm worried that the wheels would be annealed dead soft by the heat.
That would be my concern too. The only other way is to keep an eye on them to not let them get THAT hot. Only hot enough for the rubber to melt off, but with the weight, you may not have much choice.
I don't know that you could ever achieve that level of control with a burning tire. When they start to go, there is not much you can do. And the rim would be annealed. Unfortunately, I think Han's method or a variation there of is about the only way to salvage the rim.
This word you use - fun - I do not think it means what you think it means...
LOL - Yeah, I think he has it confused with another word that starts with "FU".....This word you use - fun - I do not think it means what you think it means...
Fullfilment?
Any suggestions as to what you would different if you had to do another set of foam filled tires? I am going to have to tackle that on my skid steer. Do you need to clean the whole rim really clean or just the rim bead for tubeless tires. Thanks
I actually only did one wheel and that was enough! A long blade on the sawsa helps cut the tire into chunks. Then there's steel wires embedded in the bead section of the tire that are very tough to cut. I exposed them, then used wire clippers to cut a few at a time. You only need to cut all those in one place on each side. After that you use long pry bars to break the chunks loose from the wheel. I did end up scraping all the residue off the wheel but you probably could get away with leaving stuff inside of the bead. You'll definitely want to clean the area of the valve stem though. If you're doing a whole set, set aside a couple of days and a tube of Icy Hot!
