HELP!!! Tire damage question.

[UTAHCRUISER]

So I just took a set of 37" MT/R's that were mounted on rims down to the local tire shop to have them removed from the rims and get a set of 35's mounted on the rims. I went back to pick them up, and one of the 37's is not missing 2 quite large chunks of rubber from the inside of the bead. The outside surface that does the sealing is in fine shape. The missing chunks are maybe 2-3 inches long and 1/2 inch thick. There is one missing chunk on each bead- they are kind of right across from each other. I wouldn't care except these tires are nearly new. They have less than 1,000 miles on them. Do any of you know if this will affect the usefulness or strength of the tire at all or affect it's ability to maintain a proper seal?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Chad

 

[ALF]

I'd make the shop replace them

 

[Meat_]

I'd make the shop replace them

Ditto

 

[UTAHCRUISER]

That's kind of what I'm thinking too, but I am just trying to determine if this is "cosmetic" damage or if it is actually going to affect the usefullness of the tire.

Chad

 

[petesoffroad]

tire damage

It is pretty much cosmetic damage. ihave had that happen to me before. The tires held up fine, but if you can get them to get yoy newones then go for it.

 

[Col Mustard]

My experience, When I had my tires dismounted to convert my wheels to beadlocks, I saw that on all my tires, the beads were pretty tore up. This from mounting and dismounting 2-3 times prior. I thought they would never hold air with all the chunks tore out. Anyway, I vacummed all the rubber out and this time remounted the tires myself and used a lot of bead sealant and they've been holding up fine for a year now. I recently ran my tires down to 6-7 psi and not a leak.

 

[UTAHCRUISER]

My experience, When I had my tires dismounted to convert my wheels to beadlocks, I saw that on all my tires, the beads were pretty tore up. This from mounting and dismounting 2-3 times prior. I thought they would never hold air with all the chunks tore out. Anyway, I vacummed all the rubber out and this time remounted the tires myself and used a lot of bead sealant and they've been holding up fine for a year now. I recently ran my tires down to 6-7 psi and not a leak.

Well, that's somewhat encouraging. I was examining the larger of the 2 damaged areas and one of them actually ripped a pretty good sized chunk of rubber down to the cords off the inside of the sidewall. And, to make matters even worse, I went back to pick up the remainder of my tires and he managed to demolish ANOTHER one! One would think that a shop that does nothing but mount/ dismount tires all day would not do this! GRRR!!

The owner is supposedly going to buy the damaged tires from me for $180 each tomorrow, so I guess that I now have 3 nearly new 37" tires. Great.

Thanks for your replies, btw!

Chad

 

[Ken]

Cosmetic or not, my sidewall bludges blew after some time. Busted up beads are no good!

 

[tiny2085]

how wide are the rims ? as long as the rubber hasn't been tore past the "bottom " of the bead then your fine, if the sealing lip rubber has been tore, the tire is no good, and you have a perfectly legit claim to have your tires replaced.

 

[Houndoc]

Having worked for a number of years in a tire shop, I can say that to dismount tires without some tearing is simply not possible. I would be hard pressed to say the shop is at fault in anyway.

If you have not dismounted a tire, the process involves a lot of force (machine applied) to get the tire over the rim (which is good since you generally want the tire to stay on the rim.) The larger the tire and stroner the sidewall, the harder it is. If there is any little defect in the rubber, it can catch and tear out a chunk.

I never saw a tire leak from one, period.

I would think you probably still have a perfectly sound set of tires.

 

[UTAHCRUISER]

The owner of the tire shop agreed to purchase the 2 tires that he damaged from me. He said that he suspected that the tires were fine and still useable, but since it was him that did the damage, he would pay me for them. I've ran big diameter MT/r's on all my trucks for a long time, and had them swapped around on different rims throughout the years, and I have never seen that kind of damage done from the mount/ dismount process. I've seen the excess rubber that usually hangs off the bottom of the bead get torn up and little chunks come off, but never this kind of damage- where the rubber on the inside of the sidewall gets torn off down to the cords!
Luckily the owner is a stand-up kind of guy and was willing to pay for his employees mistake.

Chad