The old reseating a tire bead with lighter fluid trick. Bad idea?

[Antichrist]

Your not as much of a know it all on DWEB..... Out of curiosity - How old do you think I am?

I'm assuming this is addressed to me.
I've never been shy on DWEB. I don't really know, but I'm guessing under 60.

[kchristian]

I leave this thread for two weeks and this is what I come back too...

Lot's of useful information here. Thanks for the replies. I guess the overall answer to my question is, aside from the obvious dangers of combining flammable liquids or gases with flames, there isn't a significant reason why one shouldn't use the starting fluid trick to seat a tire. With that said, there are arguably safer methods for the better-prepared. Amiright?

[I Leak Oil]

Every technique has it's right place and time. There is no one right solution that fits all situations. What you should take away is to learn how to do it and put it in your mental tool box. Take it out and use it when it's appropriate, use something else when it's not. I'm guessing most of those who think it's really dangerous have never done it.

[shredwagon]

At work, I've seen a Newfie seat a bead with some plain 'ol gas in -50. However - same Newfie had a friend hospitalized after he tried lighting a smoke off the end of a 12 gauge.....

I guess every has different "acceptable" risk levels.....

[Antichrist]

Lot's of useful information here. Thanks for the replies. I guess the overall answer to my question is, aside from the obvious dangers of combining flammable liquids or gases with flames, there isn't a significant reason why one shouldn't use the starting fluid trick to seat a tire. With that said, there are arguably safer methods for the better-prepared. Amiright?

Pretty much. Every method has tradeoffs plus it depends on what you have on hand.

I wouldn't try it on tube type tires though.

[Master-Pull]

We were able to show using a ARB compressor and a ratchet strap to seat a tire bead last weekend at the Washington Overland Rally, plenty of people asked us about ether... I told them to check on this thread first.

-Alex

[Metcalf]

OK so what is the right way to set a bead with flammables?

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk 2

While I can't say its the best way to seat a tire, I will admit that I have done it more than my fair share of times while working at a tire shop and in my personal travels. My best recommendation is to use it as a last resort, not your primary means of bead seating.

So, how to do it 'properly'

-Take the tire off the vehicle and lay it on the ground. 99.9% of the time I won't do it on the vehicle if at all possible. This technique is generally only used when both beads are off. If one bead is still on you should be able to seat the other bead easily if you have any OBA.

-Clean both bead surfaces and tire beads. It sucks to re-seat the tire on the rim to find you have leaks in the bead area.

-I will always try and seat the bead other ways first. A 5-gallon bucket is one of the best tools in my opinion. Making a bucket simulator out of a section of tree works just about as well. You can set the bucket in the rim and push the tire down, stand on it, or jump on it to get the bottom bead to start seating. Most tires will start seating on one side. If you can't get the one bead to hold the weight of the tire after you flip the tire/wheel over on the bucket your probably going to need some spray flammable assistance.

-So, at this point you can't get either bead to stick on the rim. Perhaps you can get one to stick but when you try for the second bead the first slides off. This is usually common on wide rims. 35x12.5x15's on 15x10" rims where my most common problem back in the day.

-I always try and use starting fluid for seating beads. That seems to work best for me.

-Take the tire off the magic bucket or bucket simulator and set it on flat ground. A smooth and hard surface seems to work best. A tarp under the tire will help keep dirt, rocks, bunnies, sticks, leaves, and grass from sticking in the beads.

-Connect your air supply line. While a LOT of exploding flammable fun fluid might seat your bead, your never going to get more than a few PSI trapped in the tire. You basically NEED compressed air to make this work. Ideally you also need a way to connect the air supply to the rim without holding the dang air chuck on the tire. It's also REALLY nice to have a valve in the air supply line at a safe distance away to turn on the air at the right moment. You can improvise the on-off air valve by having a spare hand connect the hose at the proper time, folding the hose over having someone holding it, or folding the hose over and standing on it if your trying to do this all solo while your friends stare at the crazy guy playing with fire.

-Take your starting fluid in one hand and your lighter in the other. Having a friend that is a pyro will help at this point, give him the lighter Start by only spraying one short burst into the space between the rim and tire bead, then run a wet strip off to the edge of the tire. Light it at the end of this strip at the tread edge. Wear eye protection and your fireproof undies. Don't blame me if you loose an eyebrow.

-Once lighted the tire will 'pop' and right at that point you need to be feeding air into the tire. You do NOT want the compressed air to be flowing all the time. This can displace the chemicals in the tire, create huge fireballs in your face, and all sorts of other issues. Right after the pop, hit the air. I use ether and it doesn't really stick around too long like WD40, paint, or other products.....

-If the beads grab and seat your golden. Air the tire up to full pressure and then back down to your trail pressure to ensure that the beads are fully seated.

-If it won't seat, try more starting fluid. I start with one squirt and will progress from there. Spray around the tire and wheel opening to add more, don't just add more in one spot. Don't forget the wet tail off the sidewall towards the tread. As you add more volume of flammable explosive chemicals you are going to want as much distance as possible from the tire! Add too much and you CAN destroy the tire and/or blow it off the bead completely.

*Attach full disclaimer at this point so I don't get blamed for people being stupid*

[I Leak Oil]

[QUOTE=Metcalf;1159430

-Take your starting fluid in one hand and your lighter in the other. Having a friend that is a pyro will help at this point, give him the lighter Start by only spraying one short burst into the space between the rim and tire bead, then run a wet strip off to the edge of the tire. Light it at the end of this strip at the tread edge. Wear eye protection and your fireproof undies. Don't blame me if you loose an eyebrow.
............
............

-If it won't seat, try more starting fluid. I start with one squirt and will progress from there. Spray around the tire and wheel opening to add more, don't just add more in one spot. Don't forget the wet tail off the sidewall towards the tread. As you add more volume of flammable explosive chemicals you are going to want as much distance as possible from the tire! Add too much and you CAN destroy the tire and/or blow it off the bead completely.

*Attach full disclaimer at this point so I don't get blamed for people being stupid*[/QUOTE]

And that's really the meat of it and why you hear stories of people being hurt. More is not always better. If it doesn't seat with a little fluid you can always try again with a little more.

You can't go back in time to fix it if you start with too much...

[JIMBO]

heh Heh, using the PBS and OBA, all ya gotta do is clean the beads and-Presto--inflate !

JIMBO

[off-roader]

Here's a scenario where we had to use this method. In the interest of learning wondering what else we could have done different in this situation (aside from going back in time to avoid it in the first place)...
1) The driver had the wrong size spare (had a 5 lug spare but needed an 8 lug rim). No other spare's were available. Everyone in our party had a different lug pattern (5 & 6 lug rigs).
2) The tire was mounted on a rim that was too wide. Several of us attended Martin's clinic on this trip and we couldn't just seat like we were taught.
- We tried a Powertank CO2 system and it wouldn't reseat the bead due to the tire/rim combo.
- We tried using straps but only had 1' wide straps and no 2' wide ones.
- We tried using several different air compressors (unfortunately we didn't have a super high volume/cfm unit).

The rig was in a precarious position and he needed the tire aired up to him get to a safe locale.

We first secured his rig, then after several failed attempts used starter fluid to reseat his bead.