I have tube tires on my 49' F2, I assume that I cant put a tubeless tire(with inner tube) on the rim because the bead profile is different. Also, are the 600x16 tires that are being made today for tube or tubeless rims?

 

Can I get any replies on this post?

 

All F-2 wheels were 16" x 6" drop center style and were made by Kelsey Hayes. The rim profile on these wheels is called a 5° profile. The same rim profile is used today on light truck and car wheels. Back then there was no such thing as a tubeless tire so everything had a tube. At some point in the 1960s, as best I can tell, the government started requiring that wheel centers be welded instead of riveted. So using a modern tubeless 5° profile tire on an old rim could result in air leaks if the rivets aren't air tight. Using a tube fixes that. Any tire made today will be tubeless (maybe I should qualify that and exclude the real old brass era/20s era cars/trucks). Edit - all multi-part truck wheels use tubes too. The only issue today is bias ply versus radial.

In 1956 the wheel and tire manufacturers started to offer tubeless truck tires and wheels. They have what is called a 15° profile. These are sized in half inch increments (16.5", 17.5". 19.5", and 22.5"). You'll see in the below diagram that these tires, besides the half inch sizing, won't work on regular car and light truck rims because of the bead design.

So, here's a diagram to compare the 5° and 15° profiles. Ignore the fact that these are 20" and 22.5". The same concept applies to smaller sizes. Also ignore the fact that the wheel/tire on the left is a lock ring design. The same 5° profile is used on these and on the light truck and car one piece wheels. Stu

 

After reading the posts here, I had to pull out a catalog I recently received. There are listings for a 6.00 x 16 tubeless load range C, and a 6.00 x 16 tube type 6 ply rating military style tread (Catalog is M.E Miller Tire). So, some tube type tires look to be available for your rims. When in doubt about what tires fit older rims, I have found that tire shops that also handle agricultural tires usually have someone who is familiar with the older rims and tires that fit them, as there are many farm wagons out there with very old rims.

 

Thank you so much. This is great information. A little bit above my paygrade in detail, but I think I get it. I've been researching it the last few weeks because 2 out of 4 of my tires on my F150 (37x12.5x15 Interco Super Swampers Radials) had bubbles in them. How the bubbles came to be, I have no idea. I drive super careful and usually only to car shows as it's a show vehicle. I purchased a brand new set of tires that I found for sale in the local paper. That person bought them brand new a few years ago for a frame off restoration project that never got finished and is now selling some things for extra money. Anyways, I took them to the tire shop to have them put on my rims and we found inner tubes in them. I asked the tire guys about them and came home to do some research and found that not all, but many people out there use inner tubes for offroading and rock climbing as to be able to lower the tire pressure and not lose the tire's bead and have the tire collapse. Some have also noted that they've had tubes in their tires for years and work just fine. In the research, some were saying not to use them because the tube moves and at highspeeds can cause enough friction for a blowout. My question and thoughts were to use an innertube on the two bad tires I have now and keep for spares. Keep all four tires, 2 are great with now bubbles and even the two bad ones have like new tread on them since all my tires have only 7,000 miles on them. As long as I'm just going to car shows 100-200 miles round trip and a little in town driving, would an inner tube work for my bad tires? If not, would the bad tires work for someone else with an inner tube if they're just using it for offroading, climbing and mudding?

Thanks again for all the info.

 

I have used tubes in tubeless tires and never had a problem, high speed or low speed.
But you must use the right tube (radial tube for a radial tire). And make sure that whoever mounts the tire with a tube in knows what they are doing to make sure the tube is not wrinkled or folded when finally inflated.

About the bubbles, if they are in the sidewall, make sure you inspect the inside of the tires in those areas really well to check for cord separation or delaminations. A tube will keep the air in, but will not correct a structural defect or failure of the tire sidewall.

 

I agree with 3414 totally. I've read that one of the problems with early tubeless tires was air leakage into the laminations of a tire. Maybe that's what's happened with yours. Whether they are safe to use isn't something I'm willing to stick my neck out on. I'd find a shop you trust and see what they think. A tube in them wouldn't hurt, but the integrity of the sidewall is the issue.

As for those military 6.00 x 16s, I suspect they'd fall into the truck tire category for use with a multi-part rim. Anything with a bead too rigid to stretch over a drop center rim would be, I think, designed for a truck rim. Stu

 

Here's a picture of it while they were inflated and on the truck:




Here's a picture after they were taken off to show where the tears were:


The next two pictures show me giving it a tiny bit of pressure with my finger pushing from the outside of the tire:




How does this happen when I only drive on pavement about 15 miles a week and as slow and careful as grandma and grandpa?

So are these the side walls you're talking about? Would these work as a spare or for just offroading while using an inner tube?

I emailed a guy on ebay and he said these would work with my tire:
33X12.50R15, 35X12.50R15 Tire Inner Tube LT265/75R16: eBay Motors (item 380207482088 end time Aug-15-10 14:23:45 PDT)

 

Coker makes radial tube type tires and tubes -

 

That is carcass failure, I would not put those back on a wheel. I saw some failures like that in the early days of domestic radials, but hard hits from rocks and curbs can look like that also, especially if a tire is run underinflated. That tire is an accident waiting to happen.

Back to the original poster, a good tire guy should be able to look at one of your rims and tell you if a tubless tire bead will seat properly on your rims. And using the correct tube in a tubeless tire can be done sucessfully.

 

What about something like this:

http://www.eco4wd.com/Staun/BeadLockInstallWeb.pdf

 

what is the date stamp on those tires? sure looks like dry rot effect to me.

I bought 4 trailer tires via CL, and didn't check the dates.. they lasted all of 100 miles..

Sam

 

I just checked the date stamps and they're correct. They were stamped 01 for 2001 and the previous owner mounted them 9 years ago when they were brand new and only have 7000 miles on them. The truck was only driven to shows each year. 500-1000 miles a year or so.

By the way, I have contacted Interco , who manufactures these tires and sent them pictures asking how this can happen and if they can compensate me . They emailed me back and said the their engineers said that the pictures denoted an impact break. 5 OF THEM?!!! IN DIFFERENT SPOTS? ON A TRUCK THAT NEVER LEAVES THE TAR?

 

did they say YOUR use caused the failure?? do you know what the PO did?

Sam

 

By the looks of the tires in the above pics, any reputable tire shop would toss them in the dumpster. I apollogise for this straight forward comment: but Safety Must Come First and those surely don't appear to be.........mervy49