To tube or not to tube ?

[Smokydiesel]

Just a quick question, will tubeless tyres (michelin XPC 205x16) fit on my 1969 Series II rims ?

As far as I can see, the rims are the original ones (5,5x16..?) no idea if they can hold tubeless tyres.

….which leads me to my second question, If my rims do need inner tubes, can I just simply put tubes in and “flop” my XPC’s on ?

I'm currently running on 6.00 x 16 Avon's dating back from.......well, 1969 by the looks of them

Cheers,

Edwin

[Maarten88]

I've got goodyear tubeless tyres on my original rims, no problems. As you say, just pop the tubes in.

regards

Maarten

[Tonk]

not much difference in tyre size, i'd pop the tubes in to be sure

[Diff]

The original wheels do not have safety 'ridges' close to the rim to help hold a tyre on. For this reason, all tyres fitted to this type of rim should be fitted with innertubes. You can fit either tube type tyres, or tubeless tyres to these rims, but both types should have innertubes fitted when mounted on tube type rims.

Note that some makes/types of tubeless tyres are not as smooth on the inside as tube type tyres. Any tyres with rough surfaces on the inside may cause chaffing and future punctures of the tubes, so make sure you use a good quality innertube, eg michelin airstop, particularly if the surface is rough.

Make sure there are no stickers etc left on the inside of the tyre before fitting.

The reason for the 'ridges' on a tubeless type wheel is to prevent sudden loss of all the air which can occur if the tyre is subjected to a side load(particularly when pressures are low) when the bead of the tyre can be forced into the well of the wheel.

Similarly, in the case of the loss of air due to a puncture, the safety ridges help to keep the tyre bead at the rim to enable the driver more control until the vehicle can be brought to a stop.

It is also worth noting that tubeless tyres usually have a slightly different bead to a tube type tyre. The differences are that the bead surface is often softer for better air sealing, and shaped slightly differently to engage/lock better between the wheel rim and the safety ridge.

For this reason you should not use tube type tyres on a tubeless wheel rim without an innertube.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Diff

[Smokydiesel]

Thanks all guys !!

Cheers,

Edwin

[02GF74]

exactly what diff says. think this topic or similar came up before and some have used tubeless on tubed rims with no problems. I would say NO think what would happen if you had an accident due to this - prosecution and invalidation of insurance?

[Mehetabel]

exactly what diff says. think this topic or similar came up before and some have used tubeless on tubed rims with no problems. I would say NO think what would happen if you had an accident due to this - prosecution and invalidation of insurance?

I had an accident due to the tube in the tubed tire. Had a flat coming back from an event so stopped in to a truck repair shop to have a new tube put in. They "did" the repair. Two hours and a hundred miles later the handleing goes funnier and I have the joy of jacking the truck up off the rim in evening freeway traffic and collecting chunks of rubber off of the roadway . The problem, at least in this country is that no one knows how to do auto/truck tubes anymore hillbilly -redneck mode on/ whats this big rubber band thing for? \hillbilly -redneck mode off.

At that point [4 years ago now] I started running tubeless tires on the tubed rims. The tire shop cleaned the bead seating surfaces and sealed the rim. About every 9 months one of the tires will start leaking [slowly] and I take it back in to be resealed.

As to the insurance, they would not even think about a tube on a car. They have a hard enough time figuring out that Land Rover made vehicles in 1973

cheers

John

[Hillbilly Raider]

OI!!!! less of the Hillbilly Redneck if you dont mind!