Whoah! on those replacements!
I just bought brand new 18" tires from Specialty Tires of America.
I have six tires, and the price was very reasonable.
After power wire brushing my rims very thoroughly, then rust converting, priming and painting the rims, inner rims and lock rings to perfection, I went looking for some place to mount the tires for me.
Everything I had read scared the crap out of me about split rims.
My 54 1 1/2 ton has a three piece type rim using a square section lock ring.
The truck tire place quoted me $100/per wheel.
I looked up on the internet and saw a youtube video of a guy beating the crap out of some Chevy rims with a sledge hammer to change the tires. I was devastated, being a skinny little guy. After reading horrible accounts of leg and arm losses, I decided to try to do the job myself, in my shop.
The big job was fitting the innertube into the empty tire. Next the inner rubber rim boot was fitted inside the tire too.The valve had to be pulled through to keep it poking out. The tire was placed over the rim so that the valve lines up with the hole. With the outer flange removed, the tire drops nicely on the rim. I walked on the sides of the tire while it was on the floor exerting my 135lbs on the side walls.
Next, I put the rim flange on, pressing the flange well on with my sneakers and body weight. The lock ring was placed with one end in the groove and worked along by stepping on the rim flange until it was all in place and "clicked" down into the seat.
I then rolled it across the floor, turned the lock ring side to the wall, and gingerly applied the air.
I have now painlessly mounted all the tires, and have fallen in love with the simplest, and easiest safe system for mounting truck tires ever. There is no sweat, or mess except reading the propaganda.
You would have to have totally rusted out eight stud hole rims to want to change these guys. These are the square section lock ring type that I am advocating as terrific!
Cheers Warren
