The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Got a new automotive tool

A new find for me, it was rusty and seized up when I brought it home but with a little heat she works fine. Any of you guys know how to use this? The lever portion is about 20 inches long.

Oh, this is a first time test with John's new image feature so I hope you can see the attached images.

I don't know what it's for, looks like a spreader of some sort.
Do you know what it is?

spreader or an "inside grabber" of some sorts?

I have no idea what that spreader is for, but I "need" one!

A skinny tire bead spreader. teens, twenties.

Neat, something like this.
www.alltiresupply.com/products/tire-spreader-w-lock-pin?variant=16348128581

And having never seeing one before NAILED IT

Sorry. No prizes for correct answers (especially for shameless gloaters).

Looks like T-RUCK got it in spite of the gloating A buddy of mine also thought that this tool was for a very skinny tire, something in 1910-30's. I unfortunately I couldn't locate any makers marks.

So here is the next question...if all tires had tubes back then, why would a tire bead spreader be needed? I can see the need to spread a tubeless tire in order to patch it, but why the need to spread a tube style tire?

Put in a BOOT?

Paul tire spreaders are also for puttin a patch in the tire it's self, Like in the tread / or even side wall if small.
I have seen them in some of my 18's that came with my one ton, They are called a BOOT and are a big arse patch and a little thicker regular patch. Needless to say , looks bad, Is a Hail Mary And O-rings can kill you. And the guy at the tire place might too. THAY DON'T DO IT ANY MORE .

T-ruck

Thanks, I learn something new on stovebolt nearly every day. I hope others have learned something new as well. A boot patch on a tire sounds inherently sketchy, but I have read/heard some wild tire repair stories that were done during the WW2 tire ration years.

My Grandfather was born when Henry Ford started building cars and lived to a ripe old age. He once told me that the most amazing advancement in automobiles (that's what he called them) was tires. I said to him, "What?" He went on to tell me how the high incidence of flat tires plagued drivers back in the early years, to the point that sometimes they'd just stay home rather than keep fixing/changing tires.

I can say that I seen my grandfather and my dad, as well as some filling stations, put many boots in tires that had tubes. I've actually seen a hole in a tire and then have a boot put in it and driven on the road....a BIG boot.
However, at 30-35 mph it was no big deal and when you don't have any money its "the right way to go".
I actually put a boot in a bicycle tire once.
...........thanks for the memories.

Looks like some kind of medieval battle axe. Pretty cool Pablo. How about a photo of it in action?

The old bias ply tires were actually repaired by cutting away a few layers of ply, patching in new rubberized fabric, and heating the patch to vulcanize it to the surrounding rubber. Some of the older tire repair instructions I've seen give a pretty detailed description of doing that kind of repair. A boot was used by service stations and shops without hot vulcanizing equipment.
Jerry

I will try to do a reenactment, but don't have any tires that are that narrow.