I wanted to start working on a small tailgate crane for the back of my Deuce to lift & lower spare tires and whatnot, but I can't access the rear of the truck....time to start cleaning house!
Right after I picked up this Deuce at the end of last year, I picked up 30 used wheels & tires from a SoCal vendor (20 Deuce wheels with 9.00 tires, and 10 5-ton wheels with 11.00 tires); all 30 of these were stacked up behind my Deuce, so it was time to do something with these in order to free up some room to work around. I started by demounting the 9.00 tires from the Deuce rims; the first ones were all rusted & crusty, and VERY difficult to demount. BUT, I got them done!
Then I demounted the 11.00 tires/tubes/flaps in order to remount them on the Deuce wheels; the 9.00 tires are all wasted and cracking/separating, so they will be disposed of soon. The 11.00 tires were specifically picked for their usability, so it's just a matter of removing the 5-ton wheels from them and reinstalling the tires/tubes/flaps on cleaned up Deuce wheels.
Almost every one of the Deuce wheels is heavily rusted, so I have been taking the time with my needle scaler & grinder with wire wheels to them to remove the rust, and seal them with Rust Reformer before re-use. I've varied the colors to tan, OD, flat brown, and flat black (Rustoleum Camoflage series, good stuff!), but it's only on the outer face of the wheels I've been painting & refinishing....someday I'll get the time to do something with the inner part of the wheels, but I have a feeling that they would have long been disposed of before I ever get that sort of time. Oh well.
For the meantime, they make good spares for my 2 parts trucks I need to recover from the ranch they are stored on.
Breaking down these tires/wheels aren't difficult, and the lock rings on the Deuce wheels and the 5-ton wheels is exactly the same as far as I've been able to discover. It looks to me like the outer shell is the same for both, but only the centers are different (they measure out exactly the same). Anyway, I start by removing the valve core & letting the air completely out, then break out the duckbill sledge hammer and use it to break the bead away from the lock ring (LOTS of work for rusty wheels). Once that's done, I use my Ken-Tool Lock Ring Removal Tool to remove the lock ring, then flip it over to break loose the inside bead with the duckbill hammer.
I remove the wheel from the tire/tube/flap (be careful with the valve stem!!). I clean up as much of the tire bead and flap as I can, then use dish soap and a brush to lubricate the tire bead, flap, and the wheel...afterwards I place the wheel in the tire and carefully reinsert the valve stem. Flip the tire/wheel combo over, and then reinstall the lock ring; I start with one end, hold it down with my knee, while I use my 4-lb drilling hammer to walk the lock ring into position all the way around. I give it a few taps all the way around to ensure that it's seated, then place the wheel/tire combo under my trailer and put a locking air chuck on the valve stem to seat the bead & inflate the tire. That way, if the lock ring lets go, it will simply make contact with the steel frame of the underside of my trailer. So far, so good...I've demounted 15 Deuce tires/wheels and 5 5-ton wheels/tires, and remounted 5 of the 11.00 tires on cleaned up Deuce rims. Only 10 more to go!