Suicide Budds?

[cbvet]

Well, I stopped by a Firestone dealer that I've done business with for 20 years. They sell car, truck, & implement tires.
Asked if they could fix my M900 series, 2-piece wheel, with a slow leak.
He said "Those are suicide Budds, we don't work on them".
When I asked what he was talking about, he said "Those wheels are 60 t0 70 years old. We don't work on them".
I explained that they are from a recent military truck, but he said they wouldn't work on them anyway.
Any idea what he's talking about?
Eric
CBVET

 

[maddawg308]

He's just afraid of working on split rims, a lot of new shops won't cuz their balls never dropped. Or they don't have safety cages.

Just call around, find a shop that does. My two cents.

 

[outsider]

Most tube style rims around now have the split ring on the side. The old suicide rims would split all the way across the rim and would have a solid ring. There was also one other style tube type rim with a 2 piece ring one pc was a solid ring and the other was a split ring. If you don't have the 2 pcs seated right they would fly apart in a hurry. It's getting harder to find shops willing to work on any tube type truck rim anymore. Most shops just stopped working on them for the liability reasons, and tubeless rims are much easier to change tires on.
Steve

 

[bugei]

i don't know if you have les schwabs there, but i have had INCREDIBLE luck with their heavy truck guys. if not, go to a "real truck tire place" and they should not even flinch. both les schwabs that i have delt with (lakeview oregon and reno nevada), the young guys were so jazzed about the truck that they thanked me. the guys had all the cages, bead breakers, and tire irons to do the job quickly. they even had new liners, innertubes, and even ndt's.

but....both times, there was only one guy at the facility who "did split rims".

 

[800summit]

If you are up to it Do it yourself I just did it for the first time Yesterday, Had some issues getting the bead to break loose. called a shop and talked to an ole timer and had to go about breaking the bead. long story short I did it.
You can purchase the duckbill hammer and spoons at NAPA. then search the fourms on fixing tires

 

[OPCOM]

Several tire services around here (DFW) will do it. They come to you and do it. I use Rick's Tire Service. Reasonable, and always does a good job, and has cheerful workers.

 

[nf6x]

RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

Here in southern California, I take all of my truck tires to Pete's Road Service. They do heavy trucks, construction equipment and so forth, and they don't even blink at a split rim. I'm surprised that a heavy truck shop would have any issue with deuce wheels.

Edited to add: Pete's does on-site tire work, but I generally just bring my wheels in to the nearest shop. The only time I had to call them out was when my Bobcat got a flat outside of my property, back when I was living 40 miles away from it, and I didn't have any tools or a compressor with me. I needed that tire back on just to get the Bobcat back inside my fence.

 

[jasonjc]

RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

I think he is talking about the two pice bolt together rims, not the lock ring type.

 

[ARMYMAN30YearsPlus]

RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

I used to work as a mechanic on the NYThruway and did them all the time. A spoon hammer and diesel fuel works every time. The key is keeping the ring from getting bent when removing and making sure the wheel and ring are cleaned up with no or only surface rust. A cage is great but the deal is that sometimes you do not have one like on the road so three or four wraps of chain around the wheel with the ring down and a long locking air chuck and remote pressure indicator is the way I did it on the side of the road.

We had a sign in the tire shop written by some long past mechanic written in chalk on the wall it said: Smile it's better than a lube job and oil change..

 

[cbvet]

RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

I guess I didn't make it clear. I've got the bolt-together wheels from an M900 series. I just can't imagine there are safety issues working on this type wheel.
Maybe the tire guy misunderstood too. I may have taken more time to explain what I had if he hadn't been so rude.
I've had to beat a few of the split-ring type apart, & wouldn't be afraid to do it again if I had to. In the SeaBees we had a safety cage in the shop to put the tire in while inflating. I've seen chain wrapped around the tire & wheel as a safety too.
Eric
CBVET

 

[jimbo*]

RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

Bottom line, find an other tire dealer/service company to deal with. This guy either doesn't know what he's doing, or just doesn't want your business.
Heck, if I was closer, I'd do them for you; they are not difficult, just laborious due to to size and weght.

 

[timntrucks]

RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

umm my post disappeared????

 

[wsmIVokc]

Re: RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

umm my post disappeared????

umm.....what post?

 

[mightyhammer]

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

Yea...Gettin' harder an harder to get fellas to work on split rims. Have to agree with the Les Schwabb statement earlier...We have no problem around here gettin splits worked on, but I imagine our time is coming. Not hard to do on your own...depends on how long tires have nbeen mounted. I worked a set of splits on my own that have been mounted since the 50's and let me tell you what! They were rustfused to the rings and even with oil, penetrating fluid diesel....it didn't matter just some hard time with a duck bill and sledge and spoons....Even parked my deuce on top of em to loosen em up a bit...All in a days work...LOL

 

[docfarmall]

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

i dont mind workin on them i prefer them i say you are not a tire store if ya cant do split rims you must be chickin____t

 

[ida34]

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

My local big truck place at the local truck stop would not balance split rims. I was hoping to get my steering wheels balanced. All they heard was old military truck and split rim and the conversation was over. I am sure your guy just heard military truck and assumed it was a split rim.

 

[rmgill]

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

I did my own. I've done, 12 of them so far. Proper workmanship demands that you take the time to break the bead carefully, use a duck bill or slide hammer to get things all apart (break the bead on the tire from the rim) and carefully work the ring out. It can take some work, but then you have to clean the rim up, inspect it, wire brush the groove and the ring, inspect them for severe corrosion, spray a bit of primer-sealer on the bad spots, and then go back to assembly.

Wire brushing is good too though because you're going to get any previous nicks that were put on the rim by heavy handed folks. When you put it all back together, make certain the tire is seated up into the bead and that it's not going to force the ring out as you put the first couple of psi on it. Stay out of the arc and if you have access to a tire cage or chains, restrain the bead and rim with those.

Attention to detail on this will net you no problems and, as you get better at it, you'll be able to do a tire change on the road and not be afraid of it. I carry spare tubes and flaps on my truck in addition to two spare tires in the bed. That plus the tire tools seems to be a solid 'talisman' against flats appearing on my tires.

 

[timntrucks]

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Suicide Budds?

i posted and someone took it off. ummmm

 

[JasonS]

I think that the term "split rim" is being misapplied to our military Budd rims. The local tire guy showed me a true split rim. They are not at all the same and have very little "catch" holding them together when assembled correctly. He (and the other truck shop) said that there is no problem with the Budd wheels.

 

[DanMartin]

Split rim "Widowmakers" are not the same as the "Split Ring" wheels used on our trucks.

They do require the same respect and understanding, but the ring wheels are safe and wont come apart like the older style split-rim wheels as long as you know what you're doing. With the older style split-rims, even experienced mechanics could never be sure that the wheel wasn't about blow up on them.