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Posted

i was debating going tubeless radials on my old rims, but i am concerned about the rivets that hold the rims together and how to prevent them from leaking? am i better off to just put tubes in or use tubeless? the rims are in good shape, but probably not good enough for tubeless. i have no intentions of painting the rims, as i like the "jacked up" look of my truck, with its rust holes and multi-color front end.

Posted

I'm running mine tubless with no problems. I did paint the rims, but it shouldn't matter. If you think the paint would help seal the rivits than just paint the inside and you won't see it with the tires in place.

Merle

Posted

3M makes a body caulk that is paintable, ya might could tool some around the rivet heads on the inside of the rim before painting. Also, it might be a good idea to use the bolt-in valve stems rather than the rubber pop-in-place stems to get a better seal around the hoop's valve stem hole.

Posted
I'm running mine tubless with no problems. I did paint the rims, but it shouldn't matter. If you think the paint would help seal the rivits than just paint the inside and you won't see it with the tires in place.

Merle

assuming you don't have the split lock ring version then?

Posted

If you have any doublts about sealing around the rivets, paint the inside rivet area with some of the Lizard skin stuff or similar

Posted

I have 2 sets of wheels I wanted to keep original. One for the paint on the outside, one for the rust that matched the truck. I sandblasted the inside, painted it properly and left the outside as it was. They all worked just fine.

If you're real concerned, just run a small weld bead around the rivet to seal it, then paint.

Posted (edited)

The other thing to consider is the width of the tire vs the rim width. Most modern tires call for 5 in wide rims as a minimum, I believe the stock rims are 4.5.

A lot of folks are running modern tires tubless on the skinny rims with no problems, but its probably a good idea to make sure the rims you are using are in good condition in the bead seating area.

Edited by greg g
Posted

I bought my truck with radials on it with tubes. Gradually as each tire has needed repair, the shops have removed the tubes and added a new valve stem. So currently, I have 2 with and 2 w/o tubes on riveted rims, and the pressure holding is consistent with all 4. I'm not sure if the insides are painted or not.

If you use any caulk on the rivet heads, apply it sparingly. The 3M seam sealer would work great here....also the "PL" brand polyurethane caulk available at your local lumber yard works great for autobody applications - dries hard, is paintable, and is a lot cheaper than the 3M stuff.

Posted
I bought my truck with radials on it with tubes. Gradually as each tire has needed repair, the shops have removed the tubes and added a new valve stem. So currently, I have 2 with and 2 w/o tubes on riveted rims, and the pressure holding is consistent with all 4. I'm not sure if the insides are painted or not.

If you use any caulk on the rivet heads, apply it sparingly. The 3M seam sealer would work great here....also the "PL" brand polyurethane caulk available at your local lumber yard works great for autobody applications - dries hard, is paintable, and is a lot cheaper than the 3M stuff.

what "type" of rim do you have?

Posted

I have tubless on my old 50 and so far they haven't leaked at all. When they first put them on two leaked badly, but it turned out their technician put the stems in poorly. Now all is well. My old rims are rusty, but in good shape.

post-5852-13585358870812_thumb.jpg

Posted

Some of the rims have oval holes for the valve stem, these will not allow the standard tubless valves to have enough contact to seal. I used the two piece screw on valve stems with my tubless application, these have been recommended should you have the oval holes.

I changed to after market rims as three of the ones I had were looking kind of eal around the bead seal area. I did upgrade to 5 inch wide, running 205 75 front tires an 225 75 on the rear. Store I got the tires from insisted I needed 6 inch wide rims for the 225's. So I mounted them my self on a friend's machine. Three years and 6500 miles with no problems.

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