SAVE MY LIFE - deep dish/tubes

[philjohnson911]

Please bear with me on this one. . . as I'm getting more and more frustrated.

I have 'deep dish' 6J fuch all round. When I bought the car it had 12 year old Dunlops on, so for safety sake I wanted to replace them. I wanted to keep the correct size tyre which was 185/70/15. As you may be aware, the tyre chose in this size is very limited. I chose Vredesteins classic sprints, as there had a classic look and were reasonably priced.

So I bought 5 new tyres and tubes and had them fitted a couple a week ago (cost around £500). The car was tucked away in the garage (in preparation for a trip to Le Mans). The day before I was leaving I went to get the car out and one of the tyres was flat. I took it back to the fitter and found out the tube had been nipped during fitting . . . their fault . . . they got another tube and refitted it.

Anyway, on the way down to Le Mans the tyre rapidly deflated and now the tyre is ruined (as are my underpants). I took it back to the fitter yesterday. They took the tube out and we discovered that the inside of the tyre sidewall had rubbed away at the tube and created a number of holes. The inside of the sidewall is ripped.

Note, I bought the tyres and tubes independently (i.e. not from the fitter), I know the tubes were the correct size and were good quality Michelins. The fitters replacement may not have been (and I'm not certain he rebalanced it) . . . why have all the others survived?

Questions:
1. The Vredesteins tyres were designed to be tubeless. Is it dangerous to run these with tubes?
2. Is there anyway round this, i.e. by using some kind of tube sock?
3. Is it dangerous to run tubeless tyres on a deep dish wheel (i.e. without the safety beading on the rim)?
4. If I were to run them tubeless, has anyone got any ideas on how to deal with the valve ?
5. Re. the valve, could I cut the valve out of a tube and bond it to the inside of the rim (couple of inches of rubber around the valve stuck to the rim)?

I was scared when I had the 12 year old tyres on and now I'm scared again. Please help me with this safety problem, so that I can get on with enjoying the car again.

Regards Phil

PS. I'm going to try and post some pictures tonight.

[rvanderpyl]

Although the deep dish wheels don't have the safety bead, people have been running regular tubeless tires on them for years. The "unsafe" part of it is that the tire can come off the rim if you underinflate it. So if you keep your tire pressures up, and check them on a regular basis you should be fine. In fact it sounds like you'd be better off then how you are now.

[silverc4s]

Phil,
I can feel your pain. I too have been all through this problem, and found that the best solution is to get good quality longer reach valve stems and run good quality tubeless tires (or tyres).

I have been running Yoko AVS Intermediates, and they have been relatively trouble free. When I had tubes installed, I was experiencing leakage, and total loss of air on a monthly basis. A real PITA..

[philjohnson911]

Where can I get 'longer reach valves' from, as I still can't picture how I'm going to fix it in place (a photo would be great).

Vredestien claim that these tyres can be used with tubes, so it's probably been fitted wrong. Also the Dunlop D4 that they replaced state they are tubless, but had tubes in (also have got ribbs in the inner side wall).

Phil

[avendlerdp]

Get rid of the tubes. I have the same rims and have done many track and fast street miles with no tubes (AVS tires). If you run the tires flat they may de-bead they say, but I think there is nothing to fret about.

Alex

[silverc4s]

Phil,
Not a recommendation, but a quick search located this company. The 414L or the 418 looks like what I am using...I guess all of our valve stems are coming from either China or Haiti now...

http://tyrevalves.virtualave.net/tyrevalvesauto/ptyrevalvessnapin.html