I bought 4 tires at an auction last summer. All are Armstrong 18.4 x 34 but 2 are radial and 2 are bias. The radials looked to be the best set & I planned on putting them on my 656. Last night I mounted the first one up no problem. On airing up the second I heard a couple “ting” “ting” sounds just before one side blew off the rim! Fortunately it was lying down on that side but still raised the tire off the floor 6” or so. Had less than 8 lbs in it at that time. Scared the hell out of me!
On inspection it seemed the cord in the bead broke and split the tire in half at that point. I had looked the beads over when I lubed them up to mount them but noticed nothing unusual. The steel cord in the bead is as big as my finger but obviously had been broken somehow in the past as the break was all rusty except for a few strands. The rubber around it looked like a fresh break for the most part. Not sure how that would have happened.
Anyway that tire is totally shot. The Bias tires look identical to the radial to my eyes. I’m sure if I put one radial and one bias on the tractor it wouldn’t be a good thing but how bad a problem would it really be?
On inspection it seemed the cord in the bead broke and split the tire in half at that point. I had looked the beads over when I lubed them up to mount them but noticed nothing unusual. The steel cord in the bead is as big as my finger but obviously had been broken somehow in the past as the break was all rusty except for a few strands. The rubber around it looked like a fresh break for the most part. Not sure how that would have happened.
Anyway that tire is totally shot. The Bias tires look identical to the radial to my eyes. I’m sure if I put one radial and one bias on the tractor it wouldn’t be a good thing but how bad a problem would it really be?