Excursion Tires…
Well, seems it was time for a set of new tires on the Excursion. Having a Tire Mounting and Balancing device (Ranger R-26EX and Matching Balancer) I figured I should just do the truck too. Well all good in thought. I picked up a set of Kumho Ventures for the Excursion from the Tire Rack. Nice looking tire, good reviews, great price and I really have been happy with the Kumho’s on the race car as well as other cars that I have used them on. So Saturday the long journey of doing truck tires begins. Tire one, no problem, off and on in a short time. Tire two, off, and not quite on… I could not get the bead to seat, so I finally took the new tire off and picked another to see if it would, and sure enough it popped right on. Balancing was a bit a a task as I think the larger truck tires are ‘wobbly’ as I’ll put it at best, but got it balanced and on. So now the rear of the Excursion has new tires, front will have to wait for another day, like Sunday 
I begin again and run into the same problem almost immediately, I can F’n seat the bead. The sidewalls are too floppy to pop up air and no matter what I do just would fill. Tried the last tire, same S#@$%. Every time I have had a problem with doing tires it seems that it was some magic trick to make it work. Back to the internet for some research, that is, of course, after remounting the old tires and bolting them back on.
What did I find? All sorts of things. Here they are -
You can ‘Explode’ them on with Starting Fluid. Looked cool, and looked like it could land me in the hospital or burn the place down.
You can get this device that essentially blows the tire up with a blast of air but it cost $250-$300 for a cheep tank and a 2″ ball valve. I think it is the Cheetah brand, definite rip off, but hey they came up with a good idea and should get paid, but still should be about 100 bucks.
Yet another option was these odd large looking O-Rings. These slip over the rim and force the seal and supposedly pop out when the bead seats.
The last one is almost obvious and I can’t believe that I didn’t think of it, and here it is… Just put a ratchiting tie down around the tire and crank it. It will push the tire evenly in and make the side walls pop out. Simple!
My plan of attack it to wait for my Tire O-Rings and then get a tie-down and get back to business. One thing that I did really find useful was the new Ingersol Rand Ti Impact gun. It is Bad A$$ed. Saved a lot of back breaking lug removal.
More as the tire fiasco unfolds
Watched about 10 videos of people mounting larger tires with Starting Fluid. Seems like it could work as a last resort. I also saw a couple of tires on fire, and one of a bunch of red-necks that used way too much and actually blew the rim clean out of the tire. I’ll try the ’sanctioned’ solutions first, but if I do mount with the Quickstart Starting Fluid I will video it just in case it goes south.
Got the tires mounted! Tried again to do it the normal way and no go. So I used the Tire O-Ring and stretched it over the rim, and it didn’t look like it was going to work. But with some reservation I pressurized the tire and moved it around a bit and it started taking air! The O-Ring was supposed to pop up as the tire started to seat but it didn’t. That was not a problem as the bottom bead seated and was on tight, so I just let the air out, pulled the Tire O-Ring, and lifted up to have the top catch the edge of the rim and it was fine. Cost for the Tire O-Ring (various sizes) were about $20 each. Another tool for the trade… The Cheetah thing is cool, but seem a bit expensive when you look at the $20 solution. Pictures of both -