Front cub tires?

[Jim Becker]

It has the safety bead on the short side. I have no idea of the application but my guess is that it was tubeless.

Gary has spotted the reason I posted a picture of this rim. I'm going to let this drag on a little longer. But I will throw in the hint that I would imagine that nearly everyone of us has driven or at least ridden in a vehicle with wheels like this.

[Snuffdipper]

I don’t know the difference on any wheel. Everything I’ve owned had tubeless tires other than a bicycle

[Urbish]

It has the safety bead on the short side. I have no idea of the application but my guess is that it was tubeless.

Gary has spotted the reason I posted a picture of this rim. I'm going to let this drag on a little longer. But I will throw in the hint that I would imagine that nearly everyone of us has driven or at least ridden in a vehicle with wheels like this.

Clearly that is for a vehicle that only has half a tube that goes on the inner half of the tire and is tubeless on the outer face.

Didn't some Volkswagens come with a safety hump only on the outside bead but not on the inside?

[staninlowerAL]

So as I'm speeding around the property cutting grass never getting out of 2nd what should I be more worried about- tubeless tires on non beaded rims or the fact that the rears are 61 years old......

Helps to keep your wallet from getting flat...... Stan

[Jim Becker]

It has the safety bead on the short side. I have no idea of the application but my guess is that it was tubeless.

Gary has spotted the reason I posted a picture of this rim. I'm going to let this drag on a little longer. But I will throw in the hint that I would imagine that nearly everyone of us has driven or at least ridden in a vehicle with wheels like this.

OK, long enough. That wheel was original equipment on a late model ('65-'69) Corvair. It was originally used with a tubeless tire. It is a GM rim (has GM stamp on the face near the lug bolt holes). As far as I know, this was a regular GM design used on virtually every car they made for a long time. As I recall, we had a '51 Chevy without the safety beads and a '56 with a single bead like this wheel. I think I started seeing the two bead style on rims from the early '70s. My comment about everyone having ridden on this type rim is based on GM market dominance in the '60s. Yes, I believe I have seen VW wheels done the same way.

That is what I know. What follows is what I think I know. It doesn't totally agree with other's comments above.

Chrysler came up with and started using the safety rim idea. I've seen different years, all in the '40s. Here is a 1948 Plymouth advertisement currently listed on eBay that promotes the safety rims.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1948-Plymouth- ... 3637634499
The rim was designed to keep the tire bead in place after a blowout. In 1948, they would have been tube type tires. Clearly, a bead could separate whether the remains of a tube is flapping around in there or not. Control of a vehicle is vastly degraded with a flat tire, would be even worse after the bead separates. Tubeless tires were adopted in the early-mid '50s. It looks like safety rims were adopted about the same time (at least by GM, Ford was probably similar). So safety rims and tubeless tires were adopted about the same time, at least by GM and probably Ford). But Chrysler used the rims with tube type tires for some time. I don't know if the original Chrysler safety rims had 1 or 2 beads. My hunch is 1, otherwise the other companies would have probably used 2 as well. It looks like some time (early '70s) everyone agreed that if 1 was good, 2 was better. So they added the safety bead to the inner edge of the rim.

Tubeless tires have multiple advantages (and disadvantages). As I recall, the main safety pitch for them was reduced hazard of a blowout. There were no minimum tread laws and few if any vehicle inspections. Many people continued to use tires until they failed. This was a degree of frugality that had been reinforced by WWII. With an innertube holding the air, a tire would remain inflated until it wore clear through to the tube. Then the tube burst. With a tubeless tire, as the tire got thin it lost the ability to hold air. The tire went soft before it was likely to completely fail. The pitch was to would "slowout" rather than "blowout".

I assume that federal regulations now require the safety bead on both sides of all rims. I also suppose absence of the bead on some wheels is one of the reasons for the statements "not for highway use."

[Gary Dotson]

Very thoughtful write-up, Jim! During my years changing tires, on about anything that came along, I never made mental observations on what had them and what didn't. Sometimes a vehicle would them on some wheels but not all. Replacement wheels, no doubt. I'm pretty sure that you are correct about Chrysler developing and coining the name "safety bead". An interesting topic that I never gave much thought to before.

[mva1958]

Wow 1/2 say use tubes 1/2 say you don’t have too. Not sure what to do lol

If you listen to the half that says "use tubes", and you don't really need them, the joke's on them. If you listen to the half that says "you don't need tubes" and you find out the hard way that you should have used tubes, the joke's on you. Use tubes.

[CharlieK]

Yogie has not been on here yet...........

[Yogie]

Yogie has not been on here yet...........

I've been reading all along Charlie...
I've mounted all my front tube type tires tubeless on the 3 cubs that I use on the farm. Amazing that a 67 year old cub front rim can hold air that way but they do if all is in good shape. My reason is if I pick up a thorn while mowing I can keep going on a tubeless tire where if it had a tube I'd be down on the spot. I check my air several times a year so if they should not stay up I can slip a tube in with no problem and I'm sure in the past 15 years I've done so on a couple. I also like running fluid in all the tires on my larger tractors for the same reason. Small hole in the tube on a fluid filled tire you can keep going for days sometimes before a repair is needed at a time when the tractor's not needed.
I've just ordered 4 new front tires this week. Mines not totally worn out yet but on a vertical farm you need all the traction up front you can get even with double weights.

[CharlieK]

Did not know cubs could run tubeless tires. All of my cubs have tubes with no liquid but all have weights and the kubota and both zero turn mowers have foam filled tires. Thanks for your input Yogie.