Nice!!! The tires should say what the max pressure is to seat them. It'll probably be around 30 psi. It may not take that much. You should hear a loud pop when they get seated. Well, 2 pops, 1 for each side of the tire. If you heard that, they should be seated and not leaking air. You can try letting them sit with like 15-20 psi in them, but I don't know if that will help them seat. You can always slime them if you have a small leak. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Trueponycar is right about a bead seating pressure... On my tires it said 35 psi for bead-seating only.

When I first got the tires, they leaked at the rim. Naturally, more and more dirt had the chance to get between the rim & tire bead as the pressure went down.

When I took them off the rims to see what's going on, I discovered the casting process left some 'extra' rubber shards behind on the tire's bead area that caused the slow leaks. I cleaned it all up and used a liquified rubber bead sealer cement specifically made for the purpose of sealing beads.

Soapy water probably would've been fine if the bead area was cleaner, and crap-free. Obviously it didn't work for the poor condition of the bead as supplied direct from the ITP factory.

Hey, how do you like the handling of having the skinny 14" wheels on the rear?

I noticed a lot less bounce, more control, higher speed potential and still retain safe control compared to the rear fat tires.

Also noticed amazing traction in mud... The rear 26x12 tires on there before just wanted to float and spin when the going got deep.

On another note... I left the pressure at 35psi all winter long to see if the tire will grow. For plowing my driveway and ripping around the ice, 35 psi was fine.

For trails I'm going back down to 9-10 psi. I found recommended pressures around 5-6 to be waaaay too low for the type of riding I do on the type of terrain surface conditions we have.

At 10 psi, the 27x9 wheel measured 26 5/8" when brand new. Since they were new, I've worn down at least 1/8" of rubber off the tread (1/4" off overall diameter).

After this winter's period of being inflated to 35 psi, the tires have grown to 27 5/8", and that's with the 1/4" worn off the overall diameter. That's at 35psi though, I'm going to measure them again when I let it back down to riding pressure @ 10psi.

 

Yesterday I put in the 10psi, today they still have 10psi. I am thinking that they seated finally during my 20 minute test ride.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

The tires should say what the max pressure is to seat them. It'll probably be around 30 psi. It may not take that much. You should hear a loud pop when they get seated.[/b]

That's what I did. The ITP rims were very nice, even though made in china. I may have scratched the bead area or gotten some junk in the bead from my shop floor. I mounted them on an old carpet to keep from scratching them up -- who knows what crud was in it. Anyway, my guess is they are fine now.

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For trails I'm going back down to 9-10 psi. I found recommended pressures around 5-6 to be waaaay too low for the type of riding I do on the type of terrain surface conditions we have.[/b]

Good point. I'm going to leave mine at 10 all around for now. I've always felt that tires are for traction and suspension is for bumps. Wallowing bouncy tires complicates the issue. Of course situations can call for low psi -- rock crawling, and sand come to mind.

Here are some of my observations and impressions.

I did some weighing with the bathroom scale; while not super accurate, it should be within a pound -- I weighed everything three times with a zero in between.

Stock carlisle badlands front combo: 24#, rim probably 10#, tire 14#
stock rear badlands: 33#
ITP SS108 14x6: 11#
Maxxis Bighorn 26x9R14: 24#

Of interest to me -- tire weight agrees with the published weight on the website. Back weights are within a couple of pounds. Front weights for this setup are around 10# per tire heavier than stock. Wow. This is my biggest concern. So far though, I don't think I can tell the difference.

frame height static -- 1/2 to 3/4s of an inch higher than stock.
stance -- tires stick out maybe 1 inch wider than stock.

I cannot tell at all that there is increased ride height. That little extra stance probably leverages back the tiny height increase with my weight on it.

I didn't measure diameter changes, but my ride height observations match Wyo H1 Cat's, and visually looked to be about 1.5 inches difference, which is what I think he measured.

My riding impressions on my one short ride are as follows: Traction is hugely improved. The front end cut and tracked in 2x like it was in 4x. Directional stability in ruts and rough seems better -- it goes where you say. It is hard to compare to stock; although I was riding a stretch I have ridden before, it's hard for me to compare. I just push till I feel limits. I think the limits with these tires are higher. I bottomed the right front on one section; I haven't done that with the stock tires. This tells me I was going faster. I'm not sure if the backs were less bouncy because I was focusing on the front feel. My biggest concern with this setup was the extra unsprung weight, especially in the front. I don't believe I can tell that it has any effect. My perception of the front on this short ride was increased steering effort. I know believe that the extreme low psi in the tires was a large part of it. I had some forearm pump, too, which was partly mental anticipation, and partly hanging on too tight because I was really slamming through some of the sections. That kind of tells a tale; I had the confidence to up my speed because of the feel I was getting.

If I ever see mud, I'm sure these will be head and shoulders above stock. Feel free to send me pictures, so I don't miss it for not remembering what it looks like. My last ride on the stockers involved some warm snowdrifts. It was pathetic. I'm sure I could have gone much further with these.

Has anyone noticed more rear CV boot damage with this setup? They look a little exposed now.

I can't wait for another test.

Mike

 

a neat trick for stoping slow leaks at the bead is to put a fine thread of silicone along the edge of the rim where the tire will sit before you inflate it and seat the bead. when you pop the tire onto the bead the silicone will seal those little leaks and also help keep the beads inplace when running low tire pressures

Northmoose

 

Nice rims.

 

Yes, definitley the feedback coming through the grips and footboards does inspire more confidence and helps us push higher speeds because the tires feel so much better than the stockers. Shocks help too!

I thought if I ever need lower tire pressures I could just let some out whenever needed, and fill back up with the pump I carry. Never had to do it yet though.

Climbed a decent/steep rock hill, down the other side at 10 psi on the skinny baloney skins, and not for even an instant did the tires feel slippery. I think the higher pressures keep the feeling more 'solid' while on the rocks. The stockers would've fell wishy-washy and more tippy because soft wheels give more when you're on a side-lean. I know most will swear by low tire pressures for rock crawling, but I haven't found that yet. I like the positive confidence-inspiring feel of tires that don't give and have that wishy-washy-floaty feel.

I did get a ripped CV boot since I put the tires on, but it was the inside CV boot... A branch poked up from underneath and went through the lower arm, turns out I dragged it like that for quite a while and it just shredded the boot. No fault of the tires on that one.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Wyo_H1_Cat @ Apr 17 2008, 09:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

As one who does a lot of rock crawling, I'd prefer to run higher pressures in the rocks, but higher pressures make the tire much more prone to rips and tears in the sidewalls, where low pressure will conform around the rock instead of being cut.[/b]

That makes a lot of sense. The amount of steep hill rock crawling we do is minimal though. It's the rocks on the trails I need to worry about... The area is very rocky, flat dirt-only trails are few.

I've noticed little cuts all over the place, between the lugs, some on the sidewalls. But I can see how there's a good chance for a serious tire-destroying deep cut.

When the wheels were relatively new, I had 3 serious pinch-flats from rock impacts, just from driving on the trail as usal... Due to low inflation pressures as recomnmended by wheel & ATV manufacturers (5-6 psi ballpark).

Fortunatley I was able to repair the sidewall cuts successfully. Almost all feedback recommended tire replacement, suggesting cut sidewalls toasted the tire and tire replacement was the only cure.

At the time, I thought why not try repairing it... I have nothing to lose. And that was over 2500 miles ago! Plugs were obviously useless, but the vulcanized patches I used on the inside did manage to hold the sidewall together and stop the leaks.

For now I'm going to stick to the higher pressures, because the 5-6 psi is too low for the surface conditions at the speeds I ride... Even though I understand the risk of another cut is increased using higher pressures. The lower the pressure, the more risk there is for whacking a rim on a rock and getting a pinch-flat too. That's already happened a few times, but that was early in the game for me when I was running factory recommended inflation pressures.

So it's a trade off I think. There are pros & cons, advantages & disadvantages to both high & low pressures. For now, I'll take my chances... And keep using the higher pressures just to get the better handling characteristics.