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Posted by David Sherman [216.18.131.57] on Monday, November 30, 2009 at 12:49:28 :
In Reply to: HELP w/ Combat Wheels..... posted by Doug in Colorado [75.71.232.78] on Monday, November 30, 2009 at 12:15:19 :
Les Schwabb in Everett did the tires on my beater M37, 3 of which were combat rims. They charged the same as for a regular split rim, and the kids who worked on it seemed to appreciate the novelty. I left the truck there for a few days so they could work on it when they felt like it. A couple of the bolts broke off, but I replaced them with standard bolts with one side of the head ground down.
With old tires and old or strange rims, a lot depends on the "personality" of the particular shop, not even what chain they're a part of. "Liability" can really mean "that looks like too much work for what we can charge you." It doesn't really matter what their excuse is; if they don't want to do it they don't have to. There's always a smaller, hungrier, shop somewhere around that will work on anything for enough money. When I was in Burien, if I had a tire that Les Schwab wouldn't work in, I'd take it to this little hole-in-the wall used tire joint run by a bunch of Mexicans. They charged more, but they didn't care what the tire looked like. Their idea of a safety cage was to set the tire underneath the bed of my truck while inflating it.
If you take it apart yourself, I've heard, but have not tried it, that it's safe to let the air out, unscrew all the nuts on the lock ring a few turns, then re-inflate the tire and let the force of the air break the bead and kick the lock ring loose. If yours are like mine and were put together while Eisenhower was president, it's going to take some doing to separate the rusted-in parts. I wouldn't be afraid to try that method, but I'd use a clip on air chuck and loop a binder chain through the wheel and around the tire.
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