Posted on 06/04/2004 9:06:49 AM PDT by jtminton
I worked as a tire changer years ago. This is the tire changer's worst nightmare. I can't imagine why anyone would used a torch to repair a rim while the tire was still mounted and aired up, though.
Sounds like Physics 101 to me....
Why would anyone weld a rim with a tire on it? This isn't a freak accident. You're supposed to remove the from the rim first, and it's not just for safety.
I'd think not blowtorching an inflated tire is something they tell you early in tire-changing training. I mean, even I know not to do it, and I'm not a tire-changer. (Well, not a professional one. I do it on the side for fun, mostly to my own car because I have trouble with curbs sometimes.)
Freaks and accidents can be a deadly mix.
Correction on the last one. "You're supposed to remove the tire from the rim first, and it's not just for safety."
I can't even see welding a rim with a flat tire on it. The heat would damage the rubber.
Sounds like a Darwin Award nominee, IMO.
This happens with truck tires. Passenger car tires don't usually have enough pressure to explode hard enough to kill. Who would weld on the wheel with the rubber attached? Use iron glue.
My guess would be that the tire in question may have been previously filled with a "flat fix" aerosol inflation can.
Contents are flammable and under some conditions may explode.
Sad such a hard working guy lost his life
The article doesn't state what kind of rim it was but I have a hunch as to what happened. Sometimes to get a tubless tire to seal gasoline is used to cause a snall explosian so to speak to get the tire to seal on the rim. If there was still remnants of gasoline inside the tire the torch may have ignited it even with the core removed from the stem.
I believe fix-a-flat constains some flammable chemicals (propane, butane), tire changers don't like it for that reason.
But even heating just compressed air in that scenario is Darwin Award material. And this sounds like it might have been a two-piece wheel, dangerous in itself.
fix a flat ... the repair in a can.
very explosive.
You are supposed to take the wheel off the car and use a seperate machine to remove the tire from the rim.
seen THIS?
So9
This happened to me with my bicycle years ago. I stopped by the filling station to juice up the tire and didn't realize I needed to adjust the pressure. After 2 seconds the tire exploded, blowing my hat off and nearly causing loss of sphincter control.
I thought they changed the formula due to that. It's illegal to use Fix-A-Flat in many states and all federal government vehicles because of the explosive potential.
Just Damn!
Spray a little ether into a truck tire, light a match. Years ago, I was able to get several stubborn truck tires bead to seat so they could be inflated. An old guy with only 7 fingers showed me this trick. He was a little hard of hearing too.
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