Another example of postponing the inevitable is our lawn tractor. The snow's been flying for a couple of months now, but I didn't get around to pulling the mower deck and attaching the dozer blade until late last week, spurred by the forecast of a nasty winter storm.
Walking into the barn and switching on the fluorescents Friday afternoon, I saw that I had another job to do before turning a lawn mower into a snowplow -- one of the front tires was dead flat, the bead popped off the rim. A quick once-over of the tread and sidewalls uncovered no obvious punctures, cuts or cracks.
Despite being an average shade-tree mechanic, I have virtually no tire-repair experience, just a long-ago summer job at a Montana service station and the occasional trailside fix of a mountain-bike tube. A lack of skills generally doesn't discourage me, however, so I gathered what I figured I needed -- tire irons, air compressor, liquid soap and a ratcheting tie-down strap -- jacked up the front end of the tractor and went to work.If nothing else, I thought, maybe I'll learn something today.
The purpose of the tie-down strap (thank you, Google) was to coax the beads toward the rim -- wrap it around the circumference (tread) of the tire, soap the beads, cinch the strap down tight, start filling the tire with air, then release the strap as soon as the beads seat.
It worked on the very first try -- and it would've worked even better if I'd released the strap a bit sooner. By the time I flipped the catch there was so much tension on the mechanism that it let go like a Roman ballista, the nylon strap hitting me in the face and the ratchet taking a good-sized chunk out of a knuckle on my left hand.
As blood from my injured hand spotted the concrete floor, I smiled at my "success." I wrapped a clean shop rag around the wound, secured my man-bandage with duct tape and proceeded to finish the job -- mower deck off, plow blade (plus wheel weights and tire chains) on.
I connected a battery charger, shut off the shop lights and retreated to the house for food and sterile gauze (not necessarily in that order). I returned to the barn after dinner to unhook the charger.
The tire was flat again.This time, once the beads were seated, I pulled the valve core and dumped in some Slime. (Like I said, I have no real skills.) I spun the wheel to spread the miracle goop around inside the tire, added more air, spun it again and walked away.
Done.
The dreaded weekend storm missed us completely, by the way, but last night we did get a little over an inch of snow, so this morning I did some light plowing.
That tire is still holding air. Not bad for a hacker, eh?
