Geared

Odd question, can tires safely be mounted onto a three piece wheel WITHOUT the center of the wheel being in place?

I.e. the tire installed on the barrel/lip, then the center put in at a later time.

If it is OK is it best to leave the deflated?

thanks

leadfoot4

This is just conjecture on my part. You might be able to get the beads to "seat" by just pressing the rim halves in place in place, but then you might not be able to get the center in between the halves, depending on whether the center mounts between the halves, or in front of one half and behind the other. I would think it's better to wait until the rim is assembled......But I could be wrong, as I have no personal experience with a disassembled, 3 piece wheel.


Also, you might not be able to pull the halves close enough together, to assemble the wheel, if the barrels are being held apart by the tire.

zonsolo

Depending on how yours go together, most likely NO. In order to 'add' the center, you'll have to take all the bolts out, and when you do, I can almost 100% guarantee you will end up with a leak.

zonsolo

Also - the center almost never goes in between the rim halves as mentioned above.

striper

I have CCW Classics which are 3-piece. The wheel halves have to be sealed with siliconed when bolted together or they won't hold air. There is no way to do that if they are inserted into the tires before being bolted together. If you wanted to you could possibly remove the center after a completed wheel had a tire mounted to it. But I think you'd need some big *** c-clamps around the tire holding the wheel halves together to prevent them from pulling it apart.

Geared

I got it answered - thanks guys.