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Triumph TR6 - Tubeless?

Should my original steel wheels, 1974 TR6, hold air with new tires without tubes? A local shop says they cannot 'legally' mount tires on these wheels without tubes for 'safety' reasons. True? Just a scam to sell me tubes?

Thanks,
Keith
Keith

Keith
I run red lines with tubes (I am not even sure why red lines need tubes). I have another set of rims that I plan to mount on to them a set of daily drives. I am not planning on tubes to go with them. I would think there is a lot of TR6s out there without tubes running at 60 MPH down the HWY. Maybe the guy is thinking age or somthing.
Rick
Rick Crawford

Depending on tires used (i.e. tubeless tires), there is no need to run tubes on the steel wheels as long as the wheels are OK. If the wheels won't hold air, there is something wrong with them and you should NOT be using them. That being said, I just happen have sitting in my garage a set of the stock steel wheels from when I was autocrossing my TR6 in SCCA Solo II E Stock and D Street Prepared that are still shod with some very worn out 205/50-15 Yokohama A008 RS tires, no tubes. After years of just sitting (I changed to a different car/different class), while low, they still had enough air pressure in them to register on my pressure gauge.

Sounds like either a scam, they are not honor students, or they are "clue challenged." Try a different shop.
SteveP

I never heard of having to use tubes with the steel wheels that the TR6 came with. Original tires that the TR6 came with were tubless type. Perhaps the garage is a bit mixed up when reading the data and intrepreted them as wires...in that case you do need tubes. My '75 TR certainly holds the air with no leaks and never have to top up the pressure, wish I could say the same about my Acura CL with alloys.
steven

I've heard of several TR3A owners who were told by tire dealers that they had to have tubes put in when they bought new tires. So they did and within a few hundred miles, they had blow-outs in all four tires.
This was with steel rims.

Don't do it !

I have run 2 sets of tires with no tubes and no problems since 1990. The first set (Michelins) lasted 56,000 miles. I have about 4,000 on the present set of new tires (Kelly-Springfield Centreds).

Don Elliott
Don Elliott

Can someone explain why Michelin Red Lines call for tubes? I put in new tubes when remounting the tyres...was this a mistake Don?
Rick
Rick Crawford

Hello,

Michelin red line like Michelin XAS that equipped my TR6 20 years ago are of antique radial design as invented by the french and they needs tubes tu be sure that there was no leaking on wheel. It took time to see radial tubeless on the market as radial were no common on american cars in the 60's.
Cheers, JGC
Jean G. Catford

The stock later 1970(?)+ and later disc wheels do not need tubes provided the tires you are mounting are tubeless. I'm told the rim code stamped on the wheel indicates this; "5J 15" or something like that. If you are running tubes now and will be going tubeless, check the bead area for any rust. Clean and repaint this area as necessary or you may have a maddening slow leak w/ tubeless tires. I also heard that some modern tubeless tires will abrade any tubes in them as the inner surface of the tire is rough and not made w/ the intention of containing a tube, also some tires I saw had plastic labels in them that could also injur a tube. I learned a bit about this subject when I researched a wire wheel conversion for my TR6.

What tires are you looking at?
Wayne

I replaced my original Michelin tubed Red Lines with new Dunlop Axiom Plus Red Line radials, 205/70/R15, purchased from Diamondback Classics in South Carolina.

As I said, the shop (Tires Plus) said they had to use tubes, but not because of the tires. It was the wheeels. I haven't checked yet to see if they are 'safety' rims with a raised bump or buldge just inside the bead area; but that is apparently where the difference of opinion lies.

Nor have I checked the inside of the new tires to see if they are abrasive.

What I do know is that I had a flat in a new tube that was driven less than 100 miles. I'll find out this weekend the nature of the puncture. I am tempted to have this tire remounted without a tube, test drive it for a while, and if it works, have the other tubes ripped out.

Anyone know about this 'safety' rim feature? Okay to mount tubeless if that raised area isn't there?

Thanks,
Keith
Keith

Keith, Better fix the flat one first, before you drive another 100 miles because the others will also blow out.

It seems the tube gets scuffed when flexing on the inside wall of the tire and blows. It'll happen every time.

The rims on my TR are 44 years old and in the last 11 years never had a flat with no tubes covering over 60,000 miles on these original steel wheels.

Don Elliott, Original Owner, 1958 TR3A
Don Elliott

Well, I have a 74 TR6 with regular tires on it and ended up changing the same tire 4 times in 3 days because the tube kept going flat...needless to say I took the tube out and have since driven 4000 miles with no problem.

Ted
T. Grant

Found a great shop near my home in downtown Minneapolis.
They dismounted my tires, removed the tubes, then ground off 28 years worth of corrosion and who knows what else from the inside of my steel rims. (looked really, really bad) Then they painted the bead area, "trued-up" these not so symetrical wheels (with a very heavy hammer), balanced and remounted tubeless. All for a VERY reasonable charge.
They did include a note on my invoice, "No guarantee due to tubeless tires mounted on tube-type rims, etc.....", but I am certain this was the way to go.
Thanks for all the input,
Keith
Keith

This thread was discussed between 10/02/2002 and 16/02/2002

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