Hey guys, I recently purchased a set of "slightly used" 26x11.50x16 Mickey Thompson ET Streets. I'm currently in the process of mounting these tires on a set of stock 16x8 Camaro five spoke wheels; and I'm having one heck of a time trying to get these tires to "seat" against the wheel rim. I've tried lubing the tire with dish soap and running the seating air pressure up to 48-50 psi but while the tire will seat enough to hold air pressure, it still won't "pop" up against the wheel lip in one area, (about 60 degrees), around the wheel lip circumference. When the tire is then rotated, the tire side wall moves in and out, because the tire is not FULLY seated.

Do you know of any "tricks" (or special tire lube?), to use in order to get these tires to fully seat??? Can I run the tire pressure up higher than 50 psi to get these things to "seat"??? Since the tire will hold air, can I mount these on the car and try to drive around a little with 40/50 psi of air in them to see if I can "force" the tire to fully seat???

If any of you have had similar problems mounting ET Streets of this size, I'd really appreciate hearing about it.

TIA for ALL replys.

 

When i got mine 10.5 they said those were the biggest ones you could have on the stock wheels. I think the extra inch is too much for the wheels

 

No, I have 11.5's mounted on my stock t/a rims (16x8). Just lubed it up, aired them up, and took a rubber hammer to the side walls. That was me doing it myself. The tire shop didnt have any problems. Good luck.

Benji

 

Damn i could have used an extra inch

 

You can try whacking it really hard with a heavy hammer. That may allow it to pop on.

Another trick is putting the tire outside in bright sunlight. It will normally heat up enough to pop on at an unsuspecting moment!

 

Thanks to all who have replied so far. Sweetred95, it's good to KNOW that the 11.50's do fit on the 8" rim, and Atljar, I'd try the "leave 'em in the sunshine" routine, but I live in Michigan and I really don't want to wait till JULY to get these mounted.

Anyone use more than 50 psi of air pressure to seat these???

 

I was tring to seat the bead on my 11.5's on a stock camaro rim one wheel seat fine, the other did not. I was told to run the psi up to 75 - 80 psi and it should seat before I got that far. well I chickened out around 65 psi. I thought the damn thing was going to blow and take my arm with it. try the ruber hammer idea.
steve

 

Have you tried just taking them to a tire place. Just have them mount the tires on the rims. Don't worry about balancing, you'll never feel it. It should only cost like 10 bucks for both tires. 10 bucks is better than all this trouble. Good luck.

Benji

 

I work at a tire shop and i regularly need to go 75+ PSI to get beads to fully seat. Just stand back and put air in it till it seats. Breaking the bead and relubing it may also be a good idea.

May want to just try taking it to a tire shop and having them seat the bead, they may fo it for free since it will only take them a second.

 

Hey guys, a new day, and a better result! I got back into my "problem" of mounting that "sticky" ET Street this morning, (after a good nights sleep), and I got it!!! I broke down the tire again and re-lubed the bead with clean dish soap and put 55 psi of air in it and started beating the tire sidewall, (in the area where it wasn't seating), with a rubber hammer. After about ten minutes of pounding on it, I could see that it was trying to seat. I then picked up the tire and started "dribbling" it like a basketball, after about twenty bounces, POP!!!! and all is right with the world again.

THANKS to ALL who replied to this post!

 

did you mount them up without using a tire changer!?

 

lol he's a savage. the tire place down the street from us usually does it for 10 bucks

 

That's EXACTLY what you gotta do on those bishes

 

try using a heat lamp from home depot/ace/lowes.. waitaminute, you didn't pay to get them mounted.. lol, nevermind.

I've seen places put bands/ratchet straps/etc around the tire to help keep it together when airing them up to seat the bead.

just hope you didn't put too much soap in there, tire may spin on the rim man, good luck.

 

That's what I did was put a band over the tire and it worked.

Another time had to inflate the tire to around 75 psi for it to fully pop and seal against the rim.