did my tires seat?

[Karts of Kaos]

hey guys, so like a week ago I got some 18" tires for the kart I am building with my dad and I got them on the rims and inflated them to the rated pressure and they held air, but when I have seen people mount tires on you tube the made a popping sound when the bead seated but i did not hear a pop. do you think my tire is seated?

 

[anickode]

hey guys, so like a week ago I got some 18" tires for the kart I am building with my dad and I got them on the rims and inflated them to the rated pressure and they held air, but when I have seen people mount tires on you tube the made a popping sound when the bead seated but i did not hear a pop. do you think my tire is seated?

Without a picture of both the inside and outside of both wheels, there's no way to tell.

That's kind of like asking "Is this bolt tight?"

 

[Brianator]

Holding air is a good sign! If the beads are sitting flush against the lip all the way around also then yes you're probably good. Tires that "pop" going on do so when the bead is tight relative to the rim. Standard practice is to over inflate the tire to ensure the bead has seated but considering your tires have held air for a week you're probably in the clear, give them a quick visual to be sure and put your mind at ease.

 

[Kartorbust]

Holding air doesn't always mean much, well with car tires at least to tell if the bead is seated. If you're worried about the tire not being fully seated, you could deflate the tire and put some weight around the bead to see if it is seated. If not and tire lube is not at your disposal, DAWN dish soap can be used. Just a nice coating around the bead will help seat it.

Whenever I mount tires, no matter if its car, truck, wheel barrel, etc, I put lube on the wheel and on the tire, it helps seat the bead. Some tires will give the loud pop or snap sound when seated, others will not.

 

[Karts of Kaos]

OK thanks. i did use dish soap mixed with water as lube. how much over inflated should I make it. the rated psi is 10. the tire size is 18"-9.5"-8". they are knobby Carlisles

 

[JTSpeedDemon]

My experience is with tubes, but when I did it, the tires slowly seated, with no popping of any kind.

It might be irrelevant, but I just wanted to pop in my 2c, and they WERE tubeless design tires.

 

[anickode]

OK thanks. i did use dish soap mixed with water as lube. how much over inflated should I make it. the rated psi is 10. the tire size is 18"-9.5"-8". they are knobby Carlisles

There should be a rating on there for "max to seat beads". Meaning it's within the safety factor of the tire, but above the rated working pressure.

My new gator tires for example, max pressure 7 psi, max for seating beads 15 psi. It only took about 11 with lube and a couple bounces on the concrete.

 

[Snaker]

In general its just a visual inspection.
Look around both sides of the wheel at the tire/rim contact area.
You want to see no gap.
You also want to see that small rubber bead molded into the tire sidewall to be eqa distant from the rim all the way around.
If you have both of those and you have a appropriately sized tire, your good.